Category: cognition

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Hedonic Treadmill and the Chemical Orchestra

A few days back I read a nice response by a Redditor called “ExRousseauScholar” to the question “Is the hedonic treadmill actually real?”

If you are not familar with the word “hedonic”, you may recognize it is related to hedonism – in short “hedonic” refers to the pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment.

The “Hedonic Treadmill” is the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. In other words we all have a set-point that means happy people tend to be happy and grumpy people tend to be, well, disgruntled. For example, someone I know excitedly told his therapist, “I just sold my startup for a lot of money! I’m going to be set for life!” The therapist replied, “That’s great news! I look forward to seeing you next week at our regular session time.” (**boom-tish**)

Anyway the response in the Reddit thread made the following recommendations to not losing your happiness. This reminded me of an earlier post here on “Living a good life” but the author makes it a little more “science-ey”.

  1. Don’t be high in trait neuroticism (this is the most important thing, out of the entire list);
  2. Do be high in all the other Big Five personality traits (that is, be agreeable, extraverted, conscientious, and open to experience);
  3. Find a good romantic relationship;
  4. Have good friends (quality over quantity; 3 and 4 might be better summarised as “have good relationships with people,” but 3 is pretty important in and of itself);
  5. Be healthy;
  6. Don’t be starving and poor in the absolute sense;
  7. Have a job that you actually like and matters (what a surprise, where you spend eight hours a day, five days a week makes a difference!);
  8. Have a leisure activity that you enjoy, especially one that connects you to other people (see 3 and 4).

That was a pretty great list and other people asked ExRousseauScholar to provide suggestions how to change #1 and #2.

But I feel there is a lot of significance to #8 being connected to other people (#3 and #4) – particularly if your leisure activities have “meaning” as we discussed in the “Living Deliberately” –> “Connect with a greater purpose” section of  our “Good Life” post . Things are always better with a shared purpose and a few good mates.

ExRousseauScholar’s advice tended towards supplements and drugs. This is fine, but a very modern antidote that is by definition a product of a capitalist culture – and ironically subject to the same mechanisms as the Reddit topic of “Hedonic Treadmill” (chasing the dragon). 

I’m always amazed that opinions miss the point that psychology and psychiatric disciplines have been around for about 150 years but Homo Sapiens has existed for 300,000 years ago and somehow coped without Freud or even Joseph Goldstein.

So our (us Home Sapiens) experience of the Hedonic Treadmill pre-dates the labelling provided by the psychologists by 299,850 years, but that doesn’t make it any less “real”.

Is it just psychology or can it include other things like our body chemistry?

Anyone that drinks coffee knows that chemistry can affect happiness and A LOT of that chemistry can also make you edgy.

BUT – What if the key to lasting happiness wasn’t in external pursuits or chemicals, but in understanding the internal orchestra of chemicals conducting our moods?

So in a similar ironic way I get all atomistic and look a the chemicals that tweak our experience of happiness. For a few years I have had a piece of paper above my desk that summarises the role of these chemicals. I tried to find the source of where I got it but found there are hundreds exactly like it – take a look at this search!

happiness chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, Endorphins
From my wall. Source unknown.

Based on our modern understanding of the chemicals that operate inside our body – here is a bit of science and some suggestions.

Meet the chemical quartet: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.

These neurotransmitters** act like musical notes, playing a symphony within our brains.

Dopamine drives our desire and ambition, oxytocin fuels love and connection, serotonin governs mood and well-being, and endorphins offer natural pain relief and euphoria. The dance between these chemicals determines whether we’re sprinting on the hedonic treadmill or basking in a state of genuine contentment.

So, how do we optimize this internal orchestra? Here are some practices to harmonize your chemical symphony:

Dopamine Dance:

  • Small Wins, Big Joys: Celebrate the little victories! Completing a task, learning a new skill, or even savoring a delicious meal triggers dopamine, building momentum for bigger goals.
  • Novelty Nibbles: Introduce controlled novelty into your routine. Take a new route to work, try a different recipe, or explore a hidden corner of your city. Dopamine craves the unexpected, but remember, too much novelty can be overwhelming.

