“
If you crave something, I’ll be
the one to give it to you. All of your needs, Eva,
are mine to fulfill. Whatever it costs me.
”
”
Sylvia Day (Bared to You (Crossfire, #1))
“
You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself.
”
”
David Brooks (The Road to Character)
“
To be unique calls for being unique in such a way that your uniqueness doesn't make others appear inferior, and a uniqueness that doesn't crave for anything apart from your own thing.
”
”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“
Happiness is simply the absence of desire. When you observe a cue, but do not desire to change your state, you are content with the current situation. Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state.
However, happiness is fleeting because a new desire always comes along. As Caed Budris says, “Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming." Likewise, suffering is the space between craving a change in state and getting it.
”
”
James Clear (Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones)
“
So the saying is true? Money doesn’t buy happiness?” “When you’re poor, you have things to reach for. Goals that excite you. Maybe it’s a dream house or a vacation or even a meal at a restaurant on a Friday night. But the more money you have, the harder it is to find things to be excited about. You already have your dream house. You can go anywhere in the world anytime you want to. You could hire a private chef to make you every food you ever crave. People who aren’t rich think all those things are fulfilling, but they aren’t. You can fill your life with nice things, but nice things don’t fill the holes in your soul.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Heart Bones)
“
Desire is a mighty force, one of your most divine attributes! Whatsoever things ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them! See the Godlike quality of desire. For it is part of the Atomic energy of the soul. The Kingdom of Heaven within you is operated through desire. Do not quench it or crush
it or suppress it. Rather offer it to Me. Offer Me your most elementary desires, your craving for happiness, for love, for self-expression, for well-being, for success, for joy, on any level of your being-offer these freely and without shame to Me and I will transmute them so that you shall achieve release and fulfillment and complete freedom from frustration.2
”
”
Leanne Payne (Listening Prayer: Learning to Hear God's Voice and Keep a Prayer Journal)
“
Every man has his tastes," Sebastian said sensibly. "I doubt yours are all that shocking."
"What your generation considered shocking is probably different from mine."
There was a short, offended silence. When Sebastian replied, his voice was as dry as tinder. "Ancient and decrepit fossil that I am, I believe the ruins of my senile brain can somehow manage to grasp what you're trying to convey. You've indulged in wanton carnal excess for so long that you're disillusioned. The trifles that excite other men leave you indifferent. No virgin's pallid charms could ever hope to compete with the subversive talents of your mistress."
Gabriel glanced up in surprise.
His father looked sardonic. "I assure you, my lad, sexual debauchery was invented long before your generation. The libertines of my grandfather's time committed acts that would make a satyr blush. Men of our lineage are born craving more pleasure than is good for us. Obviously I was no saint before I married, and God knows I never expected to find fulfillment in the arms of one woman for a lifetime. But I have. Which means there's no reason you can't."
"If you say so."
"I do say so.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Devil in Spring (The Ravenels, #3))
“
An eternally favorite deadly sin, lust fascinates through experience: our appetites and passions of sight, sound, taste, touch, and scent. We anticipate what it might be like to fulfill a craving, and that anticipation pulls us closer. As early as the sixth century AD, lust emerged as public enemy number one for Christians. And not without reason. Overcoming desire is no easy task. Buddhism presents the overcoming of desire as an ideal.
”
”
Sally Hogshead (Fascinate: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist)
“
I would never do that to you,” I assure her.
Briar’s head tilts, brows scrunching. “Do what?”
“Cheat on you. Abandon you. Make you question my love for you.”
She scoffs. “You don’t know me. You can’t possibly love me.”
“What have I told you, Briar? You’re my muse. Where you go, I follow. What you need, I give. What you crave, I provide. I am yours to use as you see fit. To fulfill all your desires. And you are my inspiration. You are the pen that writes my words. The body that owns my cock. The laugh that owns my heart. The mind that owns my soul.
”
”
Harmony West (Her Saint (Saint and Sinner Duet, #1))
“
As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly.
