happiness

Is it OK to Binge Watch Netflix?

NETFLIX

Good morning Loves.  As you know from my post on Monday I love being at home.  There is nothing better than waking up on a Sunday morning and just laying around my apartment in my pyjamas watching Netflix.  That’s OK right?

I absolutely love Netflix.  It has great classic as well as new movies, we can watch entire seasons of TV shows and it’s only $8 a month.  I mean seriously how great is that?  This past Sunday I watched Pretty Woman, Enough Said and Easy A.  Where else can you watch unlimited television and movies for a fixed monthly price? Nowhere that I know of.

There’s a difference between going on a binge and taking a break

I don’t feel very productive when I binge watch Netflix, but to tell you the truth I don’t really care.  I usually work long hours (until after 11 pm most nights) so sometimes instead of working I lay around in my pyjamas.  Do you ever do that?

I think the real question we have to ask ourselves is what is binge watching Netflix really doing to our health?  Binge behaviour of any kind can definitely be harmful to both our physical and mental health.  I think shutting yourself off from the world to stay in bed and watch movies is OK on an occasional Sunday, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.

Is binge watching part of a bigger problem?

Bad habits are hard to break.  Trust me I know.  I eat compulsively, or at least I used to.  I have an obsessive compulsive personality so when I like something I get fixated on it and do it in excess until I absolutely can’t stand it anymore.  Some may call it just a habit, but trust me it’s much more than that.

That’s why I don’t allow myself to turn on Netflix during the week, because I will literally drop everything I need to do and forget about all my obligations to lay in bed and watch movies.  That’s a very bad habit to break.

Of course I would love to come home from work and just relax all evening, but that’s just not my life.  There are rooms that need to be cleaned, work that needs to get done and blog posts that need to be created.

How to break a bad habit?

I like my routine and it’s very hard to break.  If I have an idea in my head I’m the type of person who won’t be able to concentrate on anything else until I accomplish it.  This is true for everything in my life from the little things like getting a bagel for breakfast to the bigger tasks such as planning a vacation.  I just get restless and completely distracted if I don’t get things done.

So how am I trying to overcome my shortcomings? By taking them (or should I say breaking them) one day at a time.  I used to be so focused on buying my morning bagel from this one place that I would get off the bus in the rain to avoid breaking my routine.

I find that bad habits are much more mental than they are physical.  I started by skipping my bagel one morning and after a couple of weeks I didn’t miss it anymore.  Then I added in an extra day and now I only stop there twice a week.  The key to breaking bad habits is to take them one step at a time, don’t try to change too much at once because that will just never work.

Photo from Flick

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