Feeling a little down? Haven’t been as up beat as you normally would or should be? OR, do you want to feel better about… EVERYTHING?  Here’s a tip….

STEP AWAY FROM THE TELEVISION…

Check this out from RealAge: http://www.realage.com/ct/tips/8755

In analyzing 30 years worth of data collected from a national social-survey database as well as other previous studies, researchers found that people who considered themselves unhappy tended to watch significantly more TV than those who said they were very happy. Higher-spirited folks, they found, spent more time on other types of hobbies, including mingling with friends and family members, reading newspapers, and attending religious services.

To me, on the surface, this appears as a “chicken or the egg” scenario. Do you watch more television because you are bored, don’t have enough hobbies, and have a general poor disposition on life, or did you watch television, get sucked in, forget your hobbies, and then form a poor disposition on life? I think it’s the former rather than the later, and yet (!) I believe this is a good reminder for all of us to take an accounting of our life’s activities, reflect on those activities that our propelling us forward on the path where we want to be, and discarding those activities that are holding us back. If you watch television in place of furthering your education, talking with your children, helping a neighbor, working in your community, etc, maybe this isn’t the best use of your idle time. If television is your short break to escape for a few minutes, maybe you are using your time wisely, but you need to make that call. If you are questioning whether “there is something more in…”, the answer is “YES”, and you should find out what is holding you back. IT may be as simple as turning off the tube and opening a book.