Sometimes life gets too peaceful, and we feel the need to check in on today’s news, ten, twenty times a day. Why do we do this? To get our daily fix.
The problem isn’t that things in life trigger us. It’s that we actively search these things out. We want to be triggered.
In the movie What the Bleep Do We Know?, the internationally recognized neuroscientist and pharmacologist Candace Pert talks about “the molecules of emotion.” We get addicted to certain strong hormones during moments of anger, like adrenaline, and the more these hormones flood our cells, the more the cells grow receptors specifically tailored to receive them, replacing receptors for food, or oxygen, for example. The cells then get “fed” by these hormones. They become addicted to them.
That’s why, she says, if a person who needs a quick boost walks into a party, they will automatically find the one person in the whole room who also needs a fix. The two will begin an argument, which releases adrenaline into their blood streams; both will then immediately feel “better.”
That’s what happens when we keep going back to the newest outrageous news stories. They are designed to fuel our anger. We can tell how we’re doing by how many times we need to get angry every day.
Remember, this is a chemical situation. And to go past it, we all have to go through a long period of withdrawal.
That’s why more and more of us are practicing yoga, or meditation. We are slowly weening our cells off of these dangerous hormones.
Wouldn’t we all prefer to be addicted to contentment?
Joy Biscuits 