No T.V. Experiment

About a month/month and a half ago I gave up t.v.*

For me, t.v. has always been an easy escape.  I could turn it on and zone out.  Suddenly, though, I realized that I was missing my life.  It was just flying by day after day and I was ignoring it, I was a bit numb to it.

Why watch other people do things when I could actually be doing things myself?

So, I started doing more.  Painting.  Writing. Reading (Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing"). Running.  Taking photos (Kodak EasyShare MX1063).  Riding my bike.  More... Just everything I love.

It has made a huge difference.

Then I found another distraction.

The internet. 

I love checking in on blogs, flickr, taking my e-course, jotting  messages on Facebook...  I need to use the internet for research while I am writing.

How do I balance my fun use and my work? 

I think I need a timer, a little alarm that goes off after an hour of being sucked in link after link.  A little alert back to the world around me. "Hey, Alex, wake up to your life!"

It is really wonderful that in eliminating one distraction, one way of disengaging from what is really important, I am becoming more aware of other ways that I do that.

I am determined to eliminate them or at least monitor my use of them, one by one.

P.S. *full disclosure: my husband does watch t.v.  So, we watch sports or whatever other programs he has on in the evening.  More and more, I find myself picking up a book or my journal or a sketchpad while he has the t.v. on instead of mindlessly following the t.v.