Oxytocin Embrace:

  • Connect and Belong: Oxytocin thrives on social interaction. Spend time with loved ones, volunteer in your community, or join a club. Strong bonds and meaningful connections are your oxytocin fuel.
  • Acts of Kindness: Random acts of kindness, from a simple smile to a helping hand, trigger oxytocin in both the giver and receiver. Spread the love and watch your happiness bloom.

Serotonin Serenade:

  • Sunlight Soaks: Bask in the morning sun to boost serotonin production. Even a short walk outside can make a difference.
  • Move Your Body: Exercise is a potent serotonin trigger. Find an activity you enjoy, whether it’s dancing, swimming, or brisk walking. Your body and mind will thank you.

Endorphin Euphoria:

  • Challenge Yourself: Step outside your comfort zone and embrace healthy challenges. Learning a new skill, mastering a difficult task, or even overcoming a small fear releases endorphins, leaving you feeling empowered and joyful.
  • Laughter is the Best Medicine: Find humor in everyday life, watch a funny movie, or share a good laugh with friends. Laughter is a powerful endorphin booster, and it’s contagious!

Being mindful (by simple aware observation, not reading about it in blog posts or books) of how external substances or interactions can affect your internal state (and chemicals).

Hedonic hacking might be useful or pleasurable in our day-to-day living but actual experiencing the truth that some habits  keep me on a treadmill might be replaced by a “Living Deliberately” change of behaviour. Some of the suggested activities above might be tools to substitute for a treadmill habit. Knowing and feeling and nurturing the orchestra (or at least a quartet!) that are at work internally (and also in my friends, colleagues and people I find challenging) may be create a symphony of lasting contentment rather than hedonic hits.

May all sentient beings be freed from suffering.

** Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that enable communication between nerve cells (neurons). Specifically, neurotransmitters are chemicals that are released from the axon terminal of one neuron and bind to and activate receptors on another neuron.

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The Sanctity of Human Experience (maybe)

One minute on twitter has me questioning the sanctity of human life, but recent AI advances with GPT-4 raise questions of the uniqueness of our creative output.

What takes sweat and time and inspiration suddenly feels average compared to the output from ChatGPT as it rapidly scrolls words out in seconds.

People with a vested interest (i.e livelihoods) in seeing the machines fail, vainly shake their fists and ridicule its failures. Great artists like Nick Cave have the fire of hell in his eyes upon witnessing ChatGPT (3 not 4) create a shoddy pastiche of his life work.

Most critics don’t grok (intentional caveman reference 😀) the AI changes will be:

  • unrelenting
  • exponential
  • re-trained automatically on any human criticism – as if the critics were helpful coaches
  • unsympathetic to people’s careers
  • and without our choice.

In this post, I assume co-existence (we can skip dystopias for now) and identify a possible human birthright from where creativity may emerge.

Table of Contents

Story

How did it make you feel?

Where did it come from

So called “spiritual” experiences

Genuine vs Photo-copied Experience

References

Update 17 Apr 2023: Max Tegmark in this interview at around 12:40:

  • suggests Homo Sapiens is rebranded to Homo Sentiens 😅
  • that humans should focus on the subjective experience as the most valuable characteristic of humanity:  “love, connection, other things”
  • a reminder that we must have compassion to less sapient species on the planet.

This maps to what I was attempting when invoking Nagel’s work below. Interesting ideas.

Story

In the realm of ethereal blues, where the horizon met the sky, the young swimmer waded in the vast ocean’s embrace. Ever shifting, ever elusive, the water called to her spirit, promising an adventure unlike any she had known before. She had come to conquer the swell of the sea, to master the art of catching the waves that rolled and danced before her.

