Its easy to get stuck in a rut especially if doing so means you can lay around and live life easy without any hard work and still have a roof over your head and food in you mouth at the end of the day. being incarcerated can make you lazy. you wake up do the same routine, see the same people, and watch the telelvision. then the day come when its time to pack up and leave. now i see that if you dont make a conscious effort to prepare yourself for the outside world by choosing to educate yourself with the amount of time given your attempt a reintergration into society will not be successful. i have seen many come back on violation or with new charges within weeks of getting out then jump right back into the same routine they did before they left. they get complacent with prison providing everything they need for basic survival.
to embrace the idea to change how we feel and think about what life has to offer then we can see that there is more than just existing until the next meal or the next episode of your favotrite show. if you can teach yourself to stqrt reaching for something higher than what everyone else is doing than that first step can take you on a journey that will change everything in your life. i decided in 2013 not to habitually watch television anymore because it was taking control of my life. i would watch the same show everyday, “Jerry Springer”, and get into my negative emotions if i couldnt watch it because someone else wanted to watch something different. i would go so far as to get into physical altercations over shows i wanted to see regardless of anyone else. my health suffered because i would sit for hours and eat unhealthy food during the program. i would stay up all night listening to the t.v. with my headphones on and be exhausted at work. so one day i chose to stop my devotion to television in order to better my mental and physical health. also because i was missing out on getting to know people who i could learn things from by social interaction. i could go to the library and read educational material they dont have on t.v. and i believe that this decision has made me a better person and kept me out of trouble especially when fights start over what to watch and noone can agree.
i embraced this change with the idea that the time i spent watching telvision could be better spent getting ready for my release date.
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