28
POPSCan we learn to love uncertainty? "... Yet they are all defined in terms of the unsettling lack of something positive or better. It is perhaps for that reason that the stories of those who discovered these uncertainties have been largely overlooked. This is why I made Dangerous Knowledge for BBC television: to champion the incomplete, the uncomputable and the uncertain."
26
POPSLove More Powerful Than Sex Ok, I am the world's most hopeful romantic! I've never had sex with anyone I wasn't emotionally attracted to, so even though this is an older article, I believe it's true, especially for me, but maybe it's just my addiction to dopamine *LOL*
26
POPSSYMPTOMS OF RELIGIOUS ADDICTION The ultimate temptation of the believer is to assume that his or her way to God is the best or only way for others. The particular Way to God becomes what is adored, not the ineffable and incomprehensible Mystery to which we give the name of God. In essence we have become addicted to the certainty, sureness or sense of security that our faith provides. It is no longer a living by faith, with hope and growing in unconditional love. adapted from When God Becomes a Drug, by Leo Booth
26
POPSDelayed gratification and the science of self-control: "This and subsequent research has led us to believe that the ability to delay gratification for better rewards in the future is a fundamental skill in success, probably because it looks at how emotions and motivations interact with a more rational appproach to reasoning. We know what's best, but can we keep temptation at bay to reach it?" The article is a compelling exploration of this key ability and the subsequent research that has sprung up around it to help explain how we manage to keep those cheap instant hits at bay.
22
POPSThe Paradox of Temptation "There is a saying in many addiction recovery programs that goes like this: “If you keep going to the barber shop, eventually you’ll get a haircut.” Translated that means, stay away from temptation. Hanging around saloons or chocolatiers or raves or racetracks—name your poison—just increases the odds that your self-control will fail you someday. But is this true? Does the mere availability of something tempting weaken the will to resist?"
22
POPSGrief addiction Long-term grief can activate pleasure areas of the brain, creating the risk of addiction
22
POPSIt is not the dope, it's the dopamine :) I think this finding is interesting in the light of the latest and fast growing body of experimental results in neuroscience; finding correlation (some are straight forward, and not very complex) of so called unique attributes to genetics and physiology. this might carry with it a fundamental perceptual change. first we learned that the earth is not the center, than we realized that the human emergence is part of a bigger continuum (evolution that is) and now we come to know that one own psyche is not unique...
21
POPSYou Know Who We Really Hate? As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.
19
POPSCultivating gratitude- interview Prof. Robert Emmons studies gratitude for a living as Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and is Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology. He has just published Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, an interdisciplinary book that provides a research-based synthesis of the topic as well as practical suggestions.
19
POPSRat Park: What you think you know about drug addiction is wrong
More: …rats will choose to stay high and whacked out all of the time if they are trapped in solitary confinement, but they don't like being dopey when they are in a better environment…Rats have their own agenda, and it doesn't include being locked up alone in a steel cage in a laboratory, pressing a lever…most humans are like that too. It is an old stereotype that it is the poorest people, in the slums and ghettos, who stay drunk or stoned all day long…Most people, in better environments, don't really want to stay doped out all of the time…try a few thought experiments…a guy is locked in solitary confinement…he doesn't even know for how long, or if he will ever get out, and there is plenty of alcohol and dope available…Does he use?…enough to get obliterated? Probably. …a guy is locked up in a big luxurious hotel suite with the entire Swedish bikini ski team. Again, the full supply of alcohol and drugs is also available…Does he stay obliterated all of the time? Highly unlikely.
19
POPSWhy Should I Choose To Be Happy? "That leads me to the next way--fix your life. If you have things keeping you down--do everything you can to fight against it, to break free from it! If you don't like your friends, leave your friends. Find new friends. If you have an addiction--break it. If you hate the way things are going--make new goings. If you don't like your job, quit and find a new one. Even if you think you can't do anything--with the drive, anybody can do anything. There is this homeless man who sells bottled water down a busy street--I really love that guy. He posts posters up all along the street, saying great things like "Homeless, but not hopeless"--and when you look at him--you can just tell. He's a happy, striving guy, striving for better things. If he can do it--I'm sure you can."
17
POPSThe Energy Technology Revolution Tom Friedman is so right (shocker) about this. I find it to be insane that this is not THE ISSUE of the presidential election. T. Boone Pickens gets it. Tom Friedman gets it. Europe and Asia seem to get it. When will Washington get it???