Yoga is a calm yet challenge practice. It helped me compliment my workouts, it's changed how I see my health, It's made me feel better as a person and most importantly, It's showed me a whole new world.
Being on Instagram, posting yoga photos, never happened with the intention of getting many followers or trying to get "IG Famous" or showing off. I started an account after being away from social media for years - i didn't have anything except a tumblr account and facebook where I rarely (if ever) posted and mostly used to see what other people were doing. I started my account after a suggestion from a friend when I started living healthier. I followed a whole bunch of active people and yogis for inspiration and then found yoga challenges - which i joined by the dozens! I learned, i met a few people, i found a cool community. I loved it. And i never tried to make it anything else. Eventually I got more followers, people seemed to like my captions and my photos and everything else. It keep growing to the point where it went over 1K and 5K and 10K and then people were asking me questions and wanting me to write more. So i did. I loved sharing my ideas and thoughts, putting up my practice or my workouts or what I'm doing and I LOVE the community around it all. I met people just like myself who were on their own journeys. Then fast forward to now where I seem to have a larger account, my blog, my IG friends and all that. I keep getting DM's and emails of people asking me how they can get more followers. What should I do? What should I post? Do you have any advice? How do you know what your followers like? Should i ask for followers? Can you promote me? I don't know really how i ended up in this position and i don't know what someone else should do it get more followers. I just did what I always do. I posted what i liked, what i wanted, what i was happy with. And this just happened to happen. I know how appealing it can look to have a certain number of followers. Even i go wow at some accounts when i see they have 100K followers. But here's the deal. I'm not sitting here trying to change what I do so I can get more followers. I don't want to change who I am, what I post or what I represent just for a bigger number. I want to be me. I could easily post more selfies in sports bras and tights. I could probably put more effort into making pretty food or buying the coolest workout clothes and then posing in them. After all, I'm not an idiot - I know people like those photos. I like those photos too. But i don't wanna take those photos. That's why i only post recommendations if i like the ideas too. 1000 people could ask me to post a photo of what i'm wearing to gym each morning - but if i don't feel like it, i'm not going to enjoy doing it (and i'll probably forget). But 1 person could ask me to post how to do an asana, and i know i'd love to share that. So i'll do that immediately. If that means eventually I have 1 million followers or I always stay where I am now or I lose every single follower i have, that doesn't matter. I'd rather do this in my own time and make myself happy than focus all my energy on something that isn't my whole world. And that's what I want you guys to remember. STOP thinking about numbers. STOP thinking you need to get more followers. What you need is to BE YOU. Post what you like, not what you think is going to get you more likes. Write what goes on in your head, be real. Don't spend hours thinking of a "fancy" caption just cause you think it'll work. And maybe no caption is your style - so do that! Do your yoga practice or workout and if you wanna post it, go ahead. But don't turn into someone that does something just for a photo and numbers. It's not worth it. It doesn't make you real or relateable and frankly, those are not the accounts I personally like to follower. I want real people, sharing their lives, their ups and downs and being who they are. There may be thousands of people who just wanna see a ripped girl or a flexbile yogi, and there are tons of accounts where these women are so happy to do that. But if that's not you - don't do it and don't force yourself to pretend it is. If you're a workout video person - do it. If you're a yoga photo person - do it. If you're a fancy food person - do it. And if you're none of the above and you just wanna post photos of your pets or your socks or your tv shows - DO IT! Don't get caught up in numbers and in hype. Be you. Always be you.
2 Comments
fitwithlena13
18/12/2016 03:10:03 pm
Thank you for this gorgeous blog post Aly. Nowadays we have the feeling that we are put under pressure by others and want more followers, benefits and everything. But does it make us better humans - No. Being authentic can help you grow, yeah, but it is the most important characteristic for us to keep. Being ourselves.
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Aly R
20/12/2016 04:30:06 pm
I'm glad you liked it!
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