There’s actually a term for this—hedonic adaptation. When good things happen, we bake them very quickly into our baseline expectations,
In our seat, every bite of food, every pleasant daydream—is designed to avoid pain or seek pleasure. But if we can drop all that, we can, as Sam once said in his speech to the angry, befuddled atheist...
You need sandals, bro. You’ll catch gingivitis!
The price of security is insecurity. Dr. Jay Harris,
Walking contradiction.
Then it clicked. Per usual, Mark’s advice was sound, even if it took me a while to absorb it. Striving is fine, as long as it’s tempered by the realization that, in an entropic universe, the final out...
The Self-Interested Case for Not Being a Dick
Ignorance is not bliss.
Retreat, with nothing to look forward to, nowhere to be, nothing to do, we are forced to confront the wound of existence head-on, to stare into the abyss and realize that so much of what we do in life...
Brain is a pleasure-seeking machine.
If you stay in the moment, you’ll have what is called spontaneous right action, which is intuitive, which is creative, which is visionary, which eavesdrops on the mind of the universe.
I could see the value of recognizing thoughts for what they are—fleeting, gossamer, unsubstantial—but aren’t some thoughts connected to concrete realities that need to be addressed?
Dalai Lama: If a scientist confirm nonexistence of something we believe, then we have to accept that.Dan Harris: So if scientists come up with something that contradicts your beliefs, you will change...
A big part of (Janice) Marturano's success in bringing mindfulness to this unlikely venue was that she talked about it not as a spiritual exercise but instead as something that made you a better leade...
Meditation is simply exercise for your brain. It’s a proven technique for preventing the voice in your head from leading you around by the nose.
You can’t control what comes up, only how you respond. You
Mindfulness is an inborn trait, a birthright. It is, one could argue, what makes us human.
If everything in this world was in constant decay, why expend so much energy gnashing my teeth over work?
Don’t you ever get pissed off, annoyed, irritated, sad—anything negative? No, I accept what is. And that’s why life has become so simple. Well, what if somebody cuts you off in your car? It’s fine. It...
Acknowledging other people’s basic humanity is a remarkably effective way of shooing away the swarm of self-referential thoughts that buzz like gnats around our heads.