Oh, you think not? Are you addicted? Mesmerized? Just stuck in a rut?

Well, then, “Drop the Remote and Back Away from the Television!”

Do you also complain about being too busy? No time to exercise, or read, or work on the projects you enjoy?

Some people are genuinely busy. Others…well, consider that the average US adult watches five hours of television per day, not including services such as Netflix and streaming video, web surfing, and other passive screen-focused entertainments. For retirees, it’s worse: the average retiree in the US watches 43 hours of television per week. That means that a full-time job was replaced with full-time television viewership. Is your extra time stuck, as my husband would say, “right behind the television?”

If you are watching more than an hour or so a day of television on average, you are inviting dissatisfaction and unhappiness into your home from two angles. First, you are using time for passive entertainment that could otherwise be spent enriching your life. You could be walking, reading, conversing, creating, dancing, or playing, but instead you are sitting there, being fed a diet of stimuli especially designed to make you unhappy. Advertisements point out how miserable your sorry life really is, and the shows themselves are full of people who seem to be beautiful and competent. No one on television is wearing three-year old fashions (unless they are the butt of jokes) or surreptitiously using a permanent laundry marker to touch up scuffed dress shoes. Plenty of real people live that way, and they watch television and can’t help but begin to imagine that what they see there is real.

If you’re the average American, imagine how much happiness you may find in the 35 hours per week hiding with the dust bunnies behind your television. No, I’m not a “television hater,” but I do have a lot of things I’d rather do with my free time.

Can you generate a list of at least 20 things you can do in the place of television? Things you’d like to do? Make them realistic, free or nearly so, and fun! The list should include things you could do when you’d otherwise watch television. For example, at 10:30 at night you aren’t likely to go walking around the park. It’s not recommended; you need activities you could do, safe at home in your pajamas. For example: read a book; write a note to a family member; listen to a learn-a-language CD (you probably have one you have been trying to ignore!); dig out your old art or craft supplies; brush the dog or cat; read to your kids; go for a walk; dance; sit outside and do nothing; go to the library; color on the driveway with chalk…

Keep the list handy, and then cut back to two hours or less per day. When you cut back, make notes to yourself about how it feels: are you anxious? Edgy? Bored?

You are not going to feel instantly happier, but you will be creating opportunities for some elements of happiness to enter your life.