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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesCoach Paradise: Changing the Channel

Coach Paradise: Changing the Channel

Dear Coach Paradise,
I know people who never read newspapers and who never watch television, and I have always thought of them as ostriches – hiding from the "real world.”
I used to pride myself on reading (scanning) the NY Times, cover to cover, keeping up with the latest TV news, my favorite shows and sampling the latest media offerings. The NY Times costs too much in the V.I., I don’t always get the local Daily News, and I have been feeling like I watch too much mindless TV.
I have become really aware how I can become sad or depressed or upset about a TV show or something or someone that I don’t know or truly care about. I do want to be a caring citizen of the world and try and make things better, but I am wondering if reading and watching the news and watching TV is really bad for me and all those ostriches were right all along. Don’t I need my daily dose of the “real world” to stay connecte,d instead of believing that this tropical paradise is all that there is?
Signed,
OD’d on media
Dear OD’d,
Even if you decide to revamp your newspaper/TV diet, I hope that you will continue to connect to the Source and to whatever you decide is of benefit to you and enhances your life. This is the question I “hear” you asking, and it is related to the decluttering that my readers have been asking about over the past few columns. Inner decluttering has to do with freeing up energy so you can direct it toward improving your life and the lives of others and to simply feeling better.
Thomas Leonard (the father of coaching) speaks of “superconductivity” as a great metaphor. He says that less resistance equals greater efficiency and that you can look forward to experiencing a kind of personal superconductivity in your life as you begin to rid yourself of patterns and habits that keep you from “feeling totally attractive to yourself.”
I think that it would be worth looking at the paper and watching TV in this light. The fact that you are asking this questions tells me you are ready to shift your attention to something more positive (productive, creative etc…) and have taken that big first step, which is noticing and observing.
There is a lot of literature about the negative effects of too much (or any) TV on children and adults, including overstimulation and passivity. There is also talk of content – too much violence and sex and focus on “bad” news. There is not as much talk about how spending time in the virtual reality of TV and newspaper land, even if the subject is “reality” deprives us of the opportunity to feel and experience our own, in the present realities.
You are barking up the right tree here – wanting to stay intimately connected to yourself and to your inner guidance system. It is only from that place that you will be able to make informed and clearheaded decisions about what content you will let in and how much you are willing to have your heartstrings plucked by distant or packaged events. You are the only one who can decide how much you need or want to know about world affairs and in what form. You can be an active searcher of information rather than a passive recipient.
People who give up their cable contracts or the habit of reading the papers report increased time and energy for reading, spending time with their families, exercising and watching movies that they select as having value. I would add that getting rid of this habit would help you to know what your real feelings are at any given minute and to be in a better position to shift your attention to what you want to see expand in your world – your choice, your channel.
To changing the channel,
Coach Paradise
Editor's note: Coach Paradise (AKA Anne Nayer), Professional Life Coach, is a member of the International Coaching Federation, an MSW clinical social worker-psychotherapist and a medical case manager with 30 years experience working with people of all shapes, sizes and challenges.
For further information about her services, call 774-4355 or email her.

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