Control How Much We Consume…Remember, They’re Trying to Kill Us
In our search for wellbeing, balance and joy we must remain discerning. We all want beauty and levity, feel-good entertainment and Lord knows we need to laugh. There is so much to consume and if it’s ‘trash’ you want, it is unlimited and easily accessible. We all love a little trash now and then. Nothing soothes the frayed edges of our psyche like mindless content on social media or cable television. I confess to watching more than enough on HGTV, even stuff I know took no time or talent to produce. Pure trash! But after watching too much news, it allows me to sleep better, and so I rationalize it. I bet you can relate.
What we must all be mindful of is that in our search for relaxation and entertainment, we can be manipulated. Advertisers take advantage of our vulnerable states: our fatigue, our loneliness, our thirst for entertainment and our desperate unconscious search for meaning in a world filled with frustrations and catastrophes. Subliminal messages and sometime shameless promotion in the media lead us to eat unhealthy foods, drink alcohol to excess, or to engage in unhealthy, unsafe personal behaviors. Look at the commercials, analyze them. If you’ve never done this, you will be amazed at how few ads encourage moderation in lifestyle, or encourage altruism and kindness. In recent years there are inspiring public service announcements. But the majority of commercial ads and reality television promote living to excess, going to extremes: buying, eating and buying some more. More, more, more. It’s all about me and what I have or can get, and by any means necessary.
If you stop to consider, who benefits from us spending more, eating more, drinking more, buying more, frantically competing with each other to have more things, more, more, more, more? Who benefits from our spending money we work hard to earn, or even money we don’t actually have?
So, when you watch too much reality TV or indulge in too much mindless social media ‘trash’, all sponsored by Them, remember, “they are trying to kill us”. They ‘kill us’ by stealing our time for self-development, depleting our economic power, reducing our quality time with our children and loved ones, and by filling our minds with a value system that does not enrich our communities. The entertaining ‘trash’ is not serving our needs.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t indulge in TV or social media from time to time, but we must control it and not allow it to control us. Be aware. Be discerning. Pay attention to what we are being fed, and control how much of it we let in our lives.
Practice setting a time limit in advance and sticking to it. Say to yourself, “Powerful Mind, I want you to be productive and self-determining. You get 30 minutes (or whatever you feel is reasonable) of this nonsense and then we get back to Freedom Fighting.”
You will be amazed at how empowering it is to enjoy popular entertainment on your own terms for a few minutes, and then hear the click and feel the surge of power when you press “Power Off”.
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