You Are What You Watch … And Read … And Listen To …

scott moore yoga

We are consuming all.  day.  long. 

I’m not just talking about food and drink. 

We consume a smorgasbord of media, including social media, music, TV, movies/shows, radio, advertisements, news, podcasts, and books, etc. 

I think that most of the time we don’t even realize the amount or quality of the pervasive media constantly surrounding us nor its effect that it might be having on our energy—our mood, vitality, and outlook on life. 

What if we could compare the quality of media we are consuming to food choices?

Here’s my Media/Food list:

News: Coffee

  • A shot will wake you up and might start your day

  • You could probably live without it

  • Too much will make your hands shake and keep you up at night 

Opinion Shows Thinly Masquerading As “News”: Red Bull

  • Nobody needs it

  • Shoots you full of adrenaline

  • Causes you to be aggressive and do stupid things 

  • Makes you feel uncomfortable to be around people and makes people feel uncomfortable to be around you

  • illicits suspicion

  • Sets you up for a massive crash

Raunchy Shows: Denny’s or Village Inn 

  • Appeals to our most base desires

  • Serves little or nothing healthy or substantive 

  • Friends don’t let friends consume it on a regular basis

  • Sound good only when you’ve been up all night

NPR: Wine

  • Can appear to be erudite

  • Bitter/sweet 

  • May contain additives 

  • Can be habit-forming

  • Too much will give you a headache

Nature Documentaries: Salad

  • Green 

  • Nourishing 

  • Makes you appreciate the incredible diversity and flavors of this amazing earth

  • Will inspire you make you care about keeping the earth clean and pure

  • Will inspire you to grow a garden


Rumi: Dates

  • Naturally sweetens everything

  • A wonder of this world

Mary Oliver: Olive Tapenade

  • Flavorful 

  • Goes well with almost everything 

  • A great way to start a conversation 

  • Insatiable

Wendell Berry: Berries (obvs)

  • Organic

  • Earthy

  • Sweet

  • Delicious

  • Makes you appreciate your connection to the earth

Airplane Movies: Airplane food

  • Intolerable but it’s incredible how low your standards get when you’re bored 

Instagram: Sour Patch Kids

  • Slightly addictive 

  • A guilty pleasure

  • Can give you a canker

  • Makes you pucker 

  • Likely to cause ducklips 

Facebook: Dorritos

  • Processed

  • Engineered 

  • Will likely kill you with overexposure

  • Served in social settings

Death Metal: Jagermeister

  • A shot once in a while will rock your soul 

  • Excessive exposure could prove darken your soul

Jazz: Oysters

  • Classic

  • Refined 

  • Might be an acquired taste

Netflix: Pizza

  • Mostly junk

  • Often cheezy

  • Can leave you feeling heavy and bloated

  • Best when experienced outdoors on a summer evening

Books: Vitamins

  • Improves your brain function 

  • Must be disciplined to get regular doses

  • Makes you smarter


What are your your media to food comparisons? I’d love to hear your ideas. 

 

Are you consuming junk all day long and wondering why you’re feeling terrible so often?

I invite you to be conscious of the media you’re exposed to and to explore giving yourself a healthy “diet” media diet. 

Here’s a list of just a few of my favorite media picks that I feel are uplifting, inspirational, and will help you tend to your subtle body. I’d love to hear yours.

Books:

  • The Book of Delights by Ross Gay

  • Life Visioning (on Audible) by Dr. Michael Beckwith (LOVE this book!!! Just finished it for the 4th time.)

  • When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön

  • A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemingway

  • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

  • Loving What Is by Byron Katie

  • The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea

  • The Need To Be Whole by Wendell Berry

  • All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

  • US by Terry Real

  • No Death No Fear Thich Nhat Hanh

  • 5-Minute Manifesting Journal  by yours truly (just sayin’)

  • Practical Yoga Nidra by yours truly (also, just sayin’)

  • The Creative Act by Rick Rubin

  • Badass Habits by Jen Sincero

  • The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks

Poetry

  • Anything by Mary Oliver, especially Why I Wake Early

  • The Gift: Poems by Haffiz The Great Sufi Master by Daniel Ladinsky

  • Love Poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky

  • Sabbaths by Wendell Berry

  • Prayers Not Meant for Heaven by SLC’s own Nan Seymour 

Podcasts

  • On Being

  • The Rich Roll podcast

  • The Moth

  • The Happiness Lab

  • Be Antiracist

Streaming

  • A Trip to Infinity

  • Beethoven’s Night Symphony for the World

  • How to Change Your Mind

  • Our Universe

  • Cosmos: A Spacetime Oddyssey 

Music (Everyone’s tastes are different but here’s what I’ve been enjoying)

  • Ordet by Bremer/McCoy

  • Over Tage by Svaneborg Kardyb

  • In Movement by Jack DeJohnette

  • Kind of Blue by Miles Davis

  • That’s Where It’s At by Stanley Turrentine

  • Motherland by Khatia Buniatishvili

  • Rachmaninov: Vespers

  • Three Little Words by Dominique Fils-Aimé

  • The Love Window by Shantala

Media Fast

I’ve got an idea: What would it be like to create your own media fast? 

Perhaps you choose to have a week without Netflix, or at least a week without the crap you know you could live without. Maybe you do a week without social media. I know many people who choose to have a day where they unplug from media completely or just read books. 

Either way, I invite you to look at the media you’re consuming to better understand how it’s shaping you into the person you are and practice responsible media consumption.