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and edu-cation, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalis-tic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle ([The Power of Now: a Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment] [By: Eckhart Tolle] [January, 2001])
“
He leaned back on his hands. And then idly turned to her. She inhaled, and exhaled an almost long-suffering sigh.
And he began in a patient, almost leisurely fashion, in a voice fashioned from dark velvet, a voice that stroked over her senses until they were lulled, to lecture directly to her as if she was a girl in the schoolroom.
"A proper kiss, Miss Eversea, should turn you inside out. It should... touch places in you that you didn't know existed, set them ablaze, until your entire being is hungry and wild. It should... hold a moment, I want to explain this as clearly as possible..." He tipped his head back and paused to consider, as though he were envisioning this and wanted to relate every detail correctly. "It should slice right down through you like a cutlass with a pleasure so devastating it's very nearly pain."
He waited, watching her face, allowing her to accommodate the potent words.
Her mouth was parted. Her breathing short. She couldn't look away. His eyes and voice held her as fast as if he'd cradled her face with his hands.
And as he said them, an echo of sensation sounded in her, like a remembered dream, an instinct awakened.
She thought about Mars getting ready to give Venus a good pleasuring.
Stop, she should say.
"And...?" she whispered.
"It should make you do battle for control of your senses and your will. It should make you want to do things you'd never dreamed you'd want to do, and in that moment all of those things will make perfect sense. And it should herald, or at least promise, the most intense physical pleasure you've ever known, regardless of whether that promise is ever, ever fulfilled. It should, in fact..." he paused for effect "haunt you for the rest of your life."
She sat wordlessly when he was done. As though waiting for the last notes of a stormy, discordant symphony to echo into silence.
'The most intense physical pleasure.'
His words reverberated in her. As if her body contained the ancient wisdom of what that meant, and now, having been reminded, craved it.
”
”
Julie Anne Long (What I Did for a Duke (Pennyroyal Green, #5))
“
There are so many things and people craving your attention such that you could so easily forget that you have a purpose to fulfill within a specified time on the earth.
”
”
Sunday Adelaja (How To Become Great Through Time Conversion: Are you wasting time, spending time or investing time?)
“
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Spirit Airlines is known for its affordable price and amazing deals that it usually offers on the flight ticket to facilitate the passengers. Its major objective is to minimize your travel expenses to the maximum extent so that you can reach your destination without hitting your pocket hard. So, what are you waiting for? Get your Spirit Airlines Reservations now and make your journey a once-in-a-time experience
As we all know, Spirit is an ultra-low-cost carrier and to keep its fares low; the airline has limited its services. However, it provides you various in-flight services depending upon the fare type, city of origin, and the destination. But there are some services that you will enjoy on all Spirit Airlines reservations, so let’s know more about them for a Wonderful and convenient travel experience in the future.
”
”
MOONRAN
“
More than anything, you give yourself what you need, instead of what you crave. Treating your energy like a precious resource has a deep effect on your life. Saying no becomes more common so you can focus your time and give it to your highest goals. You miss out on some events because you don’t need as much external stimulation to make you feel fulfilled.
”
”
Yung Pueblo (Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future)
“
But our intuition often moves in a way that allows us to break out into the world and fulfill our deepest aspirations. Intuition is not grounded in fear and it does not feel like the endless cravings that swirl in the mind. It feels like the body has a calm compass and it knows where to go next, even if that knowledge causes the mind to recoil with fear and aversion because you have to do something that is totally outside of your comfort zone.
”
”
Yung Pueblo (Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future)
“
Sonnet 1306
Doctors are not official representatives,
Yet they do their job quite efficiently.
Teachers are not official representatives,
Yet they do their job quite respectfully.
Public transport drivers ain't representatives,
Yet they carry their duties quite diligently.
Factory workers ain't official representatives,
Yet they fulfill their tasks rather honorably.
All the professions that actually require
some tangible skillsets and expertise,
don't rely on the jungle whim of democracy.
Yet the most glorified profession of all,
has no performance standards compulsory.
If this is your idea of a civilized democracy,
No wonder you still crave peace in nuclear weapons!
