Why I got rid of my TV - How to make the most of your time!

The average person in the US spends about five hours a day in front of the television, that sums up to 35 hours a week, so almost a full-time job. At the end, we give the television screen 70 days of our precious attention each year - and yet we say that we don’t have time to enjoy nature, do fun activities with our family or read an inspiring book. These are pretty scary statistics, right? And I haven’t even calculated it for an entire life.

We become what we consume - Content shapes our reality

Unfortunately it is pretty rare that we turn on the TV and stumble across this great documentary about the environmental impact of animal agriculture or the science of meditation - let's be honest, more often we watch soaps, silly movies or brutal thrillers.

Maybe you’ve heard about the saying that we become the average of the 5 people that we spend most of our time with. Well, what if we spend 5 hours daily with people that yell at each other, gossip, fight, kill and cause a lot of drama? Anything different than that is often just not entertaining in movies. And this content eventually shapes our own thoughts, feelings and perceptions about life.

When I truly started to understand this equation, I became more mindful about the content that I consume, the people I listen to and especially the TV shows that I decided not to watch. That often resulted in a black TV screen, the program didn’t leave me much choice there.

"I need my TV to calm down" - True relaxation comes from within

I know, it is quite easy to relax in front of the TV, nothing to think about, our mind can completely let go and haven’t we earned that after a full day of work? Although we do tend to reach some relaxation if we intensely watch a movie (which doesn't apply if we just zap through the channels) there are so much more options to reach a way deeper ease of mind, without consuming the often disturbing contents, that might even give our subconscious a lot of emotional baggage to deal with at night.

As soon as I started to live without a TV, I discovered some great relaxing alternatives for me such as to read an awesome novel, simply listen to music (without multitasking another activity), talk more intensively with my partner about our day, meditate, take a walk in a forest nearby or do some yoga to release the built up stress from my work. These alternatives not only calmed me down, they gave me a whole new balance in life.

More hours to enjoy life - Make your spare time awesome

You ever wanted to learn Spanish or to play the piano, plant your own herbs on the balcony or build your own furniture out of wooden pallets? Well, five more hours per day might be enough for you to make some time to cultivate a new hobby. A life without a TV gives you so much more space for creativity and fulfilling experiences. No more conversations about which women was kicked out in the recent Bachelor episode or what drama happened at a store for wedding dresses - tell your friends about your own real adventures instead, about the activities that make your life to an amazing experience!

I planted a lot of herbs on our balcony, which we used for our delicious zucchini noodle recipes, built my own upcycling furniture, like a cupboard out of skateboards or a side table by using an old sled, I also crafted some string art for our hallway. My piano lessons didn’t last long and I didn’t get to improve my Spanish tough, but I was just too busy planning my trip around the world - which I probably wouldn’t have time for if I watched TV after work.

"With this product you feel happy and loved!" - Decide against brain washing

Ever heard of the following eye-opening quote by the financial writer Dave Ramsey? I think it fits perfectly to how advertising impacts our decisions:

“We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”

15% of the time we spend in front of the TV we are watching commercials for products we really don’t need, but are constantly told that our life will be filled with more happiness and success if we would just own this one additional item. We are lured into eating junk food, buying new clothes to follow the current trends, getting this state-of-the-art smartphone since the people in the commercials seem to be very popular and truly fulfilled with their lifestyle.

Well, you might think - I don’t really fall for this crap, commercials don’t get to me, I only buy what I want. I am sure everyone has their decisions in their own hands, in the end, but there is no doubt about how great the impact of commercials are on our subconscious mind. I bet we can all sing along when we hear some of the jingles from popular commercials and know the slogans of many top brands.

Before I started my nomadic lifestyle, I moved in with my parents for some weeks, since I already gave up my apartment. They still own a TV like most people and only then I realized after about a year without a TV in my life, how many commercials are bombarding us during just one TV show. I often heard them when I was in the room nearby and even that was quite stressful for me. Sometimes you can only evaluate the effect something like commercials have on you when you spend some time away from the TV and change your perspective towards it.

Take charge of your media content, take charge of your life

Just because I don’t watch TV, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a great movie once in a while or love to dive into inspiring, eye-opening documentaries - have you ever seen Okja or Cowspiracy on Netflix? Amazing stuff. Nowadays there are so many great streaming platforms like Netflix that offer us the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we want to watch, when and how long. We are not bond to a certain schedule and don’t have to watch the whole movie in just one sitting. This way, it is easier to make mindful choices about the content we consume and the time we spend in front of the television screen.

For some people, Netflix has also kind of an addictive effect since there are so many TV shows and movies that invite you to lock yourself into a dark room all Sunday and get to the end of every season. If you can imagine yourself doing just that, better don’t even subscribe in the first place. I learned to get a healthy relationship towards these streaming options, I rarely watch a movie just for entertainment and then it must be really enjoyable and filled with characters that I adore.

Apart from that, you can also find some documentaries on free platforms like YouTube or in the Mediathek of national TV channels. And what about the good old cinema for diving into a great movie adventure? If you don’t own a TV, going to the cinema becomes so much more exciting and you can tap into that feeling from the past when a visit to the movies was much more than just sitting in front of a bigger screen this evening.

Challenge yourself - How can you make the transition?

Nowadays, more than 96% of the US households own a TV and yet our society doesn’t seem to become more relaxed or joyful. For me personally, getting rid of it was first a bit scary since I had to figure out how to spend a big part of my evenings in a different way, in the end watching TV takes up such a huge part of our life. But it was also a freeing experience since I did not have to make a decision for or against an evening in front of the screen, the decision was only made once - when I sold my TV.

Since I feared that I could easily replace my movie time with a new addictive habit like getting lost on social media platforms, I made a list of relaxing and entertaining things that I wanted to integrate into my spare time, so that I replaced the TV time with creative and fulfilling activities. This helped me a great deal to redesign my spare time and cultivate more interesting hobbies instead of letting myself be influenced by advertising and negative movie characters. It was like my own little program that I could choose from - meditation, yoga or a novel if I needed some entertainment, sport activities for stress release, upcycling and music to get my creative juices flowing.

This is exactly what I want to do with my precious spare time! How will yours gonna look like?

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Have a wonderful and adventurous day!

Yours, Anais

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