I might as well tell you right up front that I’m pretty much writing this to myself. I’ll admit it: I’m a chronic binge-watcher. But I know some other college woman out there is in my same boat. She’s probably a smart, busy, motivated lady. Passionate about her interests. Wants to do well in school. Wants to be successful. Wants to make a difference in the world. And she won’t lie to you: she’s pulling it off. Grades are alright. Bills are paid. Bosses and professors are happy. But she knows if she could just kick this one habit, she’d be totally unstoppable. So WHY can’t she help turning the TV on first thing after work every day? Or at least give herself a one episode limit??
Actually, I’m not sure we want to go exactly there, so we won’t. But a brief reminder for that girl and for me: I know we’re like, “adults” now, but our moms’ warning still holds true – TV melts your brain! Maybe that’ll start to hit home if we put it this way: watching TV makes you feel isolated and depressed. It makes it harder to relax and fall asleep at night. It perpetuates your tendency to procrastinate, and cuts into time you might otherwise use to exercise or read or cook dinner. It makes it easy to check out and eat more sugar than you planned. Shortens your attention span. Do I need to keep going?
The point is, watching TV doesn’t make us feel good, and we know it. But then what’s the move for when we come home and just need to check out and recover for an hour before we dive into our homework? I won’t act like I’ve completely figured it out yet, but here are a few things I’m going to try:
1. Reading. But not the news, and not stuff I have to read for school. Good vibes only for this hour of restoring my mental energy, so I’m making progress on the book club book or reading old cards I’ve saved – just something easy that makes me feel good.
2. Napping. I fall asleep watching sitcoms all the time anyway – might as well cut out the middleman. Plus the bags under my eyes are big enough to carry my groceries lately, so I know I could use the sleep.
3. Going for a walk. An easy way to spend 20 mindless minutes trying out some new tunes or counting my steps or keeping an eye out for dogs.
4. Cooking dinner. Manual activities like mixing and chopping mean a) getting out of my head for a hot sec, and b) actually eating something real! Exciting! (But in a calming way. You get it.)
This list barely skims the surface – there are a million other things I could try, from yoga to drawing to doing laundry. If I was really hardcore I might try meditating or even just doing my homework when I get home so I can go to bed at a decent hour. But I’m starting with these for now, and hoping they’ll help me learn to really relax.