Only monkeys could confuse homicide with defense,
It takes a human to plant peace through illumination.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets (Sonnet Centuries))
“
Solitude is when you set aside time to feed and water and nourish your soul. To let it grow into health and maturity. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the former. And solitude—as somber as it sounds—is anything but loneliness. In his masterpiece Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster wrote, “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.”19 In solitude we’re anything but alone. In fact, that’s where many of us feel most in connection to God.
”
”
John Mark Comer (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World)
“
Some days, you're the energizer bunny; other days, you're more like a chilled-out sloth. Know when to rev up and when to unwind to keep your soul happy and balanced. It's all about mastering the art of pacing yourself and tuning into what your mind and body crave. So, whether you're conquering the world or lounging in pajamas, embrace the ebb and flow of life. After all, variety is the spice of a soulful existence!
”
”
Life is Positive
“
As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
By His grace and for His glory, when we opened up our hearts to Jesus, God placed us—weak and foolish that we are—in Christ. And because Christ fulfilled the “ifs,” we get the “thens,” leaving us nothing to do but say, “Yea and Amen!” If that sounds too good to be true, think of it this way.… Suppose I’m in Switzerland and I begin to crave a hamburger, fries, and a shake. The two dollars I have in my pocket will buy just that at Hot and Now Burgers in Medford, Oregon. Therefore, if I can get to Medford, then I will have a burger, fries, and a shake. So I call the airport and say, “Can you give me directions to Medford?” “What is your mode of transportation?” the official asks.
”
”
Jon Courson (Jon Courson's Application Commentary: Volume 3, New Testament (Matthew - Revelation))
“
You turn to her, or images of women like her, because people all around you have devoted their creative energy to serving a pagan deity that broadcasts the lie that sex with a beautiful woman will bring you the fulfillment you crave. This lie is not told to your rational mind, which would figure out that it’s a lie, it’s told instead to a confused little boy inside you, what you think of as your emotions and I think of as a broken part of your soul.
”
”
Jeffrey McClain Jones (Seeing Jesus (Seeing Jesus #1))
“
In the past, most of us were content to have a job that simply paid the bills. But now, we crave so much more in our work. We want fulfillment, creative challenge, growth, joy and a sense that we are living for something more than ourselves. In a word, we seek meaning. One of the best ways to find the higher meaning in the work you do is to use the technique of creative questioning to become aware of the impact your work has on the world around you. Ask yourself questions like, Who ultimately benefits from the products and services my company offers? or What difference do my daily efforts make? Once you do so, you will start noticing the connection between the work you do and the lives you touch. This will inspire you.
”
”
Robin S. Sharma (Daily Inspiration From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari)
“
You asked me to outline three things that I hope to achieve during my training which is to begin in 3 months. I had time to reflect upon them on the way home, a bit. Here goes: 1. Above all, I want to learn how best to serve you. I want to learn your needs and your wants and make sure they’re fulfilled at all times. I don’t ever want there to be any voids in your life that I could have filled had I been more in tune with what you were seeking from me. 2. I want to push the envelope of my pain threshold. I want to build with you in such a way that I trust you to help me dig deeper into my craving for it and how I am able to manage it.
”
”
Feminista Jones (Push The Button)
“
It has been said that if you have Zen in your life,you have no fear, no doubt, no unnecessary craving, no extreme emotions. Neither illiberal attitudes nor egotistical actions trouble you. You serve humanity humbly, fulfilling your presence in this world with loving-kindness and observing your passing as a petal falling from a flower. Serene, you enjoy life in blissful tranquility. Such is the spirit of Zen.---Zen flesh, Zen bones.
”
”
Paul, Reps
“
You cannot just assume that your husband’s sexual desires and needs will take care of themselves if you don’t do something about them. Your husband will also start showing signs that he feels neglected by you, because the intimacy he craves is no longer there in your relationship. This is why you cannot just assume your husband will overcome his sexual needs just because you aren’t there to fulfill them for the time being.
