07 October 2019
What do you love? Define LOVE.
Humans are collections of organic matter whose ‘choices’ are likely illusions that are created by some combination of neurotransmitter-driven pathways that do not deviate much from its own history. The euphoria that is often depicted as love is usually some outpouring of addictive proteins in the brain (dopamine, oxytocin, noradrenaline, serotonin, endorphins, etc.) The dopamine rewards, oxytocin provides bonding, noradrenaline provides the “rush”, serotonin provides satiety, endorphins takes away pain. This is not love. This is chemistry. Modern living has created many ways to optimize this euphoria, which threatens to become an epidemic of internal addictions. Video games, social media, processed edibles, and others that have been around for a long time (tobacco, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex.) The brain is really good at creating automation and it can be challenging to rewrite some of these pathways.
On the other hand, there are useful, even satisfying habits. Your morning routine, for example. High performance persons have morning exercise, meditation or private time incorporated into their day without fail to ensure their success. Automations are there so that energy is conserved.
Love is ENERGIZING. Sometimes it manifests as passion. It is the thing that leads to true satisfaction. This is part of the reason that many athletes enjoy their sport: they love the training, setting and reaching new goals, satisfying a physiologic need to MOVE, to challenge the body, the mind, and achieve emotional mastery. If it is only driven by winning and/or the side benefits that come from it, that athlete is less likely to reach or stay at the top of their game for long. Talent is only part of the equation. Without true love, the willingness to work each and every time, it’s not sustainable. True love feels like uplift, the soul taking flight, with every toil, every challenge, every bit of work that doesn’t really feel like work.
Who do you love?
Is that important person in your life an addiction or true love? Are you truly energized by them or merely feel tension and release, with growing fatigue? Are you happier today than when you first met? Is it just a habit or is it a positive, collaborative devotion? There should be some equivalence of true love and respect for the divine to each other. Reprobates string you along with small hits of drama that have no long-term purpose other than to trip your neurotransmitter pathways, hook you in their needy head-games.
Are you a lover or a reprobate?
True love has few, if any expectations, makes you better, more self aware, shows you (and everyone around them) the fullness and beauty of life, now and forever. It sows seeds that allow you to thrive, to find the real, beneficent you. May your life be filled with sustainable love with your being, your work.
Mama's Rules 