05.11.06
Caught in a Spell
I am going to return this discussion back to the Hero’s Journey. Specifically I want to examine one reason why so many people are unable to move forward on their personal journey and how they can become unstuck.
As you travel on your Sacred Path you will meet both supportive and hindering forces. One of the most influential and controlling forces you will meet is the Spellcaster. In case you were wondering, the Spellcaster is alive and well in our modern day society. And the surprising thing is that almost everyone invites this powerful force willing into their home. I am of course talking about the addictive spell cast by the Television.
According to information compiled by the TV-Free America organization, in the United States 99 percent of households possess at least one television. In an average American home on an average day the TV is on 6 hours and 47 minutes. By the time a person is 65 years old they will have spent 9 years of their life watching television.
TV-Free America goes on to state that “(m)illions of Americans are so hooked on television that they fit the criteria for substance abuse as defined in the official psychiatric manual, according to Rutgers University psychologist and TV-Free America board member Robert Kubey. Heavy TV viewers exhibit five dependency symptoms–two more than necessary to arrive at a clinical diagnosis of substance abuse. These include: 1) using TV as a sedative; 2) indiscriminate viewing; 3) feeling loss of control while viewing; 4) feeling angry with oneself for watching too much; 5) inability to stop watching; and 6) feeling miserable when kept from watching.”
So you do the math. Five days a week a person spends 8 hours sleeping and 8 to 9 hours at work if they work full time. Then it takes 1 to 2 hours in the morning to get ready and get to work. Another hour to get home from work. Then another hour for eating dinner and washing up. And we haven’t even added in things like keeping the house clean, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, etc. So that is 19 to 22 hours of each work day spent on just sleeping, eating, and working. If you add watching each day 2 to 5 hours of television into the equation the average work week is totally used up.
How can you uncover your Authentic Self if you spend the precious little amount of free time you have each day staring vacantly at a flickering screen? The answer is you can’t.
I quit watching TV in 2000 when we moved to a new home that did not get good reception. Instead of signing up for cable my SO and I decided to just stop watching television. By doing so we unplugged ourselves from the mind numbing control of this seductive Spellcaster. (We still occasionally watch DVDs and videos but we get to decide what we want to watch and when instead of mindlessly flipping through channels.)
By giving up television I have regained time and more importantly I have regained control of my life. Instead of spending hours in front of the TV I now have time to work on creative projects. For example in 2005 during the month of July instead of watching television I wrote a 50,000-word novel. I could never have done that if I hadn’t unplugged.
So how can you break the TV watching habit? If you live alone or with a like minded person I recommend you go cold turkey. Just do it. If that is not possible, then select a day or two that you won’t turn on the TV. Another thing you can do is be very selective and chose to only watch a program as oppose to watching an hour or two of indiscriminate television.
It may be difficult at first, remember television is an addictive drug, so you may go through feelings of withdrawal. But if you can stick it out the reward is having time to live your life instead watching the world go by on a flickering screen.
Blessings,
Swan