”
”
L. David Harris (Sex Cells: 7 Keys to Fulfilling Your Husband's Most Intimate Needs)
“
Oh, Father, how we praise You. How we thank You that You did not call us to subsistence living. We don’t have to live on the alms of others. You had more in mind for us than that. We don’t have to seek some other means of satisfaction or a substitute that never fulfills us. I pray that today we can look in our right hand and say, “This is a lie if it’s not from You.” Father, help us to loosen our grip on the things that we crave so much in life, the things that we want affirmation and approval from so desperately. Help us to release our grip on them and hang onto You instead, because Your love is better than life. In the sweetest name I know, the name of Jesus, amen. ABOUT
”
”
Beth Moore (A Woman and Her God: Life-Enriching Messages (Extraordinary Women))
“
Soloveitchik argued that we live in the contradiction between these two Adams. The outer, majestic Adam and the inner, humble Adam are not fully reconcilable. We are forever caught in self-confrontation. We are called to fulfill both personae, and must master the art of living forever within the tension between these two natures. The hard part of this confrontation, I’d add, is that Adams I and II live by different logics. Adam I—the creating, building, and discovering Adam—lives by a straightforward utilitarian logic. It’s the logic of economics. Input leads to output. Effort leads to reward. Practice makes perfect. Pursue self-interest. Maximize your utility. Impress the world. Adam II lives by an inverse logic. It’s a moral logic, not an economic one. You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself. To nurture your Adam I career, it makes sense to cultivate your strengths. To nurture your Adam II moral core, it is necessary to confront your weaknesses.
”
”
Anonymous
“
Vincent, what is happening to me?” His blue eyes were an ocean of mixed emotions. One of them was pity. “You’re Changing.” “Changing? What do you—” Lydia broke off as a new ache roared through her stomach. An alien hunger tormented her like the fires of hell. It felt as though she hadn’t eaten in days. Her mouth filled with saliva as she craved fulfillment. Footsteps
”
”
Brooklyn Ann (One Bite Per Night (Scandals with Bite, #2))
“
In her book Grit, social psychologist Angela Duckworth identifies the single quality that most marks those who succeed in life, those who feel fulfilled, from those who find life one long series of frustrations. The quality boils down to this: the understanding that your personality and character are not fixed but can be shaped and strengthened by overcoming difficult experiences. There are voices in everyone’s head that resist that fact, that tell us we will never achieve this or that, so there is no point in even trying. Again, our business was designed to help silence a few of those voices. One of the questions we asked ourselves when we created Tough Mudder was this: How do you create a culture and an authentic experience that will reliably deliver grit, a quality that people seem to crave but don’t know how to find? This craving, our grit-shaped hole, feels like a recent phenomenon. It is a by-product perhaps of our fortune in living, in the Western world at least, in largely peaceful times, when work is more likely to involve generating a PowerPoint presentation than any kind of hard labor. When—to put it in blunt evolutionary terms—millennia of hunting and gathering have been replaced by a trip to the supermarket. Ease and convenience are great in their way, but for many of us life no longer routinely presents the kind of challenges that once developed resilience—and genetically, psychologically, I believe we miss those challenges. In most other times and places those trials came hard and fast, and though we might not always have welcomed them, they allowed us to show what we were capable of, gave us a sense of purpose in ourselves, and a sense of belonging in our community.
”
”
Will Dean (It Takes a Tribe: Building the Tough Mudder Movement)
“
For those of you who aren’t understanding some things I write, my message is simple: we all have dreams, big or small, about what we want to achieve or who we want to be in life & guess what? They’re within your reach!
Darling listen – here’s the key: set aside your pride, apologize for past mistakes, actively change your behavior & show up for yourself, for your goals & for the life you crave.
Remember, sweetheart: you become what you focus on. Don’t just expect things to magically fall into place. Raise your standards & put in the work. This will not only improve the quality of your relationships but also propel you towards a truly fulfilling life. Raise your Standard, not expectations!
Once again, my morning messages, posts & articles are just to feed your mind strong affirmations until your dreams morph into reality. Because I firmly believe that our lives, future & destiny is shaped by the mental shifts that we adopt along our journey in life.
I wish & hope that you get closer to living the future that you want, everyday… Blessings!
