In the Foundations of Well-being program, I am working on Motivation and this week’s theme is liking and wanting and healthy, happy ways to pursue one’s goals and passions.
- Henry David Thoreau
In our brains, there are separate nodes to handle "liking" - enjoying, preferring - while others handle "wanting" - insisting, craving. In this sense, wanting both feels bad and is bad for us. Can we enjoy life fully, handle problems and pursue our dreams without falling into the painful trap of wanting?
Rick Hanson asks us to watch our minds: there you are, perfectly content... and your mind is still scanning for something else to seek. Notice the inner ad campaign - your brain will want what it likes. You will observe your mind wanting the pleasant to continue and the unpleasant to end. Also know that something new to like is probably just around the bend. Even when our wants are met, we keep looking for something new to want. This tendency is intensified by our consumer-driven economy, advertising and the media. See how others manipulate your wanting - see them pursuing their wants, not yours. Reclaim your own wanting.
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The Art of Living – a rendering of Epictetus’ Discourses by Sharon Lebell
In this moment there is more than enough. Can we sense an enoughness in our body...enough air to breathe...water…. food….vitality... in our body?
Recognise the nurturing fullness of the natural world...our amazing earth...the millions of species of life forms… plants giving us oxygen… the only planet in our solar system teaming with life... floating around the Sun... the mass held by gravity so we don’t float away… the unimaginable vastness of the observable universe...filled with 100 billion galaxies… expanding out of an infinite speck 13 billion years ago.... Be mindful of the fullness of your experience. Feel filled by each moment’s arising - even as they pass away.
Let our mantra be ‘.
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