Editor’s notice: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Lloyd Newell every Sunday through the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Sq. broadcast. This will likely be given Sunday, April 14, 2024.
In our trendy world, it’s really easy to take pleasure in pleasure. Our great-grandparents needed to spend most waking moments with numerous backbreaking chores simply to outlive, however immediately a lot of these duties don’t burden us anymore. We’re extra free than ever earlier than to hunt leisure, to do what we wish to do, go the place we wish to go and eat what we wish to eat, all with out lots of effort.
You would possibly suppose we’d be happier than earlier generations. Then why aren’t we?
Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke explains that our brains are always in search of to stability pleasure and discomfort. When it takes arduous work to attain pleasure, every little thing stays in stability. However when pleasure comes too simply, “our [brain] will work very hard to restore a level balance. … In our brain’s effort to compensate for too much pleasure,” it stops producing pleasure hormones. (See Anna Lembke, in Shankar Vedantam, “The Paradox of Pleasure,” Hidden Mind podcast, hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-paradox-of-pleasure.) In different phrases, after we chase pleasure an excessive amount of, with out objective, with out effort, with out significant work, we find yourself feeling empty and sad.
In distinction, after we interact in harder however purposeful actions, we stability our mind’s chemistry. For this reason we really feel higher after the pressure of exercising a bit, fixing a troublesome puzzle or speaking with somebody we don’t know. That type of satisfying happiness usually comes after we’ve paid the worth of effort, focus and sacrifice.
One girl who went by means of a painful divorce felt a lot heartache that she didn’t wish to get away from bed within the morning. However she had two toddlers who wanted her, so she compelled herself to do what she didn’t really feel like doing. As she helped her kids dress, eat breakfast and prepare for the day, she virtually at all times felt higher. With objective and energy, she discovered therapeutic — even pleasure — in her each day work.
This truly isn’t a brand new idea. Greater than 2,000 years in the past, the Lord Jesus Christ equally taught that true happiness shouldn’t be present in pursuing pleasure however reasonably by doing one thing worthwhile for another person. He stated, “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (see Matthew 16:25). Pleasure and work, pleasure and sacrifice should not enemies however companions in our seek for soul-satisfying happiness.
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is offered on KSL-TV, KSL Information Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (should allow talent). This system is aired stay on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these retailers. Lookup broadcast info by state and metropolis at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
“Well bless their hearts.”
