The Brain's Betrayal

[Wyatt]

The hot and cold cycle of attention followed by neglect,
or kindness followed by malice, will create a trauma bond.
Your brain will oscillate between pumping out oxytocin
(bonding hormone) and cortisol (stress hormone).
The intensity and instability of this chemical cocktail breeds
a hurricane inside your skull and heart. You feel unsafe.
A simmering, background anxiety floods your state,

undermining your wellbeing. It becomes difficult
to sleep or focus. Brain chemistry plays a massive
role here. To stay sane through this process,
you need to understand the brain's prime motivation
and mechanics.

Your brain's main goal is to keep you safe, not happy.
Happiness becomes attainable only after your brain
is convinced that you are safe.

 

[snappy1]

Sounds like my childhood.

 

[Wyatt]

Sounds like my childhood.

I believe we can all see a bit of ourselves in the OP.

“To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.”

― Viktor Emil Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning

 

[snappy1]

I'm thinking that happiness works the same way!

 

[Wyatt]

I'm thinking that happiness works the same way!

“Again and again, I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue.

And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge.

Then you will live to see that in the long-run, in the long-run, I say(!), success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.”

Viktor E. Frankl

 

[Amish Heart]

I'm sure what Mr Frankl had to endure during the holocaust was only survivable by giving his problems to God.
Fascinating man.

 

[Tirediron]

Society is programmed to keep people in a state of mild fear, interspersed with boogeymen and extra fear. the human has the choice to either realize this and be fore armed, or fall victim to it and thus ultimately fail, there is a also a group that invokes tunnel vision to cope.

 

[Magus]

Ditto. want to be happy? don't be afraid. live in peace.