I think the fear of change can show itself in many ways.  A fear of change can stop a person from expanding their knowledge base.  While listening to internet radio I was watching what the chat line participants were saying and I was reminded of an old belief when one of the participants wrote on the chat she doesn’t read, she doesn’t have time.  That statement really made me think about if you don’t have time to read then what do you spend time on doing during your waking hours that does expand your mind and hopefully improve your quality of life?  This led me to start asking people if they read.  The answers I received were that the people did not have time to read, they spent their free time watching television, not expanding their minds. 

From my small survey on “do you read” I discovered people were not reading they were watching television.  In fact about twenty percent of the people I asked said they only watched educational programs, science, history, travel programs and foreign news.  Another twenty five percent said they watched national news, weather, sports, survival programs, science fiction and market analysis.  The highest ranking was thirty percent saying they watched early morning news, talk shows, soap operas, cooking shows, biography, PBS, comedy shows, self help and documentaries.  The remaining twenty five percent said they watched entertainment shows, history, reality shows, porn, crime shows, musical shows and movies.  I realized from hearing the answers that people desire to be entertained rather than educated.  And by being entertained every day and by doing the same things each day people stay in a rut, if you stay in a rut you are in fear.  If the creative brain is not being stimulate, the longer the person continues in this way the longer the fear of change will control the life.  In order to change the reality new knowledge needs to be taken in.  And although there are many wonderful educational programs on television there is a limit of what you can learn since you are not choosing the curriculum or the teacher.  There is a great deal more information available to expands one’s mind and improve one’s life other then scripted television.

It amazed me that when I spoke to people about how they are entertaining themselves and that they didn’t have any problems with watching programs with high levels of aggression, name calling, bullying or teasing.  They were not really concerned about what type of programming went into their computer brains.  Nor were they interested much in expanding their knowledge base, instead they said when they get bored they will try something else for entertainment.  So I came away thinking my next survey will be on “how can learning be entertaining?”  And if you have any ideas drop me a line on what it would be.  drcj@emotionalhealer.com