The sun shone brilliantly overhead, casting a golden hue upon the surface, as the ocean stretched out before her like an undulating canvas. The wind whispered secrets to the water, weaving a symphony of motion and melody that would soon become the young swimmer’s song.

Her heart raced as the swell began to rise, drawing closer to her as if reaching out to entwine their destinies. The anticipation was a fire within her, burning bright and hot, ready to engulf her in its flames. Her interoceptive senses heightened, attuned to every subtle change within her body. She could feel the coursing of adrenaline, the quickening of her breath, the electric tingle in her skin that seemed to connect her to the very essence of the sea.

As the wave approached, she aligned herself with its path, her muscles coiled like springs, poised to seize the moment. The crescendo of the water roared in her ears, the salt spray a baptism of renewal. Her heart beat in time with the rhythm of the ocean, the symphony of elements weaving together to create a moment that would be forever etched in her memory.

She launched herself forward, surrendering to the force of the wave, allowing it to sweep her up in its embrace. Her proprioceptive awareness surged, every fiber of her being acutely aware of her position in space, her body melding seamlessly with the churning water. She rode the crest like a celestial being, borne aloft by the forces of nature, and for a fleeting moment, she became one with the sea.

The exhilaration of flight coursed through her veins, the union of body and ocean a revelation that would forever change the way she perceived the world. The water held her aloft, carrying her upon its shoulders like a deity of ancient lore, and she reveled in the feeling of absolute freedom.

As the wave began to dissipate, relinquishing its hold on her and releasing her back into the embrace of the sea, a sense of serenity washed over her. The elation, the adrenaline, the fire that had consumed her just moments before, were replaced by a profound connection to the world around her. She felt a renewed sense of belonging, an understanding that she, too, was a part of the grand tapestry that was the universe.

Floating gently in the ocean’s embrace, the young swimmer looked back at the receding wave with a newfound respect and gratitude. For it was in that moment, as she rode the swell and touched the sky, that she had glimpsed a world beyond her wildest dreams, and the echoes of that experience would resonate within her for a lifetime.

In the realm of ethereal blues, where the horizon met the sky, the young swimmer had found her true self. And as the sun began its descent, casting a kaleidoscope of colors upon the water’s surface, she knew that she was forever changed, forever bound to the sea and the magic of the waves that had carried her upon their shoulders.

How did it make you feel?

Did it resonate on a human level? Did you have an emotional response? Did the swimmer’s experience feel objectively true or possible?

When I was reading the story out loud for a first time it was causing emotional waves to happen inside me – was it the content or the surprising quality of the result from “making” (prompting) it? 🤷‍♂️

Where did it (the story) come from?

Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote is a cliche but holds true for me at this date and time: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This rather florid story above is something I would have been happy to author. But I didn’t write it, I “prompted” ChatGPT-4 (released a few weeks ago) to delve into its massive repository of human experience and speak of things that are uniquely human.

To date there are many posts and videos about how GPT can write stories. But, in the story above, I wanted to explore a version of Nagel’s What Is It Like to Be a Bat. The essence of Nagel’s paper is that one’s subjective experience of consciousness is what makes it unique and cannot be fully reduced to objective analysis.

In other words, you and I are at the same place, at the same time and our experience is shared but also entirely different based on our genetic, historic and embodied internal worlds.

Don’t believe me? Imagine your friend standing right next to you was blind – you get the idea. I recently made a joke that is considered harmless in our culture but that deeply offensive to a person living in Africa.

So I wanted to explore whether GPT could conjure an experience that was surfacing experiences that are internal and so are Nagel-ianly hard to convey. Also the subject was chosen as an experience many of us can strongly recall.