”
”
Rajesh Goyal, राजेश गोयल
“
Happiness is simply the absence of desire. When you observe a cue, but do not desire to change your state, you are content with the current situation. Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state. However, happiness is fleeting because a new desire always comes along. As Caed Budris says, “Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.” Likewise, suffering is the space between craving a change in state and getting it.
”
”
James Clear (Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones)
“
THE EGO’S SEARCH FOR WHOLENESS Another aspect of the emotional pain that is an intrinsic part of the egoic mind is a deep-seated sense of lack or incompleteness, of not being whole. In some people, this is conscious, in others unconscious. If it is conscious, it manifests as the unsettling and constant feeling of not being worthy or good enough. If it is unconscious, it will only be felt indirectly as an intense craving, wanting and needing. In either case, people will often enter into a compulsive pursuit of ego-gratification and things to identify with in order to fill this hole they feel within. So they strive after possessions, money, success, power, recognition, or a special relationship, basically so that they can feel better about themselves, feel more complete. But even when they attain all these things, they soon find that the hole is still there, that it is bottomless. Then they are really in trouble, because they cannot delude themselves anymore. Well, they can and do, but it gets more difficult. As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a craving has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external things. It needs to be both defended and fed constantly. The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, personal and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you. Do you find this frightening? Or is it a relief to know this? All of these things you will have to relinquish sooner or later. Perhaps you find it as yet hard to believe, and I am certainly not asking you to believe that your identity cannot be found in any of those things. You will know the truth of it for yourself. You will know it at the latest when you feel death approaching. Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” — and find that there is no death.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
The thing is, you have to understand that mastering the energetics of DESIRE is the roadmap to finding the fulfillment that your soul is craving for.
”
”
Lebo Grand
“
When you’re poor, you have things to reach for. Goals that excite you. Maybe it’s a dream house or a vacation or even a meal at a restaurant on a Friday night. But the more money you have, the harder it is to find things to be excited about. You already have your dream house. You can go anywhere in the world anytime you want to. You could hire a private chef to make you every food you ever crave. People who aren’t rich think all those things are fulfilling, but they aren’t. You can fill your life with nice things, but nice things don’t fill the holes in your soul.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Heart Bones)
“
But the more money you have, the harder it is to find things to be excited about. You already have your dream house. You can go anywhere in the world anytime you want to. You could hire a private chef to make you every food you ever crave. People who aren’t rich think all those things are fulfill
ing, but they aren’t. You can fill your life with nice things, but nice things don’t fill the holes in your soul.”
“What fills the holes in a soul?”
Samson’s eyes scroll over my face for a few seconds. “Pieces of someone else’s soul.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Heart Bones)
“
When you observe a cue, but do not desire to change your state, you are content with the current situation. Happiness is not about the achievement of pleasure (which is joy or satisfaction), but about the lack of desire. It arrives when you have no urge to feel differently. Happiness is the state you enter when you no longer want to change your state. However, happiness is fleeting because a new desire always comes along. As Caed Budris says, “Happiness is the space between one desire being fulfilled and a new desire forming.” Likewise, suffering is the space between craving a change in state and getting it. It is the idea of pleasure that we chase. We seek the image of pleasure that we generate in our minds. At the time of action, we do not know what it will be like to attain that image (or even if it will satisfy us). The feeling of satisfaction only comes afterward. This is what the Austrian neurologist Victor Frankl meant when he said that happiness cannot be pursued, it must ensue. Desire is pursued. Pleasure ensues from action. Peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems. The first step in any behavior is observation. You notice a cue, a bit of information, an event. If you do not desire to act on what you observe, then you are at peace. Craving is about wanting to fix everything. Observation without craving is the realization that you do not need to fix anything. Your desires are not running rampant. You do not crave a change in state. Your mind does not generate a problem for you to solve. You’re simply observing and existing. With a big enough why you can overcome any how. Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher and poet, famously wrote, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” This phrase harbors an important truth about human behavior. If your motivation and desire are great enough (that is, why you are acting), you’ll take action even when it is quite difficult. Great craving can power great action—even when friction is high. Being curious is better than being smart. Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action. Being smart will never deliver results on its own because it doesn’t get you to act. It is desire, not intelligence, that prompts behavior. As Naval Ravikant says, “The trick to doing anything is first cultivating a desire for it.
