When was the last time you felt hungry? Bored? Uncomfortable at all? Chances are if you are like most Americans you can’t remember the last time you felt truly hungry ,genuinely bored or uncomfortable for any length of time in which you didn’t try to eliminate it by way of grabbing a snack, checking your social media account or purchasing something on Amazon.
Now, in no way am I saying any of these things are wrong. I find myself in the same situation from time to time without even realizing it. We live in a time of instant gratification, one where we can escape most any discomfort with a click of a button.
None of these choices are “wrong.” However, they all come with a price. Besides the obvious consequence of weight gain from eating to avoid hunger and not being present because we spend so much time on social media, there is a greater price to not allowing ourselves to become hungry, bored or uncomfortable.
The price is not figuring out what we are truly hungry for. When we don’t allow ourselves to get hungry we never develop a true hunger. And without true hunger, we don’t even appreciate the meal.
Most of us, myself included at times, hop from one hit of instant gratification to another without giving it much thought. This is what is normal in our culture. And by operating in this manner we stay status quo, we don’t really dig into what would truly fulfill our souls. We don’t take the time to question why we are feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled most of the time. This process just numbs out desire for a short period of time until we feel empty once more. Rinse and repeat.
I invite you to join me in slowly subtracting these quick hits of dopamine. If we slowly take away these quick fixes and we allow for some discomfort we will hear what our souls truly desire. And I would bet a million dollars that it is not a cookie, a purchase on Amazon or the next series on Netflix.
Jenniferoney.com 