I run, because I don’t watch television. I don’t even own one. Getting rid of it, is the best thing I’ve ever done. This year it has been 15 years since I stopped watching television. It still feels like a blessing.
I teach yoga at La Scimmia Yoga, that’s my job. I do yoga. Since I’m running again I do yoga almost every day. Before I started running, I did yoga every day. And I strongly recommend everybody to do either yoga or another sport on a daily basis.
We watch 2,5 hours of television per day
The most asked question I get, is where I find the time to sport every day? The answer is simple; I don’t waste time watching television or spending hours online on social media. Let’s focus on television for now.
Last year, 2021, on average a person in the Netherlands watched 2 hours and 34 minutes of television per day. 2,5 hours! Do you know what you can do with that amount of time? You can run 10 kilometers, do an hour of yoga and you will still have half an hour left.
Not having time is an excuse
Not having time to go for a run, is just an excuse. Time is not the issue, priority is. Maybe when you’re a single mother with 3 children time is an issue, but for most people, no.
Today is a Sunday. I know people who watch on Sunday a football match on television in the morning, two in the afternoon and one in the evening. Yet, they don’t have time to go to the gym or go for a run.
Television is a drug
Television is an addiction. You get home from work, feel tired, sink down on the sofa, switch on the television and that’s it. You’re done for the day. Even if there is nothing on, you still spend the whole evening zapping from one channel to another in the hope to find something to watch.
I know it, I’ve been there. That’s why I don’t have one. It was 2007 and I had just quit my job at the newspaper, because I wanted to travel again. The paper asked me to stay on for another year as a freelancer. I agreed. It gave me the time to sell my house, find some other clients and combine travelling with writing and photography.
No television is a blessing
I sold my house quickly and moved to an old farm where a friend of mine was living. The only problem with that farm; there was no cable television. Back then cable was the way you watched TV.
That problem turned out to be a blessing. Suddenly I had time on my hands in the evening. Time to read, to study, to write. Time to spend time with friends, with my cat. Time to go wake-boarding.
Switch it off
When I returned to the Netherlands, after 9 months in New Zealand, Tonga and San Francisco, I decided not to have a television anymore. I hadn’t missed watching television neither when I didn’t have cable, nor while travelling. So why should I get one again?
Seemingly if I have a television, I’m not able to switch it off. The best way to solve that weakness; not getting one.
I am now without a television for more than 15 years. I haven’t missed it for a day. There are so many other things I can do with my time that I love more. For example; yoga and running. So for me, never again TV.
