Even with the music on, my eyes were still absorbing the chaos.
If you’d rather watch or listen to this reflection, the YouTube link is available at the bottom of this post.
I was on the treadmill this week at the fitness center, moving at an easy pace, letting my body do what it needed to do.
In front of me were rows of televisions.
One screen showed Customer Wars.
Another, Road Wars.
Another was PD Live.
And then an old episode of COPS.
Everywhere I looked, there was yelling.
Confrontation.
Anger.
What struck me wasn’t any one show.
It was how much anger was present in the room while I was doing something meant to support my health.
I was listening to music, like I usually do.
But even with the music on, my eyes were still absorbing the chaos.
That was the moment I noticed the split.
I had chosen calm in one way, earbuds in and a steady rhythm in my ears, while still taking in something completely different through my eyes.
My body was moving forward, but my nervous system was bracing.
It made me think about how careful many of us are with what we consume physically.
We watch what we eat.
We count steps.
We track progress.
We make small adjustments and hope they add up.
But we can be far less mindful about what we consume emotionally.
What we take in through our eyes.
Through our ears.
Through the stories playing in the background while we are just trying to get through the day.
Our bodies don’t always know the difference.
They don’t draw a clean line between danger happening to us and danger we witness from a distance.
Between conflict we are in and conflict we return to again and again.
The nervous system still responds.
I’m not making a case against television.
And I’m not pretending anger isn’t real. It is.
I’m simply noticing how much of it gets inside us without our permission.
And how that intake can shape how we feel, even when nothing is technically “wrong.”
I finished my workout physically stronger.
And quietly aware that I had been taking in two very different things at the same time.
Lately, I have been sitting with a simple question:
What am I taking in today without noticing?
Not as a rule.
Not as a judgment.
Just as an invitation to pay attention.
Because calm and serenity do not only come from what we do with our bodies.
They also come from what we allow into our minds, again and again, and what we gently choose to turn down.
