Something clicked for me today. Recently I had a reading with a young and pregnant mother mother of two.  Domino has a lot of anxiety and, being pregnant, she doesn’t want to medicate for it.  She uses the tv to keep her young ones occupied during the day, her husband watches it in the evening,  and in fact the tv is on around the clock.   When we last spoke, she was having trouble sleeping, so I let her know one secret to rest is staying in bed with eyes closed and no external stimulation.   That means Turn Off The TV, Turn Off The Lights.   She found that helpful on the rare occasion she made time to do it.  

During one power outage, the tv was down for the first time and she found her kids unmanageable.  We found that there are many Effects of TV on the Brain, including the fact that, unless we train and discipline ourselves otherwise, our bodies can become addicted to daily tv due to the endorphins it produces in the brain.   Spending a lot of time in front of the tv reduces our ability to think constructively, lowers our motivation and can trigger emotion which leads to  unconscious fears and anxiety.

Domino already had her two children when I met her. They were both very high strung and could not sit still for any period of time.  Dr. Bruce Lipton  is a former medical school professor and research scientist. He wrote at Bruce Lipton on the effects of your thoughts on the development of the brain of the growing child, in particularly fears and anxieties.  His experiments have examined in great detail the processes by which the cells of our body receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts.  such as those originating from the tv, the radio, and any other voices, sounds and noises around us.

Another good article is at Discover How Your Positive and Negative Thoughts and Feelings Affect Your Unborn Baby.  If you’re not pregnant, then you yourself are being affected on conscious and unconscious levels whether you believe you are or not.

I stopped watching tv for about ten years in the 80’s and 90’s.  I did it at first as a voluntary discipline while training my mind for other activities.  For more than a dozen years I lived alone and in functional silence by choice.  I’d turn the tv on now and again and noticed that I now viewed the shows in a different way.  I no longer sat mindlessly in front of it for hours at a time because that no longer satisfied me.

I had an interesting revelation several years ago.  I’d stopped watching the daily news in the 80’s as well as most prime time programming. That meant, of course, that I’d miss a lot of popular references in social conversation.  I gradually drifted away from friends who discussed news and current events and my circle became smaller.  Mostly what we discussed were what projects we were involved in, what books we were reading, what our hopes and dreams for the future were.  We’d meditate and do yoga together, and just sit and enjoy the garden at sunset, talking about the wild critters that come to visit.  Not very stimulating for the average Joe, but a very satisfying life for me.

My revelation came when I began dating someone who was glued to talk radio and the news during the day and in the car.  We meshed fairly well but there was no real depth of conversation nor much just being together in the Now-ness.  One evening he was on his way over, so I turned on the tv to watch a show I knew he watched, just to kinda get in the vibe of him before he got there.  To vibe with something he vibed with.  I don’t recall what it was, this was years ago, but it didn’t hold my interest for long so I went outside to water the plants.  When he pulled his car into the driveway, I could hear he had Rush Limbaugh on the radio.  I was kinda floored that would hold his interest.  I thought, no wonder we don’t vibe together for long, he has this kind of stuff going through his head up until a few moments before I see him.  No wonder we were always in two different vibes.

But what clicked for me today was what I felt I was being deprived of when my roomate would have the tv on in the living room.  Even if I was officially in the office or another room working and just stepped out for a few moments, I felt deprived of the silence and the empty space that used to be there.  The seating area with tv/couch/recliner is at the other end of the meditation room/altar/library.  I am used to, for many years, stepping into silence in that space.  In that empty space, I might sit for a few moments and think private thoughts.  I might do a few minutes’ reading, I might meditate for awhile or do some yoga or a few crunches and weight lifts in front of the mirror.   Now, today, it came to me, what I am missing, what I feel deprived of is that silent and empty space as I move from room to room.

I shared my revelation with the roommate and we laughed about it;  we know it’s odd for someone to crave as much silence and alone time as I do.  That’s what being flexible is all about, being able to adapt to change as it happens. Since I share space, we are each entitled to occupy the space as we wish.  Now that I realize what the issue is, I’ll see what solutions come to mind.  Until I know I’ve got an issue, I can’t come up with a solution.

What I do know is that two people who like and respect each other will figure out a way to make stuff work.  That never fails.