From social media to delicious dessert, we may all experience our desire to obtain more pleasurable feelings from various channels. When we made a posting on social media, we might be tempted to check our accounts more often to see how many “reactions” we obtained from our friends. When we opened a pack of potatoes chips, we might be unable to resist finishing the whole pack. In fact, in these two examples or other similar situations, we experience pleasurable feelings. Sometimes, these pleasurable feelings are very subtle that we might not be aware of them. If we pay attention to our behaviors carefully, we may observe that we tend to exhibit more of the same behaviors to obtain more pleasurable feelings. For instance, without being aware that noticing some of our friends’ “reactions” to our social media posting from the “notifications” of our mobile phone triggered our pleasurable feelings, we automatically increase the number of times we check our social media account. This automatic pilot is due to our instinctual craving for more pleasurable feelings.
On the surface, having more pleasurable feelings by increasing some behaviors might seem beneficial to our well-being. For instance, it feels good to receive lots of positive “reactions” from social media. As a result, we crave for making interesting postings and attracting more feedback from others. If doing in moderation and with caution, it is a good way to seek approval in a healthy and appropriate way. However, if we are doing without being aware of our craving for the pleasurable feelings, we may end up having addiction.
How could we be more aware of our craving? Through practicing mindfulness, we could learn to be more mindful of our feelings. It may be easier for us to notice our unpleasant feelings. For example, when we feel the pain by accidentally touching a hot cooking pan, we automatically get off to avoid further pain. In this automatic process, we feel unpleasant for experiencing the pain. For experiences bringing pleasurable feelings to us, we might learn to be more aware of our tendency to crave for these feelings. When we are aware of any pleasurable feelings arising inside us, we can notice them and acknowledge the existence without reacting on it. For instance, when we are enjoying our pack of potatoes chips, we may be more mindful of our craving for the pleasure coming from the tasting these chips. When we notice and acknowledge we have the craving to get more chips from the pack, we could pause and choose whether to continue to eat more.
Noticing our craving and the associated pleasurable feelings arising inside us is sometimes difficult due to the automaticity. We could patiently increase our ability to notice these subtle feelings through regular mindfulness practice. Pleasure is important to us and there is no harm to experience pleasure to a certain extent. It is a matter of striving a balance between enjoying these pleasurable feelings and craving for them too much.