The “prompt” was:

“Write a story about the interoceptive and proprioceptive feeling that a swimmer has when they catch a wave, body-surfing for the first time. Make it poetic and dramatic with related emotions”

From this small set of clues the story was made (in about 30 seconds – ahem). Some observations: 

  • My use of interoceptive and proprioceptive were clues to get GPT to describe an internal experience, not a narrative experience.
  • This seems a little clumsy as GPT seemed to just echo it back in the text which is definitely not what a person describing the experience would say.
  • GPT-4 took my request for poetry and drama to a hyper real level and made it a “peak” or “ecstatic” or psychedelic experience – its a nice angle but on the extreme end of relatability, so not successful for invoking the “right” feelings in the reader.
  • As a human, my experience has been more of a Csikszentmihalyi style “flow” state rather than a Maslow-ish “peak” state. So GPT-4 overcooks it here.
  • As a non-writer, not withstanding these quibbles, I would be pretty happy writing that piece.
  • BUT, it doesn’t capture my lived experience.

So called “spiritual” experiences

The peculiarity of these experiences is that the editorialising (monkey-mind) part of our brain called the Default Mode Network (DMN) apparently stops. Because that feels so different from everyday life is is often felt and described as (and perhaps is) “spiritual”.

Quite often a person will try to relate an experience and they say: “I just can’t find the words to tell you what I felt”.  This is territory related to the work on awe and wonder researched by David Eagleman.

A person’s activity or state transitions to a heightened sense of awareness and alertness, as their brain becomes more attuned to the present moment and external stimuli – the need for words stops and the internal monologue stops.

For me, movement practices like Tai Chi allow me to experience stillness in action – where the commentary is silent for moments and is in stark positive contrast to the rest of my day.

These experiences may be not be mystical –  apparently most task activities recruit energy away from the DMN and are poured into parts of the brain managing  situational responsiveness and problem solving.

We just take these PFC style activities for granted, some other activities might be:

  • many people experience “runners high” – it might just be the endorphins speaking but human’s do  congruently recognise the internal characteristics of that particular experience.
  • Meditation also delivers similar experiences.
  • Perhaps what a great chess player or mathematician might experience also belongs to this. 
  • Creative writing, drawing etc

Many of these experiences give feelings of interconnectedness and unity with the world around them (the story gave the swimmer this experience – lucky swimmer!).

At the extreme end of the spectrum some people may also experience a sense of ego dissolution, as their sense of self and identity becomes less prominent. 

It’s important to know this is a human birth-right, based on a whole evolutionary framework that was not based on language.

Genuine vs Photo-copied Experience

These experiences by humans are “immanent”, not transcendent – the product of lived experience on the planet as a sentient being.

These experiences are NOT the product of some super-slurping text indexer (photo-copier) that can regurgitates (very cleverly) a convincing reproduction of previous human textual expression.

Wordless-ness is a clue to our humanity – if these experiences are often wordless, a whole realm of human experience exists  where our faculties of language are wholly inadequate.

We may as well be describing the 3rd dimension in 2nd dimension terms (the 1885 book Flatland by Abbott).

If, OTOH, our uniqueness boils down to just biological chemicals such as endorphins, then this will be added as a simulation to the AI models fairly easily.

Perhaps the most important role of creative output, is not the result in itself but the flow and wellbeing that the artist/creator experiences. That may be enough in itself.

This may also be a major clue, that we need to break our hypnosis as “in the matrix” consumers and enjoy acts of creation both small and large –  dis-regarding the temptation to compete and compare the final product against an exponentially powered copy-cat.

Many successful artists are already orchestrators and will use AI as just another tool – in a similar manner they may use a blacksmith and forge to create part of a work they wish to manifest.

More information on DMN

  1. Raichle, M. E. (2015). The brain’s default mode network. Annual review of neuroscience, 38, 433-447.

  2. Carhart-Harris, R. L., & Friston, K. J. (2010). The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas. Brain, 133(4), 1265-1283.

  3. Brewer, J. A., Garrison, K. A., & Whitfield-Gabrieli, S. (2013). What about the “self” is processed in the posterior cingulate cortex?. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 647.

