I love watching reality TV. My husband hates it because he says it teaches other people to act that way in real life. I know that even though it is called “reality” they make a lot of it up for ratings. But, anyway, it has been a guilty pleasure.
The last couple of weeks I have been busy and haven’t been watching as much TV. Before, I would stay up past everyone else saying I just needed some time to myself. My boys decided a few weeks ago that they wanted to start working out at the gym in the mornings and they needed a driver. This meant that I needed to go to bed earlier so staying up late to watch TV was no longer an option. (I didn’t want to leave my kids hanging at 5:30 am)
The last couple of weeks it has been amazing the things I have been able to accomplish. And I felt so good; not only physically, because I did workout with them since I was at the gym anyway, but mentally as well. Sunday night my hubby did an overnight work trip so I stayed up late and watched some TV. Because I stayed up late I didn’t get up Monday morning to work out. Then because I didn’t work out I decided I should just watch some more TV and relax. This week is going to be another busy week and this morning was the only one I would have to myself. (That is how I justify my lazy TV time.)
However, as the morning went on I got more and more anxious. My thoughts and feelings kept spiraling down and I felt horrible. My energy level was so low I just kept sitting there even though I knew I needed to do other things. Physically I was reverting to the anxiety ball that I go into when an anxiety attack is coming. I knew it was because I was sitting around but I didn’t want to move.
Although I always knew intellectually that too much TV was not good for me I never made the connection to how much it affected my mental health until today. I just felt horrible and the longer I sat there the worse it got and the less I wanted to move. It was a horrible downward spiral that I finally broke by getting up and moving.
Now I am going to be more careful with my TV time. I need some suggestions for self care that will actually help me relax but not start a downward spiral. What do you do when you know you need to take care of yourself? Thank you in advance for your help!