”
”
James Clear (Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones)
“
Adam II lives by an inverse logic. It’s a moral logic, not an economic one. You have to give to receive. You have to surrender to something outside yourself to gain strength within yourself. You have to conquer your desire to get what you crave. Success leads to the greatest failure, which is pride. Failure leads to the greatest success, which is humility and learning. In order to fulfill yourself, you have to forget yourself. In order to find yourself, you have to lose yourself. To nurture your Adam I career,
”
”
David Brooks (The Road to Character)
“
I had always been the kind of ambitious that demanded the culmination of becoming Someone. I craved the validation of high achievement, the sense of wielding control over your own life. The fulfillment you could find only through setting up lofty goals for yourself, then knocking them down one by one.
”
”
Lana Harper (Payback's a Witch (The Witches of Thistle Grove #1))
“
The insula also gives rise to empathy. People who are more sensitive to emotional cues from others have greater insula activation and score higher on tests of empathy. And the insula lights up during meditation sessions, especially when the meditator is feeling kindness and compassion. As the meditator expands his definition of connection to include other people and eventually the entire universe, he feels one with everything. In the words of a comprehensive meditation review, “the habitual reified dualities between subject and object, self and other, in-group and out-group dissipate.” As he expands the borders of his tent to infinity, massive changes occur in his brain activity. Insula Activation Benefits Increases Decreases Elevated emotional states Anger Motor control Fear Kindness Anxiety Compassion Depression Empathy Addiction Longevity Chronic pain Immunity Happiness Love Sensory enjoyment Introspection Sense of fulfillment Feelings of connectedness Focus Self-awareness As well as mediating our empathy and compassion circuits, the insula has several other functions. It collects information from a far-flung network of receptors inside our body as well as from our skin. It then stimulates feelings such as hunger that then prompt actions such as seeking food. The dark side of this mechanism is that it can stimulate cravings for drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. Addicts show increased insula activation even before consuming their drug of choice. The insula also lights up when we feel pain or even anticipate feeling pain. Meditators are more “in the moment” when it comes to physical pain, releasing it more quickly. They may also experience overwhelming cravings, as we’ll see in Chapter 5. These are positive cravings directing them toward the ecstatic states found in Bliss Brain.
”
”
Dawson Church (Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy)
“
You may be wondering how chronic overstimulation can induce two seemingly opposite effects. First, it can increase dopamine activity (sensitisation via DeltaFosB). Second, it can decrease dopamine activity (desensitisation via CREB124). The answer is that it’s mostly about timing. But it’s also about the neurological differences between wanting and liking.[135] Sensitisation leads to high spikes of dopamine in response to cues and triggers associated with use. The dopamine spikes occur before ingesting the drug or masturbating to porn, and are experienced as cravings to use. However, on exposure to the same old stimuli less dopamine (and less opioids) are released (desensitisation). This dampening of pleasure occurs during drug use or while masturbating to porn. The activity is experienced as less pleasurable, increasing cravings for more. Thus, two mechanisms once beneficial to our animal ancestors have unwanted consequences in the age of porn tube sites and omnipresent junk food. Sensitisation leads to greater wanting or more intense cravings, while desensitisation leads to less liking or a decline in overall pleasure.[136] This disparity acts as a double-edged sword that drives compulsive use: overpowering cravings to use (sensitisation) combined with less fulfilment from both everyday activities and from the problematic behaviours (desensitisation). Brain scan studies confirm that porn addicts have greater reward system activation in the craving phase (wanting), but do not like porn any more than non-addicts.
”
”
Gary Wilson (Your Brain On Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction)
“
GIVE
RISE TO
FAITH
Be fearless LEADER
and Design your own
LIFE."
