The holidays can be some of the happiest times of the year for many people, but
they can also be stressful and exhausting! Preparing the holiday dinner, prepping the house for guests, buying holiday gifts for the family and friends—sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming. But what if we could eliminate some of that stress by making our Thanksgiving gatherings and the holiday season a little more mindful?
In our fast-paced world, there’s one thing that’s starting to slow down: television. Have you ever dreamed of taking a long journey by train, but just couldn’t afford to take the time off of work for such an adventure? Or maybe you’d love to see the world by boat, but get a terrible sea sickness? Now, you can experience these things without leaving the comfort of your living room couch thanks to Slow TV.
Slow TV is newly popularized genre of television that’s gained popularity in Norway and has been brought to the United States with a little help from Netflix. Slow TV gets its name from the pace of the programming as well as the length; the longest broadcast on record is 136 hours (over 5.5 days), but most can last between 3-12 hours.
Distraction isn’t something new, throughout history humans have always been faced with distraction, but today it seems as though distraction has become a bigger issue. But why is that? A large part of it is due to technology, something that’s supposed to make our lives easier—and often times succeeds—also has the ability to make life harder by being such a huge distractor in our everyday lives.
When a notification pops up on your phone (a feature that’s supposed to be helpful) while you’re in the middle of an important task, or even in the middle of a family dinner, do you check it? If you’re like most people, then the answer is probably yes, even if for just a moment.
We all want to eat healthier, right? But sometimes it can be hard; cravings happen, we over eat—we aren’t always aware of what we’re putting in our bodies. How many times have you been craving sweets and mindlessly threw a candy bar in your cart while grocery shopping, or grabbed a handful of chips simply because you were bored and snacking gave you something to do?
Copyright 2020 Technology for Mindfulness
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