The Mom Flow: My Chronic Online-ness Was My Worst Enemy

Welcome to The Mom Flow, where I share things that are on my mind in the hopes of helping you connect to your Mom Flow. Thanks for being here! —Erin Sousa

I had to share some thoughts with you this week that have been really on my mind. I figured if anyone could relate, it could be you. It’s a very personal take, and I know I can be real with you.

Make sure you listen to this post using the button at the top of the post because I read it to you and we have some good chats along the way. It’s like a podcast and the perfect thing to listen to while you drive, commute or move your body!

January has been long and heavy. And I’ve been spending wayyy too much time online, consuming content, and in turn, it made me feel sad and low. But I kept scrolling—what was I looking for when I scrolled? A feeling of joy, connection… understanding? Slowly, I started to feel more disconnected and absolutely worse about myself.

Do I know that scrolling leads to this? Absolutely. I felt caught in a cycle, and I was giving myself the ick. Drained, unmotivated, jealous, worried, invisible, trapped… literally my worst self, and genuinely, there was no real reason for it.

My chronic online-ness was my worst enemy.

Fast forward to hanging out with friends, getting out and about—I felt better. Lighter. Happier. Understood. Something as seemingly simple as popping into shops and just experiencing life, touching things, was so much more satisfying and life-giving than scrolling the jeans page on Old Navy and waiting for them to show up. Basic things were giving me a boost.

In my heart, I know all of this, but even I got caught up in the appeal of being chronically online. Combined with the doom-and-gloom news cycle, pessimism took over. It made me realize that we are all living such a one-dimensional life online and how important it is to not let that happen. Now, doing this has to be intentional because everything around us is set up to serve us from our phones.

Nothing makes me feel better than being IRL beside people who are similar to me, and something I’m personally focused on for 2025 is just that—but consistently. Genuinely living the human experience. It’s better for every aspect of our lives, and while some creature comforts are nice, it’s easy to suddenly forget that we are flattening out our own human experience by living inside the internet.

I often get asked about ‘what I’m doing with The Mom Flow’ and what’s next. I have always answered this the same way: I want this to be a community of women and moms who are as imperfect as me – who connect to me and each other here, but also IRL. The basis for The Mom Flow Social Club is to get offline and spark your own happiness and to even make a new mom friend who ‘gets it’. I’m thrilled to keep going with this and we’re working on the second event now. Like, in my bones, I know that when moms and women get authentic and real with eachother, they get on a different vibration which is good for everyone.

OK OK, enough from me, but truly, I had such a lightbulb moment this week thinking about it all and thanks for letting me spill here with you.

That’s it for this week. If you like this content, don’t forget to show up for me with a like or comment. Hoping to see ya’ll in the comments! Thanks for the comments last week Janeisie, Dori, Kate, Christina, Matt, Jackie, Mal, Reagan, Alysha, Katie and Sierra.

There’s more! Keep reading this week’s edition of The Mom Flow by Erin Sousa; subscribe for free to receive new posts and support her work, here!