My first Life Experiment has come to a close! And, I really learned a lot about myself!
First, some back ground. I recently participated in a Nielsen TV rating program where I wrote down all of my television watching for one week. At the end of the week, I realized I watch the same things over and over again (the news and cooking shows). I watched for an average of three hours a day. I was relieved to know that I fell way below the average when it comes to how much time people spend in front of the television (20% of their day!). However, it started me thinking about trying life without television for a while. Therefore, my inaugural Life Experiment was to go tv-free for one week.
Now, full disclosure. I didn't throw a fit at the gym and demand everyone else participate in my Life Experiment. There are four televisions on at the gym all of the time and I did stare mindlessly at them while on the treadmill (side-note, running on the treadmill is perhaps the most boring thing I do - COME ON WARM WEATHER!!). I could not hear the televisions, but could see them. I also did not demand any of my patients turn their televisions off when I entered the room. And my lovely, slightly hard of hearing, 91 year old neighbor watches a lot of television, which I can vaguely hear through the floor. She likes Law and Order I learned. But, other than that, I watched no television.
Monday morning, day one, I woke with a fair amount of anxiety. How could I ever start my day without the Today Show!?! It turns out the world kept on spinning and my life didn't fall apart. I did sit rather idly in my kitchen (perhaps unconsciously afraid of going into the living room and being confronted with the black screen). I drank my coffee and eventually just left for work early. Tuesday morning I decided it was alright to take out my computer to look at Facebook. However, I eventually got comfortable sitting in front of no screens.
I also leaned really heavily on NPR for the first few days. The quiet of my apartment bothered me, so I had talk radio going all of the time. But, my dependence on the noise lessened and eventually I got comfortable with the silence. In fact, I started to crave it.
The two hardest things for me during the week were: 1.) Trying to figure out how much snow we were going to get during a storm, and 2.) Learning how to relax.
We had major snow during my Life Experiment week and I knew it was coming but I kept getting conflicting reports from the radio and my patients. However, even if I had watched the news about the storm (and because of our lack of snow this winter, our storm was major headlines in the 'hood) it was all wrong. We ended up getting way more than anyone predicted. So, I survived that.
The second hardest aspect of my Life Experiment was also my biggest lesson. It turns out I struggled to relax. I was sure I would turn the tv off and just stare into the abyss of the black screen, unable to figure out what to do with my time. But instead, much to my surprise, I had to force myself to stop getting chores done and just relax. I would sit in the silence and list to myself (in my head, I promise) all of the things I could be doing. I got a lot done during the week, but needed to stop as the evening wore on so I would be refreshed for the next day. It turns out that I use television to relax. And somehow it makes me feel better knowing that.
Did I turn the television on first thing this morning you ask? Nope, still hasn't gone on and I am not sure when it will again (probably when my dad arrives). This morning I sat in the quiet and loved it. In fact, I got up a bit earlier than I usually do to have more quiet time. The idea of the television seems disruptive to me now. Even the radio is quiet. My professional life is filled with talk, my home life is filled with renewing silence. And I am getting better about relaxing, but I still have a ways to go.
So, there you have it. Life Experiment I is complete and I am so pleased it has taught me so much about myself. I am not quite sure what Life Experiment II will be yet, so if you have any ideas I would love to hear them!
Come back tomorrow as I share with you what my refrigerator and the arrival of my parents have in common!
Jenn and I tend to spend a couple hours watching television after Desmond goes to bed. However, the past two days, we found that we had watched all the episodes of our current favorite shows, leaving us with nothing that we were really excited to watch. Instead of using that time to do something productive, we spent like an hour trying to find something we did want to watch! Pretty ridiculous!
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