Paramita of Discipline

I've successfully stopped watching TV. I've watched TV twice in the past 3months! This is a big feat for me. I used to love to veg out, unwind and watch TV, especially after work. But really it didn't help me unwind. So basically since the new year, I've been without it.

Quiting TV has freed up time for reading, which is not only great because of the knowledge gained, but actually seems to calm my mind when it is frenetic. The act of reading is so very different from other mental activities and from TV, that really no matter what I am reading, I can feel my mind changing, much like during meditation.

Now for step two.

I will quit checking my email, but once a day, maybe twice a day when I teach at Loyola, because the students use it to contact me. Always having the gmail tab open, is like a bug in my ear. Like a siren, it lures me to a falsehood of connectivity and socializing, but in reality it creates this nuisance habit, frenetic brain waves, and huge amount of lost time.

Web 2.0 is wildly successful at making us think that something will actually happen on the internet. By tapping into one of our strongest needs- of belonging and socializing, it offers us really a bait and switch, and instead leaves a feeling of emptiness and wasted time, and maybe a new pair of jeans.

With my new time, I would like to ideally do actual social things, and participate in society in much more meaningful way. Last night when I finally decided to put this new plan into action, I turned off the gmail, and I wrote the sympathy card for my godfather I should have written two weeks ago, and I burned 3 CDs for my friend and put them in an envelope. I want to write real thank you notes. I want to use my new time to really contact people, and really let them know that their gestures and their friendship is very important to me.