Today I’ve read a great post from Seth Godin about the difference of happiness and pleasure. Main differences in the definition are:
| Pleasure | Happiness |
| short-lived | long-lived |
| addictive | additive |
| selfish | generous |
| taking | giving |
| can be achieved with substances | can’t be achieved with substances |
| experienced alone | experienced in social groups |
| dopamine | serotonin |
Due to the fact I had similar experiences only for three days this year really makes me think: The luxury of being offline – insights and learnings without dopamin
Living in or for imagination is a very important stimulation for human beings. Especially the pleasure we experience when using electronic devices, not only from mobile phones, pc, consoles or whatever. Then another tweet caught my attention:
Really? How is it possible, that leaving the house without not having a camera on Apple watch creates a weird feeling? What’s going to happen not using electronic devices at all for more than 24 hours? 48 hours? A week, two weeks, a month or longer?
Reflecting about the influence of dopamine created by notifications and short sneak peaks of using the mobile phone feels like an overdose for me. Even limiting the distraction of notifications to a minimum makes me think. Detoxing from electronic usage always helps me unwind my mind, remove distraction focussing on the things I’d like to achieve and overcome restlessness. Meditation and exercise are temporary actions to become more balanced.
But what are you doing to become happy? What are your experiences with pleasure and dopamine?
Based on an interview with Dr. Robert Lustig, you’ll get more information, worth watching not only because of chemical and biological consequences of dopamine and serotonin:
Patrick Sauerwein | @virtual_patrick 