"You are divine creation of God. You crave creativity and intuitive life guided by the best
mentors. You choose your inner happiness over external chaos. You choose to thrive in
most chaotic life circumstances. God created you to be perfect version of yourself and
the creation of affection. God is graceful and merciful. He guides your life path and
destiny. You have a mission on this earth to fulfill. You aren't here to just survive and
live each and every day as it will be your same day since the day you were born with. You
are here to learn, grow, face failures, face successes, face extreme painful situations, face
extremely happy situation full of love, light and delight. You are creative and mindful.
You can educate yourself and be the best educator and successor. You are the best guide
anyone can ever ask for. You can be the leader and counselor to the people who need
your help. You can guide the path of people who wanted your guidance. We are
courageous in ways we don't recognize we possess. We face the incidents, occurrences,
events, affairs, encounters, adventures and circumstances throughout our life. Through
knowledge, understanding, wisdom, sophistication and education we gain the
experiences and moments of endurance and tolerance. We encounter different life
challenges, daily teachings and life lessons as we grow through our life. We undertake
the different phases of difficulty, resistance, struggle, victory and competition
throughout our life’s journey. As we undertake the different phases of our life’s journey,
we choose to behave, respond, acknowledge, appreciate and recognize situations and
gain experiences according to our free will, self-determination, independence, liberty
and freedom. We have freedom to choose our life experiences either positive or negative.
Our success or failure depends on our positive life experiences, negative life experiences
or positive and negative life experiences throughout our life. With 365 days daily
teachings and life lessons you can sharpen your cognitive behavior, you can learn about
how to balance your life experiences and you can gather daily inspirations throughout
your life’s journey.
”
”
Aesha Shah (Give Rise To Faith)
“
March 11 Of course you haven’t been fulfilled in this world. It’s a sign that you have been designed for a world to come. It is an item on each of our theological outlines, but we don’t actually live as though we believe it. We all say that we believe that this is not all there is. We say we really do believe that there is life after this one ends. Our formal theology contains the fact of a new heaven and a new earth to come. But we tend to live with the anxiety and drivenness that come when we believe that all we have is this moment. Here’s the real-life, street-level issue: if you don’t keep the eyes of your heart focused on the paradise that is to come, you will try to turn this poor fallen world into the paradise it will never be. In the heart of every living person is the longing for paradise. The cry of a toddler who has just fallen down is a cry for paradise. The tears of the school-age child who has been rejected on the playground are tears of one reaching out for paradise. The pain of aloneness that a person without friends or family feels is the pain of one longing for paradise. The hurt the couple feels as their marriage dissolves is the hurt of those crying out for paradise. The sadness that the old man feels as his body weakens is the sadness of one who longs for paradise. We all have this longing, even when we are not aware of it, because it was placed there by our Creator. He has placed eternity in each one of our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). Our cries are more than cries of pain; they are also cries of longing for more and better than we will ever experience in this fallen world. When you forget this, you work very hard to try to turn this moment into the paradise it will never be. Your marriage will not be a paradise. Your job will not be the paradise you long for. Your friendships will not be the paradise your heart craves. The world around you will not function like paradise. Your children will not deliver paradise to you. Even your church will not live up to the standard of paradise. If you’re God’s child, paradise has been guaranteed for you, but it will not be right here, right now. All the things that disappoint you now are to remind you that this is not all there is and to cause you to long for the paradise that is to come. The dreams that die remind you that this is not paradise. The flowers that wilt remind you that this is not paradise. The sin that captivates you should remind you that this is not paradise. The diseases that infect you are to remind you that this is not paradise. Live in hope because paradise is surely coming, and stop asking this fallen world to be the paradise it will never be.
”
”
Paul David Tripp (New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional)
“
It's like what Charles Duhigg was saying in The Power of Habit about advertising, you have to create a craving for the reward. This takes time and doing so is more productive than posting every day and having unrealistic expectations of your followers. Essentially, people expect others to treat them a certain way but are ironically ignorant to how impractical and uninspired they would be if they had to fulfill that same expectation for someone else.
