So I watched the premiere of NBC’s SMASH last Monday.  I expect it was the first of many episodes I’ll see.  It’s the first show on at 9:00 p.m. that I’ve been able to watch in YEARS.

For years, the only shows on at 9:00 p.m. were about murder and homicidal maniacs.  Why??  Why are these shows so compelling?  I don’t know but they are.  There have been short spurts where I’ve have been sucked in.  I always stop watching after a few episodes because when I sleep at night I KNOW there is someone lurking inside my house, or I KNOW there is someone outside my house waiting to steal my children.

I get so paranoid from the things I see.  Shortly after the birth of my first child, I started watching all the seasons of Alias with Jennifer Garner.  Remember that one?  It was such a good show and I REALLY enjoyed watching it.  However, during the several months it took me to watch all the episodes, I KNEW that everyone around me was a spy.  I’d pull up to an intersection in my car and see someone in the Jeep Cherokee next to me and I KNEW they were on some super-secret mission.

Anyway…when I gave those shows up I wasn’t nearly so paranoid.  We really are victims of what we put ourselves in front of.  Negative will yield negative. Paranoid will yield paranoid.  Positive will yield positive.

Decide how you want to feel and surround yourself with that kind of stuff.  Every Fourth of July, we surround ourselves with patriotic stuff and guess how we feel? Patriotic, that’s right.  You can see from these photos that we REALLY get into the holiday.  It’s a little ridicuous, I know. But it’s really fun and we really enjoy doing it.

My brother was in rut a few years ago and was looking for a new job.  I have always looked up to my brother because there is so much to admire about him.  But, I could tell he just wasn’t himself for several months.  We got to talking one day and he randomly told me that he called his wife every day before he left work because he chose to drive home on a dangerous two lane highway with high speeds to cut his commute time. Although the highway is not super crowded (that’s why he went home that way) it is notorious for severe and fatal accidents.

I advised him to stop going this way.  If it took him an extra 5 or 10 minutes to get home, wasn’t it worth not worrying about dying and leaving his family fatherless.  He stopped taking this highway and just a few weeks later he was feeling lots better. A few weeks after that, he got a great new job.  I’m not saying it’s all related to his cutting out those negative thoughts and behaviors, but it certainly didn’t hurt his psyche, mood and general sense of well-being.

It really is THAT simple.  If you’re in a rut and don’t like the way you’re feeling, change the line-up of WHO you’re with, what you WATCH, where you ARE, and what you HEAR.  Do it for an hour.  A day.  A week.  Try it forever, it’s up to you.

I am telling you, that you are what you surround yourself with.  I REALLY liked SMASH even though the acting left a little to be desired.  I really liked that it was different and there was lots of good music and mainly that it was NOT about MURDER.

If my theory holds true, I probably won’t be worried about intruders, rather I’ll be auditioning on Broadway by the end of the year.  And really why not.  A trip to NYC actually sounds pretty fun.

Update:

March 7, 2012

So i’ve been watching SMASH for several weeks now and I am afraid that it’s just too smutty for me to reccomend.  I do appreciate the great music and the basic story line is very interesting and fun to watch, however I really can’t keep watching the terrible immoral behavior shown in the last two episodes.  Bummer.  I was excited about this show.