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Craving

Craving

Thoughts as of 3/31/24

One of my biggest challenges lately in my fitness journey has been on the diet side.

It is not so much that I am eating unhealthy foods, it is more so resisting the urge to splurge and eat too much.

“All things in moderation.”

This has gone as far as me putting a live “days since binge” day counter on my phone. Today I am up to 7 days, a record since inception.

Listening to an episode of the Huberman Lab podcast recently, he mentioned a lesson he learned related to overcoming addiction.

It went something like “If you can tolerate craving for a second, you can do it for another second, and then another.”

In designing the architecture of my days, I have taken that principle seriously. Chunking the days into different parts so that the stress or boredom of work is less likely to get the best of me.

In deciding the topic for this post earlier in the week, I did not intend to write about eating at all. Rather, I was thinking about the Buddhist view of craving, i.e. the source of all suffering.

In my studies and learning of different religions and philosophies, I have found a lot of wisdom in Buddhist principles.

The fundamental reason why I struggle with happiness in the present moment boils down to craving. I am not happy right now because I desire things to be different than how they are.

Unhappiness lies in that delta between what you have and what you need. Both of those are levers to achieving fulfillment, and I have focused on either side to achieve a better balance.

Typically, the advice is to simply decrease what you want/need and then you will be happier.

As I have thought about this, it isn’t true that trying to increase what you have is a futile pursuit. Setting a goal for something you don’t have, trying and failing to get incrementally closer to it over time, and then ultimately achieving a goal has been one of the most lasting sources of happiness in my life.

All in all, craving comes in many forms. All forms of craving lead to a sense of unease or lacking. Yet, you have to think about what your goals are and what you want to achieve since I would bet that some programmatic craving wouldn’t be so bad.
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