”
”
Dexter A. Daniels (Consistent, Not Different: Why We Stray from the Path and Reasons to Return)
“
What are you saying, Captain O’ Devir?” “Stay here with me. Sail the seas, be free of balls and teas and social visits and expectations and the course yer brother will set for ye. Choose yer own path in life.” “Stay here with you?” “Why not?” “Stop saying that?” “Saying what?” “Saying, ‘Why not!’” He shrugged. “Well, it was just an idea.” Her palms suddenly felt cold, even as her heart began to race with the thrill of possibility. “I can’t stay here with you and you know it.” “Don’t see—” he grinned—“why not.” “Ohhhh!” “Think about it. We get on well. I want ye in my bed. If ye’re honest with yerself, ye want me in yours. Makin’ love to me wouldn’t be the trial it might be with someone who was suitable but repellent. Ye’d have no obligation to produce an heir. No obligations to an ancient family or a society that ye obviously ache to escape. Ye’d be loved and treasured and cared about, never set aside once yer purpose—whatever the divil that is—is fulfilled.” “What are you saying, Captain O’ Devir?” “That I’d marry ye, if I could. Give ye that freedom ye crave.
”
”
Danelle Harmon (The Wayward One (The de Montforte Brothers, #5))
“
Our bodies have been created not only by God but also for God..We are driven today by whatever can bring our bodies the most pleasure. What can we eat, touch, watch, do listen to, or engage in to satisfy the cravings of our bodies?..in his love, gives us boundaries for our bodies: he loves us and knows what is best for us..[there are] clear and critical distinctions between different types of laws in Leviticus. Some of the laws are civil in nature, and they specifically pertain to the government of ancient Israel..Other laws are ceremonial..However, various moral laws..are explicitly reiterated in the New Testament..Jesus himself teaches that the only God-honoring alternative to marriage between a man and a woman is singleness..the Bible also prohibits all sexual looking and thinking outside of marriage between a husband and a wife..it is sinful even to look at someone who is not your husband or wife and entertain sexual thoughts about that person..it is also wrong to provoke sexual desires in others outside of marriage..God prohibits any kind of crude speech, humor, or entertainment that remotely revolves around sexual immorality..often watch movies and shows, read books and articles, and visit Internet sites that highlight, display, promote, or make light of sexual immorality..God prohibits sexual worship-- the idolization of sex and infatuation with sexual activity as a fundamental means to personal fulfillment..Don't rationalize it, and don't reason with it-- run from it. Flee it as fast as you can..We all have a sinful tendency to turn aside from God's ways to our wants. This tendency has an inevitable effect on our sexuality..every one of us is born with a bent toward sexual sin. But just because we have that bent doesn't mean we must act upon it. We live in a culture that assumes a natural explanation implies a moral obligation. If you were born with a desire, then it's essential to your nature to carry it out. This is one reason why our contemporary discussion of sexuality is wrongly framed as an issue of civil rights..Ethnic identity is a morally neutral attribute..Sexual activity is a morally chosen behavior..our sexual behavior is a moral decision, and just because we are inclined to certain behaviors does not make such behaviors right. His disposition toward a behavior does not mean justification for that behavior. "That's the way he is" doesn't mean "that's how he should act." Adultery isn't inevitable; it's immoral. This applies to all sexual behavior that deviates from God's design..We do not always choose our temptations. But we do choose our reactions to those temptations..the assumption that God's Word is subject to human judgement..Instead of obeying what God has said, we question whether God has said it..as soon as we advocate homosexual activity, we undercut biblical authority..we are undermining the integrity of the entire gospel..We take this created gift called sex and use it to question the Creator God, who gave us the gift in the first place..[Jesus] was the most fully human, fully complete person who ever lived, and he was never married. He never indulged in any sort of sexual immorality..This was not a resurrection merely of Jesus' spirit or soul but of his body..Repentance like this doesn't mean total perfection, but it does mean a new direction..in a culture that virtually equates identity with sexuality..Naturally this becomes our perception of ourselves, and we subsequently view everything in our lives through this grid..When you turn to Christ, your entire identity is changed. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Your identity is no longer as a heterosexual or a homosexual, an addict or an adulterer.
”
”
David Platt (A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Abortion, Persecution, Orphans and Pornography)