I’ve survived my first week without television. Yee-hah!
Positives:
My Buddhist practice is back on good track and I am now hitting my daily target amount of chanting rather than falling short of it. In Buddhism we talk of inner devils which aim to stop you reaching enlightenment and helping others. I think my previous channel surfing represented one of these devils at work!
My mind has felt more relaxed around bed-time.
I live on my own and when my boyfriend isn’t around (we see each other mainly at weekends) I eat all my meals on the sofa watching something on the television; sometimes I watch a programme I have recorded on Sky+ and other times it is just what happens to be on. This week I have been eating at my kitchen table or at the garden table if the weather has been warm enough. I’m no nutritionist but I figure that this has to be healthier.
Now that food isn’t tied into a TV programme, when I have finished my meal I might have a quick flick of a magazine or newspaper and then I get on and do something. Consequently I have got more chores done around the house and some small overdue jobs achieved in my business.
I am enjoying the fact that I have better discipline around time and getting things done.
I have been more active. Again, spending less time on the sofa the duration of which is governed by whatever is on the box means more activity whether that is pottering around the house or garden, or going out on my bike (which I have done three times this week!). Much of my working life is spent at a computer so finding ways not to sit during leisure time is very valuable.
And now the negatives:
I have not got to bed any earlier than I would otherwise have done. I am surprised at this but hey – experiments don’t always give expected results.
A couple of days I have come home from work and really missed not being able to watch something of a lightweight nature to relax my brain. I think it is important to make sure that I am still taking time to relax and not be too busy constantly ‘doing things’. I didn’t see my boyfriend this weekend and for a moment when I came home on Friday I did think, “Gosh, it’s the weekend, what am I going to do?”. This didn’t last long and I’ve had a lovely couple of days.
Not watching TV has not saved me huge swathes of time – but that is probably because I only watched it about an hour or so a day anyway rather than several hours per day.
In conclusion, there have been many benefits particularly with regard to my Buddhist practice and I have enjoyed breaking through very entrenched habits. To be honest, I can’t imagine getting rid of the telly forever because I think it does have some value, but I am more than happy to continue with my one month experiment.
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