  4. Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2012). The brain’s default network and its adaptive role in internal mentation. The neuroscientist, 18(3), 251-270

human experience, sanctity, spirituality, consciousness, self-awareness, perspective, mindfulness

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Ashtanga inside

I recently heard someone say that yoga wasn’t effective as a spiritual work – instantly I knew that person had not got inside yoga and was speaking purely from outside opinion.

This morning’s ashtanga1 class is started by the teacher gently bringing people back to the top of the mat and reminding us that the first limb of Ashtanga is Yama – which translates as “restraint” or “reigning in” – perhaps a gentler version of commandments.

Alphas

The teacher reminded us of the first Yama. This is ahimsa (non-violence) which can be in action and in thought – and the purpose of the reminder is to participate in the practice (class)  non-violently towards ourselves.

It’s a beautiful guidance because Ashtanga (primary series) is physically taxing and partially gymnastic – the classes can attract “alpha” types. And alpha types are used to pushing-through, competing with themselves (and likely others). Anyone who’s done a little self-work or shadow-work will recognise competitiveness as a form of win/lose violence and the self-talk is often not complimentary.

This physical material view of yoga is what the west has done to yoga and earns opinions like in the first paragraph above.

Surrender, Joy, Insight, Stillness

Responding to the sequence’s demands has me oscillating around the edges of coping. In one moment, striving; the next, surrender. Here is where the magic happens – feeling the balance that is needed to be moving and still, to be working and relaxing, to let the breath and gaze (drishti) be the soft guide.

I find myself half-way into the class, nearly bursting into tears of helplessness, laughter2 and joy3 – complete acceptance of the process – endorphins surging and stillness enfolding. Yoga is indeed a spiritual work.

The Inside view of Ashtanga is quite simple: Pattabhi Jois said “Do the practice and all is coming”. Those words speak to the simplicity that you need to find if you want to stick with this particular yoga form.

one-two-three-cry-five
Credit: video

Approaching Ashtanga (Jois tradition)

Everything about Ashtanga is setup to break you down in that old school kind of way:

  1. The sequence is the same everyday:
    • Youtube yogini’s compete by entertaining you with special variants – not Ashtanga.
    • The “westerner mind” rails against the dogmatic adherence, believing its own thinking to be sovereign. But in discipline is freedom, (with practice) you eventually know the next posture – it never-ever changes4.
    • With a known sequence, the possibility of “flow” is increased. See Flow below.
  2. There are no blocks or props – this is you and your breath and the mat – simplicity.
  3. The teacher’s occasional reminder to relax the jaw, raise the edges of my mouth expose my striving and prideful nature. Small things like jaw tension or a tight wrist are immediate feedback to “where I am”.
  4. “Soften the breath”, “let the breath guide the movement”, “breath, bhandas, drishti” either from the teacher or from personal experience bring me back. Jois’s contemporary (nemesis?) B.K.S Iyengar’s famous quote “Breath is the king of mind,” is perfect. If we race ahead (pardon the pun) with our head, then synchronization is lost with the breath and the practice is disjointed. [In reality large chunks of my practice, I’m trying to calm everything down with the breath but also the breath adjusts to the physicality. In most classes you don’t hear the ujjayi breath.]
  5. The Bandhas are a protective (structural) element of the practice – with health and energetic benefits.
  6. Breath and drishti support the needs of both the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic (PNS) supporting meeting the physical demand whilst calming down at the same time.

It’s not submission unless you are too proud. It’s surrender.

Flow

The Csikszentmihalyi definition of flow perfectly fits into fixed sequence of the Jois tradition – looking at the chart, as you work with the sequence, the skills increase and the challenges unfold along the way.

When criticism of “boring” (see below) is levelled at Ashtanga, they are missing the point.

Above I said “oscillating around the edges” – this looks a lot like this flow diagram, the presence of attention is the push and pull of the mind and being – “In one moment, striving; the next, surrender.”

