An idle mind is the devil’s playground. Have you ever heard of this quote? What does this quote mean? Does it mean that we have to keep ourselves busy all day? Keep ourselves busy so that we won’t do any activities which we will regret? What do you think?
Most people when they have nothing to do (read bored) watch television. While watching television they think, well it is time for a snack. You get yourself a bag of potato chips and finish the whole bag. Instead of finishing a whole bag of potato chips you could have gone for a walk, enjoy the weather or done some small chores. Don’t get me wrong, watching television is not a sin; it can be very relaxing, especially after a hard day working. But at the same time it should not be the only activity (can we call watching television an activity?) we can think of when we are bored. Isn’t it important to trigger our minds once in a while? To learn something new, in order to protect ourselves from the “idle mind”.
Nowadays people are glued to their screens watching one show after another, their mind on zero, forgetting about what goes around them. And then we are complaining that we are too busy and too tired. If we are not watching our television screen we are watching the most popular screens of all, the telephone screen updating our statuses, posting pictures on social media, checking our email making us anti social creatures. Did you know that many people are afraid to call someone; they rather send a text message. (hmmm next blog topic?). Are screens our lifelines?
To prevent an idle mind we should keep learning, keep ourselves busy. And learning doesn’t mean that you have to join a master course. Learning can be done in many ways, by talking to people about various subjects, by watching a gardening tutorial (note: we are using the screen to learn), by reading about various subjects, by joining an art class course. And most important we should teach our kids what they can do when they are bored. Make a list together with your kids, write down what projects they want to do and let them pick one project when they are bored and all they want to do is watching television.
So how do you prevent and idle mind?
(Great way to prevent and idle mind watch cooking videos on YouTube for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDSav_gn_lQ&list=PLrw59gJ6sVyFzXXVQW8dZd6Q0_MTzdYjj&index=1)