Corona Virus and Dopamine Rewards

This message is for those of us sitting on the sidelines, not sick.

In my morning meditation, I was struck by an incredible metaphysical situation. Punch line: Human minds focused on corona virus and getting dopamine hits from the news are actually creating the thing they don't want. You always get what you think about. So think about the solution. Think about good feeling things unrelated to the problem. Change the channel.Stop creating what you don't want. Think about and create what you do want.

More details please.

Lets start with the familiar information that human brains get small dopamine hits from "likes" on social media or that scrolling through apps on your phone is addictive.

“Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry.” (American Society of Addiction ASAM Definition of Addiction - American Society of Addiction Medicine )

Every human brain loves dopamine and other neuro substances, and goes after feel good substances relentlessly. The human brain is an addict’s brain. The human brain is an addictive system. To be human is to have an addictive neurology. Every brain loves rewards and will go after them with a passion. Rewards, or lack thereof, rule our emotions and we seek dopamine to feel better. Most of us become addicts of one sort or another, ruled by the drive to get dopamine rewards.

“Somewhere in human history, we were conditioned to think that the feeling we get when dopamine fires in our brain equals happiness” (The Craving Mind Judson Brewer page 55). Getting a dopamine hit from a corona news story equals happiness to your brain.

Continuing the semi-addictive dopamine rewards of corona virus news ( like face book, football, TV, eating, shopping, working) is like a continuous low grade fever which will eventually have to be overdosed with real disease. 

Become conscious of corona obsession. Obsession is emotion. And, it is known that the amount of drug necessary to achieve the reward always increases. The brain is attempting to get the body to carry out behavior of finding bigger badder corona problems so it can have a dopamine reward. Therefore, you who are addicted to corona news always need bigger badder stories of corona problems. Thus we are perpetuating the problem ourselves. We create reality with our thoughts.

Become an observer who does have the power of thought choice. Make the decision to choose good feeling thoughts unrelated to corona. You aren’t in life for the dopamine. You are in life for genuine love, for yourself and humanity.

Yes, find out the rules of the Governor, the Mayor, or the County Health Department, but don't spend your time there. Get your dopamine hits on some other topics.

How to Go Forward Spiritually

I've been having a degenerative problem with my left heel for several months. The pain was getting worse and at the end of May, I came home from a race in bad pain. It hasn't gotten any better since, but worse. I went to some practitioners who treat runners. I noticed money was flying out to them. Incredible sums as I looked earlier today at my insurance statement (deductible not yet paid).

Last week, I decided I would just give running a rest and not see any practitioners. These so-called helpers would give me a pain treatment and then send me out to run; thus making matters worse. Stopping running is what I need to heal.

So I stopped. Since I have spent every weekend for years running 40 to 50 miles, I didn't know what to do. Today at work, I thought about this blank openness where running used to be. About 2 pm, I thought I needed to grieve; not rush onto some different thing (which I can only think of past activities). I asked the Holy Spirit what would be forward.

As I was driving out of the parking lot at 3 pm, I realized that all my thoughts were past thoughts. I had no idea of a new thing for the future. That is when the revelation hit: the Real World is forward.

The Real World is defined by A Course in Miracles as all the loving thoughts of God's Son; and we are God's one Son. These loving thoughts form a reality: the Real World. I don't know what changes this revelation will make to my dream of this world; but I'm sure something.

As I typed this, I also remembered something else the Course says: if you leave an empty space, God will come into it and occupy it. This is another reason not to rush out and find a new hobby.

Well, I will run again after I heal; but I no longer identify myself as "ultra runner." I am free to have another identity. The Course has something to say about that too.

What is Long Distance Running?

Running for many miles, I feel myself trudging forward; whether into a bitter ice laden winter wind or through the salty sweat and dusty roads and biting flies of summer. In these moments, after the freshness of my legs has worn off and dreams of racing glory have been left hours behind, I find myself in my simplest form. The ego's grandiosity and posturing are diminished. My body is showing signs of wear and tear from the long slow plod. I am just as I am. There are no dreams. There are periods of thoughtlessness.

It is in the time of thoughtless silence that I need to be awake. Not that some enlightened euphoria will descend, as the emotions of the event are ego possessions. Not that I will suddenly perceive the presence of Jesus or the aura of the forest, as the celestine world is also an ego treasure.

The thoughtless silence is an egoless state of slackened perception where peace is possible and a wordless existence is realized. Yes, this is God Himself. But God is not an ego feeding proposition and how my ego hates me for seeking the nothingness of peace. Having no rewards that can be put into an ego language, the Ineffable cannot be described.

I am invalidating the many stories of enlightenment I've read and sought on the premise that if the ego can conceive of it, then it is not true and doesn't exist. If the ego can conceive of it and desire more of it, then it is yet one more in a steady stream of ego delusions which trick us into thinking we are really here. Beautifully attractive to the point of addiction, the hunger for more is a sure sign the presumed enlightenment is an ego aggrandisement. The ego preens over it's victory over your spirit and becomes obsessed with topping the achievement.

The deep solid quiet of real peace is the only thing I can experience which is beyond ego and close to God.

And so I bundle up and head out into a bitter wind, hoping for nothing.