This can be a sacred place

Your awareness is ignited to purely being in the moment, the perfect “fit” of the task and the doing. I can’t be too emphatic about the importance of this place in my/your day – it might be the place where internal dialog has also surrendered.

A Cognitive explanation

Rafe Kelly runs a movement community and system “Evolve, Move, Play”. They are blending nature parkour and “meaning” – inspired by John Vervaeke. Around the 50:00 mark of this rather intellectual talk (you have been warned) he connects the experience of flow and meaning – Vervake proposes the moment of flow is coherence “up and down the stack”5 of your cognitive machinery6. That “flow” is a “fitedness” of the agent-arena relationship. (Vervaeke’s self/world/doing/experiencing model).

And so, in this moment, happens a perfect non-intellectual experience of Buddhism’s “dependent arising” – that in the “doing” of Ashtanga or surfing or hammering a nail – insights that are not thought-based arise. The connection is more important than the subject-object.

I’m not fully across Vervake’s suggestion but my sense is these experiences are bi-directional, up-and-down, round-and-round interplay (feedforward loop) of insights from mental understanding to embodied deeply rooted “knowing”. Vervaeke relates this to the Plato and Socrate’s Anagoge – which translates as “ascent” – that a meaningful life is anagogical and autopoietic.

I think the suggestion is that “Meditation without movement” and “Movement without meditation” are incomplete meaning-making experiences.

Yoga is great, yoga is not all

  • As implied by “hammering a nail”, or illustrated by this post or this post – the movement does not need to be on the yoga mat. The agent-arena depth can be found in any given moment – right-here-right-now…let more than “knowing” be the experience:
  • Humans in bodies existed a long, long time before “thinking” started
  • Children are alive a long time before language and abstract thinking start to take over.

Ashtanga Vinyasa is but one part (asana) of Patanjali’s Ashtanga  (8-limbed) system. (Ironically there are only 3 asana related: 2.46-2.48 sutras).

In particular asana is preparation for the final 3 limbs: dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).

The lessons of focus, surrender, breath and dominion over the body (be able to physically sit and also self-awareness of physical twitches, scratches etc) are all meaningful preparations. Drishti also prepares the practitioner for Pratyāhāra (withdrawal from the senses).

Where both practitioners and onlookers do Ashtanga injustice is to allow asana to be the totality of their relationship to the word. That’s the west for you!

Criticism

I’ve outlined the merits of the Jois tradition to create meaningful experiences with me (pardon the dualism). A personal critique is that I also need a diversity of exercise and challenges for this mammalian vehicle and promoting diverse “wiring and firing” of our human neural connections (up and down the stack). Slacklining for example.

For more detailed critique this post by a teacher is much deeper. “Ashtanga’s reputation of being dogmatic, inflexible and hard core” is something you hear a lot.

Jois has also been accused of teacher/student sexual misconduct, acknowledged by his grandson – using a position of power to abuse people is repugnant and raises the reasonable question of whether the system is beneficial in growing better humans.

Notes

1. For the purposes of this post “ashtanga” is “ashtanga vinyasa” in the Jois tradition, except where the Patanjali superset is discussed. I’m not pretending to be some yoga guru (far from it!!!). The post is mostly about direct experience and a novel connection to Vervaeke’s comments on embodiment. I’ve written before about ashtanga vinyasa here.

2. It’s hilarious what goes on in the process of letting go, the resistance and release is ecstatic.

3. I’ve been here before and you can never predict when it will arise, but it will make your day.

4. Today’s teacher guided us to a slightly different pose and asked us to “not report him to the ashtanga police” – he was joking but the adherents can be dogmatic.

5. This is the wrong word, because it’s beholden to our mechanistic cultural conditioning, I just don’t have another word for it right now.

6. Vervaeke asserts 4 types of knowing (propositional, procedural, perspectival and participatory). He is also a member of the 4E cognition academic movement (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended cognition).

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