I appreciate this is not a new thought. Ever since TV shows and films became easily available in the home environment, psychologists have wondered what effect they have on your mental health and behaviour in the real world.
There is some positive research results around the beneficial effects on your IQ if you watch the correct educational shows. Watching Sesame Street has proved to increase your IQ and help you with early education.
However, most research seems to miss the obvious. The obvious is, you will feel like what you are watching.
The older and hopefully wiser I get, the more I am seeing the power in what feeling means to a human in their every day life. Forget money as being the major currency to strive for, strive for the currency of feelings.
Feelings are the real gem at the centre of a happy person's life. For example, picture the man who wins the lottery jackpot. He never has to work again. However on the day of winning his wife dies of cancer. All of that money and he feels like going with her. Why is that? Feelings!
That was an extreme example just to get you to fathom that feelings are really all that matters to us in each moment. It is not money or possessions. Although, those can make you "feel" a certain way.
Are you with me on this?
No?
Oh you want to know a bit about the difference between Feelings and Emotions?
Okay, so for the record, according to me, Feelings usually last much longer than Emotions. They are a form of residual gut instinct that nags at your mind keeping you in a certain mental state. These states can feel good or they can feel bad. Many people use drugs to get them into a state of feeling good ... and then it wears out and they want to feel like that again and again.
Emotions, again according to my personal definition, are more temporary. A slap in the face brings on the emotion of feeling angry and it usually dissipates after a short while. However emotions can turn into long term feelings. For example, if that slap is as a result of daily repetitive abuse then that will make the victim feel bad.
You tend to be able to remain aware of Emotions and can consciously change your mood. However, "Feelings" can slip through the mental net and lie in your subconscious niggling you.
Basically "Feelings" are the dominant mental state that will effect your daily outlook.
Hopefully you now agree that feelings are important.
Now you agree. Let's get to the "You feel like what you watch on TV" part.
The other night I watched a famous cult Charles Bronson film called Death Wish. It is basically about something horrific happening to someone he loves and then he goes and takes revenge. I don't recommend it if you want to feel happy.
After I had finished watching the film I had to go and collect my daughter from work. She works part time in a pub to save some money before university. Whilst I was parked in the street outside the pub, I found myself feeling really on edge. Everyone I saw walking past I thought they were going to pull out a weapon and attack me.
Obviously I was able to realise that it was all because of the film I had just watched. But most importantly, I did not like how I was feeling. I had picked my daughter up many times before and never felt like that. It was all down to the film I had just watched.
The reality is that you will feel like what you watch.
Knowing this gives you a great power. You have the power to choose to watch things that make you feel good.
Avoid anything with killing, or at least fast forward those horrible scenes.
I understand that you will probably be thinking you still want to see all of your favourite shows, like Vikings or Black Mirror. Okay, I get it. If that is the case and you cannot cut out all violent and negative films, then please do the following...
Make sure that you limit your watching time of the bad stuff. Keep the awareness in your mind that you are being affected by what you watch and it will have an effect on how you feel.
I recommend that if you go out somewhere, that you watch something more in tune with what you are going out to do. For example, if you are going out in the evening for a bite to eat, then watch something funny that makes you feel in a smiley mood.
The main point of this post that will change your life is being aware that what you watch will make you feel the same.
I won't start on how TV also hypnotises you to think a certain way, I think I have said enough, I will leave that for another post. And I won't mention what watching the news does to your wellbeing, although I think you can work that one out.
Take care of yourself today. Let me leave you with something that will make you feel good:
Be honest, you feel good, don't you!
Author: Christian Jacques Bennett*
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Search Terms: Science, Mental Health, Happy, Happiness, Thoughts, Thinking, Wellness, Kindness, Peace, Psyche, Psychology.
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