Newsletter
Addictions2021-10-07
“The single most important distinction in life is to distinguish between an opportunity to be seized and a temptation to be resisted.”
—Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
Addictions broadly speaking are activities and behaviors that may provide transient, facile, and illusory happiness, hope, and/or meaning. They do not achieve or make progress towards your real-life goals, and in fact have detrimental consequences in the long term. For example, opioids give an illusory feeling of happiness, stimulants of hope, and psychedelics of meaning. Addictions provide some immediate gratification, with little effort, fitting an illusion of short-term gain. In essence, addictions are doing the wrong thing, more and more, and being unable to quit doing it. In the long term they destroy your health, wealth, and social standing. Addictions are the opposite of discipline, and can waste your life. They are stories that we tell ourselves, and others tell us, that are disconnected from reality and take us down a wrong path in life.
You can customize and keep track of your addictions, including digital addictions, in our Life x Mind app.
Live. Happier. Longer.
Bob