Thursday, August 15, 2019

Turn Off the TV | I'll Teach You How To Be Free


One of my many callings in life is to inspire personal freedom or activate the desire to achieve personal freedom. Today, I am going to share one of the very crucial steps I took down the rabbit hole to start my journey to personal freedom.





7 years ago, I decided to stop consuming any mass media that was within my power to turn on and off like my personal TV or radio. Back then, I started to notice the programming  that I was consuming on TV and on the radio made me feel uncomfortable, tense, agitated, sad, afraid, jealous, defensive and sometimes anxious. Those feelings did not feel right in my body. I also noticed that those feelings and emotions always showed up as soon as I turned on the TV to watch any given show or hear a certain type of music on the radio. I don’t know about you but I do not like to be around anything or anyone that makes me feel uncomfortable. I will quickly discard them.

 

Sometimes it feels like you cannot escape these things because the TV may be on at the doctor’s office or the radio may be on at your job or my favorite: when the Uber driver turns the radio to Power 105.1 or Hot 97.1 as soon as I get in the car. This post was inspired by basketball wives being played on all the TV screens at a Caribbean restaurant where I had dinner with my friend in Brooklyn last night. I could not believe that those shows (programming) were still on TV. I started to watch the show Suits in May and noticed that after binge watching the show, I would start speaking very cold to people the same way that Harvey (one of my favorite characters in the show) does with no emotions attached. I stopped watching it because that is not who I am. I do have a no nonsense get to the point personality like Harvey but there are positive emotions and unconditional love attached to it.

 

On my own time or my own dime (money spent to buy the TV/radio), I will not turn the TV/radio on to make myself feel bad. I like to describe the practice of watching TV, the news, listening to negative music etc. like a female involved in an abusive relationship who  keeps going back to the abuser asking for more abuse. The last statement does not have to be political as some would argue that it is a bad analogy because victims of domestic violence are real and they get hurt physically. But, I believe that emotional and physical abuse are one in the same. Emotional abuse when entertained long enough can lead to physical ailments because we can create physical diseases with our thoughts and the energy that we are emitting to the universe. For example, I believe that I manifested fibroid in my body from years of fear, fight and flight along with feeding my body toxins including eating talcum powder because I was feeling bad about myself. Turning on the TV or the radio for me was like the abused going back to the abuser asking for more abuse.

 

It is important to note that when I decided to stop consuming mass media, I had recently got involved in making YouTube videos. At the time, I was learning the very basics of video editing for my YouTube channel. I remember telling someone back then that if on my level with the limited resources that I had, I was able to manipulate imagery and video footage to get a desired emotional response and action (hitting the subscribe button, leaving a comment or a like) from the individuals who are consuming my videos, can you image how big media companies can do this at a large scale. I learned how sounds will evoke certain emotions along with the color of an image, the words you use, etc. For example YouTube provides a library of music to be used for video editing and it is categorized in emotions like happy, sad, hopeful, etc. If I want to make you sad I can create a video and make you feel sadness when you watch that video. If I want to make you happy, I can create an image that will make you happy. Your emotions are like a button and somebody like the media or myself can and will play with it to create a desired result if you are not aware of this. As a result you will react thinking that it is your own will (The Art of Seduction). You will say things like I’m so sensitive for crying after watching insert movie name when it was created and manipulated to make you cry.

 

During my conscious decision to turn off mass media, I was still exposed to it when I was out and about, when I dated people who were “normal” mass media consumers, etc. You may catch me singing some of the songs that I do not listen to at my own will because they are everywhere. I might know of a news story because I saw something about it on my Instagram feed or saw a video related to the topic in my YouTube (slowly becoming a mass media machine) recommended videos. Fast forward 7 years from the time I turned off mass media at my will, I feel more alive, very aware and more connected to all humans and every perfect creation in the perfect universe. I don’t believe words can describe how amazing I feel without mass media in my life. When engaged in conversations with others, I listen more and inquire instead of repeating or regurgitating something that I heard on TV, in the news or on the radio. I engage more in conversations involving creative ideas, business ideas, travel, my personal experiences with my many hobbies. I believe that the age old excuse about needing to watch TV to know what’s going on in the world or to engage in “smart conversations” needs an update. There are so many other topics to discuss besides, who got killed, which celebrity got divorced, what the president did or said and which Fortune 500 company is going under.

 

Exercise

I want you to try this exercise the next time you are watching something on TV or listen to a radio programming. Pay attention to your thoughts and your body. Do you feel tense, are you reminded of old trauma, old wounds? Do you feel happy,  uncomfortable, disappointed, agitated, sad, afraid, jealous, defensive, enraged or even anxious? If you are not aware the first time you try this exercise, try it again and again until you start to notice what comes up for you emotionally and in your body. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with feeling those emotions, life will not always be happy. However, if it is up to me to turn on the TV/radio to activate those emotions and feelings at my own will by turning on the TV/radio daily doesn’t make any sense to me. I personally think it is a sign of insanity. It’s  like saying “Hi, I am back for more abuse. Please shower me with more abuse.” Who says that?

 

Do you consume mass media? What are you currently watching/reading/listening to and loving? How do you feel about this conversation? Would you like to hear more of my weird thoughts? Let’s talk about it in the comments below.

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