The world is thoroughly inundated with Corona-virus news, rumor, conspiracy theory (no, 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19) and vital information. Each choice you make is flooding into your consciousness via televisions, smartphones, newspapers,talk radio and social media apps. All of this negative news is bound to take its toll on your mindset and outlook – unless you do something about it!
That something is to TAKE CONTROL and make better choices to control the messaging coming into your psyche! A lot of the problem is that we are creatures of habit. Whether you subscribe to MSNBC, CNN or FOX, you are probably locked in for 3 – 5 hours each day of COVID-19 programming. You can’t control the programming but you can control your eyes and ears.
Let’s take a page out of the smoking cessation playbook. The most successful way to break a habit is to make the choice to change the habit. If you are like me, you probably don’t do well with mindless, laugh-track driven sit-coms that dominate the networks, so what is an inquiring mind to do to change the quality of the media consumption?
Catch a Movie
If you want to keep the television on, may I suggest you take the time to view the movie classics that put Hollywood on the map! There are no shortages of top movie lists and each has its own particular slant. Here are the 5 Classic Movies I will be revisiting this month:
- Citizen Kane (9 Academy Award Nominations / 1 Win)
- Casablana (8 Nominations / 3 Wins)
- Roman Holiday (10 Nominations / 3 Wins)
- All About Eve (14 Nominations / 6 Wins)
- Sunset Boulevard (11 Nominations / 3 Wins)
- Bonus Recommendation: Forrest Gump (13 Nominations / 6 Wins)
Tell Me A Story
If you want to break away from and/or reduce your screen time, let’s talk about podcasts. There are amazing shows that challenge your comfort zones, expand your horizons and nurture your intellect. Again, while there are thousands of programs to choose from, these are 5 that I subscribe to and highly recommend:
- Snap Judgement (website)
- This American Life (website)
- Good One (website)
- Hidden Brain (website)
- Revisionist History (website)
- Bonus Recommendation: American History Tellers (website)
Reading Is Fundamental
This final suggestion to change your media consumption habits during this Corona Virus period is to go old school and grab a good book. I’m not suggesting any regular reading list… No, these are my picks for deep, challenging, and engaging reads:
- Remembrance Of Earth’s Past (Liu Cixin)
- Infinite Jest (Wallace)
- Shogun (Clavell)
- Sacred Games (Chandra)
- Underworld (DeLillo)
- Bonus Recommendation: War and Peace (Tolstoy)
You are in control of your decisions and your actions. During this difficult time, do yourself and your mindset a favor and make a better choice! Please feel free to click through and check out the resources we used to make this blog post happen:
https://www.vulture.com/2016/11/long-books-worth-your-time.html
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/21-books-youve-been-meaning-to-read
https://m.imdb.com/list/ls055592025/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/
Keep your distance, be kind and stay safe!
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