Skip to main content

Wanting vs or and liking?

 

How integrated of a person are you? There is a simple way to assess this quickly. Write down everything you do in your life and evaluate it based on several criteria:

  1. I want to do this (wanting): you get dopamine from it, feel attracted and drawn to it, and motivated.

2. I enjoy doing this (liking): you experience immediate pleasure doing it here and now (serotonin-oxytocin-endorphins), savor the action, and enjoy it.

3. It is useful for me to do this (needing): the prefrontal cortex calculates the long-term results, the outcomes of actions (especially long-term) are important to you, they strengthen your resilience, increase your resources, and promote survival (including social actions, since we survive as a group, not as individuals). Does what I do strengthen or weaken me?

4. I am doing (or not doing) this: do I have something important that I am not doing? Are my useful actions a way to avoid essential actions? Am I doing enough to achieve my goals? Why do I continue to do things that are harmful to me?

Integrity is when all four of these conditions coincide and overlap, when you do the optimal amount, you want to do it, you enjoy it, and it strengthens you simultaneously. Problems occur when something is useful to you, but you don’t want to do it, or it is a harmful habit that you want (are drawn to), but that harms you, etc., when different vectors pull you in different directions. Think about how to balance these processes: dopamine for motivation, mindfulness for pleasure, simulating consequences for calculation, etc.

More about this is in my book “Will to Live”. https://www.academia.edu/87476393/THE_WILL_TO_LIVE_SELF_LEARNING_MANUAL_OF_CONSCIOUS_HEALTH

Popular posts from this blog

The principle of the golden mean.

  The principle of the golden mean. The tendency to swing to extremes in the search for truth has long been recognized by people. Buddha explained this using the metaphor of a musical instrument, asking, “Tell me, will music sound if the string is too loose?” — “No, teacher.” “And will we hear music if the string is pulled so tight it’s about to snap?” — “No, teacher.”    Buddha continued, “The music you wish to draw from yourself will only emerge when the strings are neither too loose nor too tight but perfectly balanced in the middle. Know that excessive tension leads to excess, while too much relaxation results in weakness. Find your balance — only then can you achieve your goals.”   This principle applies to improving your health as well. There is always a golden mean, optimal performance or resilience point, and the lowest mortality risk. The golden mean may differ among individuals depending on their genetics and lifestyle. It can be determined empirically by c...

Why consistency beats intensity

  Why consistency beats intensity: 4 cornerstones of daily health — the foundation for everything else On what foundation should you build your health, or why does consistency beat intensity every time? There are 4 essential elements, 4 cornerstones of daily activities that must be in your schedule These are: an eating schedule, a physical activity schedule, a work-rest schedule, and a sleep-wake schedule. Let's look at some examples: ✅1. Regular eating. It's simple — eat at the same time every day, on weekdays and weekends. No skipping and no overeating to compensate. Irregular, chaotic eating negatively affects cognitive function, increases the risk of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. A study in which people's eating schedules were switched from regular to irregular showed that within 2 weeks, levels of insulin, total cholesterol, and HDL cholesterol changed noticeably. ✅2. Regular sleep. Waking up (this is more important) and going to bed at th...