I'm feeling particularly chipper today and I'm going to put it down to the breakfast I just had. I seriously recommend it!! Grate a small apple and half a beetroot into a saucepan and cook up with a smidgen of butter. Then add a sliced banana and stir a little. Mix in five tablespoons of oats and a heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder. Add sufficient milk/milk substitute and leave to bubble. Top with flaked almonds. You will have a deliciously dark purple porridge that will fill you to the brim and make you feel fantastic. Just like this.
You KNOW she had a good breakfast.
Anyway, back to the vocabulary challenge :) I have been doing my half an hour stint on vocabulary.com daily (although sometimes I only manage twenty minutes - it can be rather grueling) and I think it's helpful. It's made me start to look at how words are constructed, which means I can now start to work out what a word means when I've never heard it before. Nailing down the words is mostly a process of repetition, and aside from some website issues (quite a few of the multiple choice questions don't really have a correct answer, more like a synonym than a definition) I think it works pretty well. It's reignited my interest in language and words which is always nice.
The 'word of the day' story I am not so happy with. I thought giving myself a whole paragraph per word would make it more challenging, but actually it's making it easier for me to skate around to make sense of the wacky words I am using - resulting in something much less fun than I intended. So I have decided to back peddle a bit and do one line per word - which should mean I end up with a fun, nonsensical very short story/poem that is a bit less contrived. So I need to go back and do that for the eight words I have so far, and then from today I shall stick with that plan.
The reading element of my challenge is FANTASTIC! Reading is one of my favorite things to do, but often at the end of the day it seems so much easier to just switch on the telly. But as I learned from October's Challenge of Cutting Down TV and Facebook, watching T.V can drain so much time, when you could have been achieving things! And too much sitting around and staring at the screen can make you feel A Bit Shitty.
Now I am a great lover of good T.V and Cinema, but it's all about finding that balance, and sometimes I think you have to give yourself a little push and say 'no, I'm gonna read instead.' A lot of the time it just feels like you don't want to put in the extra effort that reading requires. But in fact, once you get going, it's really not that hard! It's like running - the hardest part is putting on your shoes and getting out of the door. Motivation is key.
Unfortunately, since October, I have fallen easily into watching T.V again. But this challenge, forcing me to read, has reminded me that ultimately I would like to end up spending more of my 'down time' reading than watching T.V. Why? Because it's simply better for your brain. It's actually more relaxing. It might not seem like it at first: but here is why.
The phrase 'T.V rots your brain' might seem like a parental trick to get us moving - akin to 'eating your crusts gives you curly hair' (My sister always ate her crusts and I didn't for a long time. My hair is curly and hers is straight. MYTH BUSTED) but actually it's a pretty accurate description. When you watch T.V you are allowing your brain to make almost no effort. You're kind of vegetating. And the brain is sort of like a muscle in that it needs to be put to good use to develop further. So any form of vegetating should really be kept to a minimum.
But we all need a rest now and again, right? The problem is, watching T.V isn't really rest. When you sleep, your brain is getting proper rest and time to recuperate. But when you watch T.V, your brain might not be doing much work but it IS being stimulated. The flashing colours and lights are creating a little chemical party in your head. If you watch too much T.V, you get used to the lightening fast stimulation, and you adjust yourself to it, resulting in a shorter attention span overall.
I myself experienced this yesterday. I had a really productive morning, and then I watched some T.V over lunch and suddenly my focus was all over the place. Not good.
The most significant thing T.V does to your brain chemically is it suppresses your Melatonin. Melatonin is basically a hormone that helps you to sleep. Any kind of light suppresses it. That's why it's so much easier to wake up in the summer when the sun is out. It means that we as humans are diurnal animals - we sleep in the dark and are active in the day. But studies have shown that blue light - light from laptop screens, phones and other electronics, is even more effective at suppressing Melatonin, which makes it harder to sleep in the hours after you've been exposed to it. This is not good news for people who's evening routine involves a lot of T.V - their version of 'rest' is actually having a negative impact on their real rest.
Most of us will be effected by this because the last thing we do is set our alarms on our phones. I've been told a good method is to plan what time you're going to bed, and an hour before set your alarm so it's done, and turn off all your electrics. It's supposed to really improve your quality of sleep. I can believe this actually, some of the best sleeps of my life have been when I've been camping and have had no electronics around. Worth a try, I reckon.
Anyway, that's the downside of T.V. Now for the benefits of books.
Books stimulate your mind in a different way, You are gently working your brain when you read, but only mildly, like a nice stroll in the park. This means you can both relax and strengthen your brain at the same time. And you're getting much the same entertainment value (if not more) as when you watch T.V. There is no story told on film that hasn't also been written down in some way. And with books, you need to use your imagination a little bit too.
So it seems that if you replaced all your T.V time with reading time, you would still have had some entertainment and escapism, AND you would also have a better exercised and therefore better functioning brain, better quality sleep, a wider vocabulary, and a strengthened imagination. Reading really is coming out on top here.
HOWEVER. I am not for a minute suggesting that anyone forgoes all T.V and Film and replaces it all with books. Like I say, it's all about balance. There are some things books can not do. If, like me, you love a visual story with good direction, script writing, cinematography, maybe some animation and some cracking acting, then you need to watch some T.V and Film.
But perhaps that should be a checklist. Quality control. Twin Peaks (my current favourite show) certainly ticks some of those boxes. Eastenders? Not so much. But maybe it does for some people. Each to their own.
My point is, if you are going to put up with all the negative effects of T.V, then you should at least make sure that what your watching is worth it. If not, and all you want is a bit of relaxing entertainment. Then pick up that book. You're much better off.
Because basically, books are ace.
Twenty more days!
