A basic drive for evolution has always been the increase of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Nature rewarded us for the things we achieved that increased our chances for survival. Found some honey... fought against the bees... got the calories... great job! This principles from the hunter-gatherer times still holds true today. With our modern lifestyle driven by advancement, technology and the striving for financial wealth, we developed pleasure further, reaching extreme and unhealthy dimensions. We increased the pace of seeking pleasure and getting rewarded so much that our mind has difficulties adapting. Nature by itself has never been able to stimulate the mind as fast as we now are able to with our modern lifestyle. As humans we managed to make everything more pleasurable while decreasing the effort we have to put in to experience the pleasure. Consider these simple examples: eating an apple vs. eating a Snickers, a real-life relationship vs. porn, hiking vs. watching YouTube or Netflix.
Nowadays, we are able to listen to feel-good music, eat some chips while scrolling through Instagram. Feels good, because all of these things release neurotransmitters that make us feel good. The intensity and frequency with which we release them through easy actions makes normal life – away from computer screens and smartphones (or other extreme stimuli) – start to look dull. We start raising the mental threshold for things to feel pleasurable and enjoyable and need to increase the levels, the dose, almost like with drugs. On top of that, the easiest modern dopamine kicks don’t contain a sense of achievement. Instead, they leave us feeling empty. The damage done to our self-perception and the balance of our mind is huge. The severity of the above described is heavily underestimated by most people. Especially the younger generation, born after 2000, is growing up with easy access to those dopamine triggers and might have a hard time to understand this idea, as this way of life is the only one they have ever gotten to know.
If you are in severe mental, emotional or/and physical pain, numbing the mind with massive amounts of alcohol, cigarettes, weed, heavy drugs, sugar and others, then your plate is full already, and you should focus on overcoming these problems first. The average person nowadays, however, is not in severe pain, but at constant distraction and unease. One part of the solution of getting out of this state is to make ‘taking action’ a priority. Action is bigger than thinking, talking, collecting information and definitely bigger than scrolling through social media.
In general, the value of creating is higher than the value of consuming. Learning itself or gathering information without purpose – i.e., without using it to create at some point – can be equally toxic. Prioritize creating over consuming. Another part is to be very conscious about what is happening. Consuming is not always consuming. Eating is not always eating. Is it hunger we are feeling, or just a coping mechanism for stress? Avoid alcohol and cigarettes for relieve. Sugar and coffee should be consumed in small amounts for the pleasure of the taste, not for any kind of stress-coping or for fighting tiredness. After we managed not to disperse the mind all over different things, we can even start to train it in becoming able to focus on one thing only, giving it our full attention. This art is called meditation and requires a high capability of concentration. The benefits of meditation become more and more known to modern society. In its highest form, a meditative life, we can choose our thoughts and stick with one thought as long as we like and don’t need to suffer from an uncontrolled mind.
To become freer, happier and mentally healthier we need to walk this path of self-reflection. It is not easy and will reveal some dark sides of our personality. When we start dedicating ourselves to something, we should stay dedicated for some time without any expectations for immediate results. For example, let’s say you want to pick up a meditation practice every second day for 10 minutes. Decide and determine for yourself that you will stick to it for two months without evaluating the results on a day-to-day basis. After the two months have passed, you can look back and evaluate how your mental state has changed.