How Entertainment Can Be Meditation
WHY should you care: If you’re reading this, it means you are committed to reaching your full potential and developing yourself. Often times, those of us who live life with that mindset tend to overwork ourselves until we can’t anymore. We shut out all “wasteful” activities because those are for the less productive and inspired people in the world. But maybe those activities have a time and a place. Maybe they can help relax our minds, recharge our batteries, and set us up for greater success. If you want/ need more relaxation in your life, this is for you.
WHERE I learned this from: Grandmaster Chris Berlow’s Mindful Meditation For Busy Lives. It’s a great book about active meditation that I would recommend to anyone looking to live a life of mindfulness.
HOW it’s done: I want to start off by saying that too much entertainment, whether it be movies, Netflix, social media, sports, etc, is not good and can severely hinder your chances at succeeding in life. However, if used in the right quantity, entertainment can serve as a great tool to refuel and re-energize yourself. The key here is the attitude you bring towards the entertainment. If you habitually come home from work, turn on the TV, and stare at it for 4 hours saying no more than 10 words to your family, that is not meditative entertainment. The entertainment must serve a purpose in your life, whether it be learning something new, having a laugh after a hard day, or just a brief escape from reality, you must consciously view your entertainment as such for it to be meditative. It can’t just be what you do when you’re bored.
You must also give it your full attention. There’s a reason movie theaters ask you to shut off your phones. Part of it is out of respect to the other guests, but another part is to “force” you to be fully present in the film. You cannot use entertainment as meditation by switching back and forth between the movie and Instagram. You must wholly embrace the entertainment, given your intent, and lose yourself in it. We have all experienced that sense of total engagement with great movies (such as Avengers: Endgame). It is by giving up ourselves entirely, for that set amount of time, to whatever the entertainment is, that we make it a meditation, thereby allowing our mind to breathe. This can help us feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle all that we must in the days to come. Again, this process only works with the right intent and focus, in moderation.
Let us know what you think and what other topics you’re interested in! Give this tip a try and see how different entertainment becomes for you!