It has been 4 days and I am loving it! Let me say, first of all that I have struggled to resist the urge to switch on the TV over the last few days but the rewards have been phenomenal!
Let me premise this next little bit by saying that my wife & I have, what I believe to be, a fantastic relationship - but i gotta tell you that in the last 4 days the communication, the laughter and enjoyment we have experienced has really been enhanced!
My wife decided that, although she didn't feel the need to fast TV, she would join me, (at least when we were both home together), in the fast.
For the first night I probably resembled a crack addict who had been locked in a cell and forced to go cold turkey - I couldn't sit down or still, I was restless, bored, fidgety and I spent most of the night annoying my poor wife with stupid questions, belly pokes, annoying sounds and general in your face kind of nonsense - so I realized pretty quickly how much time and energy the old TV really sucked out of me - I had to admit that I had become a TV addict, someone who totally depended on TV for my escape, my "creative" outlet and my wind down tool...
But as quickly as admitting my addiction I have already started to reap the benefits of fasting TV throughout the week - I have had more time to enjoy and foster my relationships, especially the relationship I have with my wife. We have started to share a whole heap more than usual in the last 4 days and I have found that without the TV going in the back ground I have managed to retain the stuff I am learning about the people in my world. I have already become more attentive!
So not only have I seen how fasting TV has positively impacted my relationships I have discovered it has given me more time and energy to spend on developing my creative side! Over the last couple of days I have spent a good deal of time imagining what I could do with all the extra time I have now. - This morning I just got excited at the fact that I am IMAGINING again!
I was watching one of these morning shows or it might have even been a gamers show last week, (which is weird in and of itself - i must have been really desperate for a fix!), but I remember the hosts interviewing a game designer or author and they asked him some kind of question relating to TV / Games vs reading and he said something like "The problem with TV is that it does all the imagining for you", it removes any need for the viewer to imagine or create the environment, the characters or event, where as a book might give you a description of an event, a person or a place but the reader still has to come up with what [it] will all look like or feel like - they have to still imagine it for themselves...
I think this is true - so as part of my TV fast I have decided to take up reading a fictional novel just to test out this theory and see how it might effect my ability to create and imagine in general - so along with all the theology books I am in the middle of reading I have also picked up "The Three Musketeers" and my brain is working on a whole other level - ALREADY!
My imagination is kicking into gear again and it has effected work, ministry and life overall! I have begun writing and journaling again over the last couple of days and I am able to brainstorm and think outside the box a little more when it comes to problem solving or in simply generating new ideas!
I guess I believe that I am really seeing the benefits of the TV fast already so who knows what else might happen over the next couple of months! Maybe I'll take up croquet....
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