Improving the mind

 One of the things that happened this year is that we elected a new president. Tr*mp has been president for 4 years and it has literally been a nightmare. I have not been able to understand or reason out why people that I know, intelligent, caring people, like this guy. He is a liar. He is a misogynist. He is a sexist. And that is just to name a few. He has manipulated people to believe what he wants them to believe and I don't understand at all. 

One of the things I have been working on this year, and for a while now, is to improve my mind. To not just accept things but to question and evaluate them. No only what I read and hear, but also what I think. I have spent a long time working on seeing my thoughts and not just letting them control me. Towards that end, I have watched a few things recently that has really exposed some things I kind of knew about but also highlighted that I was correct in a lot of my thinking. 

First, I watched The Reagans. It was a 4-part series on Ronald Reagan. Wow!!! I remember voting for him and how popular he was with most of the country. Now, looking back through the lens of 40ish years and the moron in the White House now, I see how bad he truly was. I can see the damage he did to this country and it makes me sad. 

Next up was the Social Dilemma. I knew that social media was manipulating us. I knew that they targeted ads and what we see based on clicks we made, but I guess I didn't realize the extent of it and how much they were controlling me. 

For me, knowledge is power. Once I know something is happening and why, I can work to change it. So I'm going to stay off FB today. I'm going to see just how hard it is for me to stay away from it. I started to go through my friends list and unfollow everyone, but that became far too tedious. I'm going to have to unfriend them as they come up. Staying off FB should literally free up hours of my day. I turned the notifications off months ago and that was a good move. This should be an even better move.    

I'm also going to allow time for reading each day. I haven't been reading much in the past few years and I think a large part of that is due to social media and the computer. I'm going to spent some time each day reading. I love reading. I love books. I love getting lost in a good story. Time to get back to that. 

Okay, that's all I have. I must say, I really enjoy blogging/journaling/whatever you want to call it. I love it. It feels good to be back.