Bliss
What really motivates us? Is it a desire for something that draws us, pulls us and attracts us. We strive towards something. But….fear also motivates us. Fear is the jail house conversion, the prostrate barter made with your Maker. Our anatomy is literally hardwired for fear. There is no mystery as to why fear has such an elaborate mechanism. The human race, as a species, has had a long time to evolve; we’ve had a long, treacherous evolutionary process. It is only within the last few hundred (thousand) years that humans side-stepped out of the food chain and stopped being some other carnivore’s Snack Pak pudding. Among the large beasts of prey, we no longer have a predator. Our species now falls to either infections or chronic illnesses. We are killed off by the invisible microorganism or by the insidious development of pathology caused by our lifestyle choices (usually). Although, some of us die due to pure trauma and accidents.
But what I am getting at is that we are far more equipped and adjusted to FEAR than happiness. The idea of true happiness, a prolonged and sustained sense of joy is a fresh. Happiness has evolutionarily been relegated to simple, sensual pleasures. Brief pleasures: a drink of cool water from a trickling stream, stretching when you wake from sleep, scratching a good itchy spot, sex (for the purpose of copulation)…..brief snippets of lovely.
Fear, on the other hand can be sustained, held like a Pavarotti high C. It is how we flee a predator, deal with the getting a full frontal hit by a hurricane, walk through New York City as the The World Trade Center crumbles. I think there are some predators we never stop trying to flee.
But joy cannot be perpetually maintain or sustain. I wonder if, evolutionarily, we COULD develop an anatomical equivalent to the fight & flight & flee system that is managed by adrenaline. The human skeleton and its muscles and nerves are designed in a manner to specifically trigger the physical response REQUIRED to survive threat. Get scared and you feel your heart rate accelerate, your breathing gets deeper, the pupils dilate, the capillaries in the skin contract, blood flow to the gut slows reserving the blood for the muscles, heart, lung and brain. When the fear passes the system reverses: we break out in a cold sweat, get the shakes, hyperventilate, vomit, faint or wet ourselves. The B side of fear is not JOY it is RELIEF, phew and we exclaim, “That was close!”
Is it that joy is a relatively new evolutionary presence? That to develop BLISS we have to allow for more exposure to joy? We have to let happiness influence our species like any other force of nature? If we can realize that FEAR is less of a force in our worlds…..and even though we are BUILT to adapt and deal with it…..we can stop REACTING to every spider, sidewalk crack or sneeze. We can stop LOOKING for the lurking predator and instead cultivate joyfulness. And by being happier, living more joyfully and conditioning ourselves to pleasantry, we can find Bliss.
We aren’t going to forget how to be afraid. Not possible. We’d hard wired for it. It is subconscious. We can be conditioned to not be afraid of spiders, though. Or the dentist. Or flying in airplanes. But the deconditioning of some of our fears won’t result in us lacking a response when someone bombs us or a hurricane barrels over us. And while some will get paralyzed, stuck like deer in headlights, most of us will RUN!
But….we have to learn when we can STOP running. We have to permit pleasure and enjoyment be a greater part of our existence. Instead of leap frogging from one stress stone to the next, utilizing adrenaline as a fuel, I want to stroll between sweet spots and bathe myself in things that give me joy, contentment and amusement. The difference is that fear is BEHIND us, nipping at our heels, propelling us forward. We are motivated by a desire to avoid and escape. Bliss motivates us by the laws of attraction. We desire something ahead of us, something we don’t yet have but want. I want to reach for the happiness ahead of me, eager and enthusiastic. Satisfied and excited.
These are a few of the things that motivate me, my bliss.
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Archives
- March 2022
- January 2022
- November 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- December 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- March 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- August 2017
- June 2017
- April 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Leave a Reply