Simple pleasures
Hi reader!
I would really like to start this post by introducing myself but my bipolar mind urges me to stay anonymous too. I often find myself in such situations where my mind tends to make a logical and rational decision but my heart yearns to experience the other end of the continuum which no doubt is usually something that seems more fun and guess what, I give in to my desires more often than not. At times I think when do these desires end? Why does the heart desire some things more than the others? When would I have that feeling of having truly experienced what my heart is desiring or have I already felt it and I am just unaware? It's not like I don't know how it feels once desires are fulfilled, that feeling of accomplishment but what I don't understand is when would my heart finally feel free of such desires. Do we as humans ever stop desiring and why is it that we always desire what we don’t have? Well being a student of behavioural sciences I tried to find an explanation as to why I have such desires and why is it so hard to be content with what I have.
It wasn’t hard to understand that my brain is usually seeking one of the most desirable states of mind which is pleasure. It’s quite understandable too because devoid of pleasures any life would be tasteless. Further I learnt the science behind it, how and why we actually feel these pleasures. To be exact, there is dopamine (a neurotransmitter) release that happens in our brain and is mainly responsible for that enjoyable feeling of having pleasures. Once we associate pleasure with any activity our brain starts releasing dopamine every time we perform that activity, this influences us to repeat that behaviour thus creating an endless loop of action and dopamine release. These activities can be anything like eating at our favourite burger joint or having that particular dessert or buying something we have been saving money for or achieving some set targets or having sex or playing sports or they could even be bad behaviour like smoking or substance abuse or alcohol consumption or shoplifitng. Most of the time my brain tends to indulge in such activities which have a higher feeling of pleasure than the ones which are on the lower side.
This eventually resulted in too much dopamine release in my brain but having an excess of anything is never good.I was releasing more dopamine than my body was capable of producing and this resulted in depleting levels of dopamine, so eventually my brain started indulging in activities that were capable of releasing higher levels of dopamine and ignoring those which felt less pleasurable. All of this was happening at such levels of my consciousness that I didn’t realise something was not right. I was doing stuff that made me feel good and eventually my daily routine was lined up with activities that were all fun.Then one day in the recent past I came across this term “Dopamine detox” and wondered why anyone would need to stop releasing dopamine. I thought what good can come of such a thing which would force one to stop feeling the pleasures. As I read more about the phenomenon, I found out how people need to have a high level of dopamine in order to lead a healthy life and the importance of dopamine detox. This was the first time in my life I realised too much of good things can be bad too. I searched for symptoms of low dopamine levels and found out that insomnia, lack of motivation, fatigue, inattention and apathy were a few. Then I introspected myself and realised I haven’t been sleeping at nights, I wasn’t motivated to do things apart from the ones that I associated with pleasure, I was usually restless and had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude towards life.
I had become a dopamine addict! I realised how my desires were related to my dopamine addiction and why I had so little control over them. So I started indulging in activities that help in increasing the dopamine levels in the body, such as meditation, having a healthier diet and exercising. I am still trying to figure out ways to fix my sleep cycle but I feel more motivated and have found a new zest for life. Now that I understand how and why my brain desires things which it sees as the most pleasurable and how it can have a negative effect over my lifestyle, it’s easier for me to have control over such desires.
So in response to the question “will these desires ever stop and why do we always desire what we don’t have?”, all I can say is that these desires are never ending and we would always be in want of things that we don’t have. It’s basic human nature to feel such desires but it’s for us to choose how long we want to stay basic!
- By Fatherpop