What Would Happen to You?
A Study in Keys To Thriving
By: Patrick S. Cross, LMT, CPN, CET
For over a decade I have been involved in the study and treatment of the human body. Mostly through manual (hands on) therapies, and also with nutrition and exercise consulting. However as I continue my studies and practice I have seen that there is much more involved in the overall health of a person. The purpose of this article is to address one commonly overlooked aspect; the way we entertain ourselves and how it affects our overall well being.
My interest in health began with the obvious importance of food and movement as, in my early twenties, two ideas became very powerful in my life.
#1. What we eat largely decides how much energy we have, and that energy is the basis for all accomplishment.
#2. The more we move, the better we feel, and the more we want to move. Conversely the less we move, the worse we feel, and the less we want to move.
As I began to explore these simple, but profound ideas in my own body, and then with my clients, I wondered about other pieces to the lifestyle puzzle as well. Such as how unresolved emotional patterns drive our decisions and actions. How the nervous system plays a roll, specifically parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system patterns in effecting our stress and recovery. And how we get pulled away from our own well being without even noticing.
Then came the most recent question consuming my mind. What effect does the entertainment we choose have over our nervous system, and ultimately on our lives? Then I wondered what would happen to a person who watches television regularly if they simply stopped? For 30 consecutive days. No TV.
Seems simple right?
So I had to find out, but as usual, just reading about it on the internet didn't really give me the substance I was looking for so I created a very small, pseudo-study.
Here's that study in a nutshell.
Everyone involved must agree not to interact with any video through a screen for 30 consecutive days. Writing, reading, still pictures, social media, email, online magazines, etc. are all still fair game on any device, just so long as no video is engaged with through any media.
Everyone who agrees to this also agrees to journal their experiences, i.e. any positive or negative feeling, experiences, outcomes, etc. during the 30 days that they feel could be attributed to not interacting with video entertainment. Then once a week we meet to discuss what we've found.
My first surprise came when I began proposing the study to people I thought might be willing to be involved. Just about everybody I purposed a month of zero video entertainment said absolutely not.
Ultimately, with just five people willing to take part in this first test run, we went ahead with the experiment.
This is what we found:
One of the five people dropped out within the first five hours of agreeing to take part in the study. He was very enthusiastic at the first meeting, and fully agreed to the terms, but as soon as he got home and experienced the first twinge of boredom, he reached for the remote and flicked on his flat screen television. He confirmed this with me, but didn't attend any more of the meetings.
Three others began watching television again by the middle of the second week, but continued journaling and attending the meetings. Only one person continued through the full 30 days without watching any video.
This seemed at first to suggest a completely failed experiment. However, as the meetings continued, all but the first participant who dropped out noted significant changes in their day to day routines and even personality, health, and social improvements even though they did not finish the full thirty days.
One participant summed it up by saying, "it was really a domino effect for everything else I was trying to accomplish to fall in line much easier."
After collecting all of the data through the four weeks I asked the participants to describe the top 5 most significant changes (either positive or negative) that they experienced through the study. This is what they said.
#1: better sleep
All but one participant noted significantly more restful sleep with more energy upon waking in the morning. The one participant found that his sleep was more erratic during the first week as he had strong cravings to watch television before bed and would lay awake for a while before falling asleep. This evened out by the second week and his sleeping improved dramatically by the second week.
#2: Reading more
All participants noticed a significant increase in the amount of reading both for entertainment and for education starting in the first few days. Researching points of interest and, by doing so, increasing knowledge surrounding any number of topics became more common place. Some participants noted reading with significant others instead of watching TV became a fun and engaging activity for both parties.
#3: Eating habits improved
This was particularly interesting in that all participants would regularly eat while watching TV and, as the study began, found that they were paying much more attention the their food as they ate (quantity, quality, etc.), and that this equated to better eating habits all around. One participant did note an increase in eating junk food out of boredom in the first week, but again that it evened out as she began to document what she was doing in her day to day life during the second week.
#4: Accomplished more
Participants found that they accomplished much more than usual in the way of household chores (even doing chores with significant others instead of watching TV together), hobbies, work, and with physical activity. One participant noted specifically getting more accomplished and feeling more relaxed at the same time as opposed to usually feeling more tired when attempting to get more things done.
#5: Better social interactions
All participants noted a significant increase in not only frequency of social interactions, but also quality of the interactions, noticing that they were more clear and engaged both in adding to conversation but also in ability to actually listen to what others were saying. One participant noted that instead of excluding himself from watching TV with friends, he convinced them to play games instead, which became a biweekly household activity that extended to more and more people as the weeks went on providing a regular sense of community for everyone involved.
These were just the common changes noticed by the participants. There were other individually noted changes such as improved balance, mindfulness of thought patterns, more focus on the quality of television watched when they did decide to watch, and how shows would make them feel. Even better dental hygiene was noted on account of a more thoughtful prep time before sleep. All in all it was a powerful and transformative practice, and it didn't even take the full 30 days to see these results. Even as they went back to watching television they noted a better over all experience with television as they limited the time (especially wasted time on channel surfing) and increased the quality of programs watched (only watching what they actually wanted to watch and not just watching for the sake of watching).
Of course this is just a small, starter experiment and so we can't say that any of these results would be experienced by everyone, or that everyone should stop youtubing, netflixing, etc. What it does suggest is that there is a very real possibility that the entertainment we engage in regularly may be affecting our lives in ways that go largely unnoticed, and that our lives may be improved by limiting video entertainment to some degree, or at least changing our relationship to it. For now I'll conclude with a simple question for you, the reader.
What do you think would happen to you, and are you willing to find out?
Until next time,
Patrick S. Cross