Just like making yogurt...

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The great "art" of being part of the 40%...

I read a study that said that eight out of ten people think that television currently takes up a large part of our meals. (source)

As I have lived alone for over 13 years, I had a habit. While in the kitchen preparing a meal, I would immediately reach for the remote control.

This almost instinctive reflex was triggered as soon as I started preparing dinner. It happened much less frequently at breakfast, for example.

This week, as I am preparing for a retreat that I will be going on in the near future, and which I will tell you about in future posts, I decided to take a small step towards introducing something new.

I had the idea of not turning on the TV as soon as I entered the kitchen or sat down to eat dinner.

Initially, it wasn't exactly easy. The superficial silence, of not having an electronic device emitting images and sound into a room, ended up awakening much more than silence.

A few minutes after starting to eat, the thoughts that also arose when I was staring mesmerized at the TV, or simply ignoring it (or so I thought), came with greater intensity. But whereas before these same thoughts were reduced to a small whisper in the back of my mind... now they are left in the wide open space that the absence of other noise allows.

Not having something for the mind to cling to, and thus putting our mind to the test, leads to the fermentation of ideas! Just like milk that is exposed to bacterial activity, our ideas also undergo a transformation. Initially, we notice that the calm we feel when eating, and even when tidying up the kitchen afterwards, spreads through our mind.

Tidying up the kitchen is no longer a sacrifice, but rather a continuation of what we were doing before. The milk ends up turning into yogurt... forgive the comparison, but it's really something similar that happens.

Something that seemed quite fluid and simple takes on another consistency, another flavor, and texture.

I started this small adaptation at the beginning of last week, and I am extremely grateful for having started it. It is fantastic to know that even if I have an idea or concern during that brief period of time, it has the opportunity to generate something different.

The transformation is felt inside, and I think it is also visible on the outside. I feel more relaxed, and I end up falling asleep without any difficulty. My sleep is also of better quality.

What I usually watched during meals was mostly news programs, or even political debates, with various panels. I thought I would miss keeping up to date, but the truth is that the news I stopped consuming as if it were a bag of chips did not affect me, nor do I miss it at all.

The news made me a little anxious, which is what I can now understand.

In addition, and as a complement, I also started not turning on the car radio when driving from home to work or vice versa. In this case, what I consumed was a much more varied selection of music programs, without a particular preference for this or that radio station that plays a certain type of music. Although I prefer to consume less commercial music.

At first, the sound of the tires on the asphalt made quite an impression. Not that my car has a poorly soundproofed interior, but when we turn off a source of distraction, all our senses automatically awaken.

I drive much less automatically, and I can even say with certainty that I am much more attentive to both my driving and that of other drivers, as well as to many details that used to escape me.

There are changes that can be difficult at first, but in the short to medium term, we soon realize the enormous advantages they bring us.

I hope you enjoyed my little reflection for today.