Is Your Blog Life Spinning Out of Control? My New Found Clarity

You may have noticed that I have not been around in nearly 2 weeks. Where do I begin? A hacking sick hubby, a puking child, a soul reading, major physical exhaustion and some time for deep reflection. The end result? I have found the clarity around HGM that I have been missing for quite some time.

When Sommer at Green & Clean Mom posted her blog “Mommy Bloggers Are Quitting” I nearly fell of my seat. Boy was she in my head with this one. Blogging has become increasingly challenging for me as time goes on. I am now 8 months along so much of my reflection may be related to my need to “get the house in order” but regardless, it was time to reevaluate the reasons why I started HGM in the first place.

I contemplated “quitting” for 2.5 seconds (well, maybe a day…) but it just didn’t feel right. I have invested so much of my heart into this blog, could I really let it go? Where would it go? And to whom? Since I was secretly going through the same delima when Sommer’s post went live, I wanted to share my thoughts on some of the challenges I have faced as a “mommy blogger.”

Why Do You Blog?

Becoming a mom impassioned me with direction, purpose and a need to share ideas with others. I was moved to share what has been valuable to me in finally creating a happy and healthy life. HGM is my way to express my excitement about healing illness, discovering purpose, abundance, living a healthy non toxic life and being true to yourself. I also wanted to learn to write because writing and articulating my thoughts does not come easily to me! I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I am able to articulate something that I think may be interesting or helpful to others.

After reading the comments on Sommer’s post it seems that many moms blog to fill a void. Connecting with others, sharing your passion, making a difference, validation, and feeling recognized are all human desires that must be filled. As a mom, I think these desires are increased because we simply don’t interact with the world the way we used to before having children.

Even though blogging may fill various voids or needs I cannot relate to comments like “If I didn’t blog, I would just find something else to fill my time.”  Blogging isn’t “filling time” for me. Time is precious and I aim to be fulfilled so I try to make the most of how I spend my time. I am not one to pass “me time” by chatting, having coffee and shopping if I stopped blogging.

I realized that I needed to get back to why I blog in the first place.

The Problem Blogging Moms Face

Time. Mom bloggers are up late at night when the family is fast asleep and they are likely the first ones up in the morning in order to get the time on their blog. It is totally understandable that a mom would feel that blogging is taking way time with her children and spouse because blogging can be very time consuming!

Naps and evenings are the only times I blog because I choose not to blog in front of my daughter. She is too young to play independently for a sustained period of time and I don’t think she needs to learn that “mommy is on the computer” just yet. I’m especially conscious about this because I grew up where there was almost no divide between my folks personal interests and parenting so many times I did not receive their undivided attention.

Regardless of when and how you find time to blog, it takes time to find a blogging rhythm. When you finally have time to blog, it’s literally GO time. Creativity on demand! I may be most productive in the mornings but may not get time to write until the evening when I am dog tired. My note book has a thousand scribbles trying to preserve inspiration and creativity for “my blogging time.”

I realized that my blog time was spinning out of control and my actual creative time getting shorter and shorter.

Getting Lost In Blogland

Time is limited and blogging is a huge learning curve in the beginning. Plugin’s, html, subscribers, keywords, social marketing, analytics, sitemaps, policys, giveaways, emails, PR solicitation…the list goes on!

I normally dive right into what I am interested in and learn it inside out so this is what I did with blogging. Learning the inside-out of blogging was further fueled by comments, stats, subscribers, rankings and all the things that showed me that HGM was starting to reach people. Yay!

The only problem was that I was getting bogged down with the logistics of running a blog! My valuable time was spent maintaining & growing HGM and frankly, it began to feel like a job that was stressing me out and extinguishing my inspiration to write.

I realized that my blog was running me! In order to be true to the reasons why I blog in the first place, I needed to take back my time from Blogland.

Getting Back To Basics

As soon as I realized that I was bogged down with maintaining/growing  my blog it was easy to decide what to do with HGM.

I have decided to take my time back so that I can continue to grow in the field of health, quantum physics, healing arts, personal development and conscious living.

I don’t want to be a pro-blogger so I am no longer as concerned with how my blog is doing. I am reducing my stress by opting out of any “agreements” I have unconsciously set up such as: minimum posts per week to maintain stats, readers, ad networks, marketing or any other self inflicted rules. This means that I will post an article when I am inspired to do so. No pressure here! I want every bit of content that is published at HGM to be the best it can be.

I’ve realized that each mom blogger who is overwhelmed but loves to blog would do well to reestablish reasonable expectations that are true to herself. It’s easy to spin out of control and I’ve learned that by reevaluating my relationship with blogging and choosing to blog from my own terms is the key to creating a more fulfilled life.

I’d love your thoughts: Why do you blog and how do you maintain your blogging balance?

Tagged as: Blogging