How Turning the Television OFF Can Improve Your Family’s Health
by
Have you ever considered the effect that noise has on you or your family? We have become so accustomed to noisy environments that most humans are now uncomfortable with silence. Even when we turn everything off, we have a constant hum in the background of our life from the refrigerator, the heating and cooling systems and our electronics. However, we don’t even hear that anymore because we fill the airwaves with the sounds of television, music and gaming systems. In some households, it is rare for the family to ever turn the television off.
We have a tendency to believe that we aren’t affected by the anything that we aren’t concentrating on. What you may not realize is your subconscious brain takes in everything you experience and uses the information when you make decisions.
For example, if you leave the television on a news station all day that talks constantly about abductions, disasters, terrorist’s plots and murders, your subconscious brain is likely to conclude that you are not safe and that feeling of not being safe will become part of the way you live. This is equally true for children who often express anxiety with no apparent cause. It isn’t only news stations, common topics of many television programs can be just as disturbing.
The solution is very easy. Begin to pay attention to how you feel after watching a television program, having the news on all day or listening to beautiful music. Then adjust your daily habits until you find a flow that feels better. Try turning the television off for a while and see how you feel with some quiet time. Try playing music that you enjoy instead. When you do watch television, choose programs that leave you feeling uplifted and happy rather than anxious and stressed. You’ll not only feel better, your children will too.
On a related note, large doses of the news can be distressing. That doesn’t mean you need to stick your head in the sand and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist. However, limiting your exposure is healthy. Generally speaking, thirty minutes of news per day will keep you up to speed without increasing your stress. Try not to finish your day with the news as you don’t want to take the day’s tragedies into your sleep.
It is also important to turn the television off when you sleep, as your brain will take in all the infomercials, programming and commercials that play while you are sleeping as well. If you like to go to sleep with the television on, then use the sleep timer to turn it off after you have fallen asleep. You might even find that you sleep better!