Sober living- discussion

[shahar uriel]

Hello guys.

Following leo on the forum, i have read some comments of him talking about sober living.

One comment really resonated with me :"Sober living is King". 

This led me to contemplate my own unsober ways of living.. Chasing constant dopamine hits in the form of news, social media, junk food, shopping and more. lying to my loved ones. not living at my edge, being lazy and unproductive. not having the fire of zest inside me.

My contemplation has led me to the conclusion that so much of it is because of my addiction to low and shallow entertainment. I think in modern times, where we pretty much solved basic survival, unhooking ourselves from such low level activities is really one of our greatest challenges. 

Today, i have rewatched leo's video :"How to fall in love with life". I think in modern times this is one of the most important teaching leo gave us.

Anyways, I wanted to hear your opinion and thoughts on this issue. practical suggestions and success stories are very welcome. 

 

 

 

[Sugarcoat]

When you indulge too much in the modern easily accessible pleasures your dopamine system gets “drained” and you end up not being able to enjoy it as much as if you did it more sparingly. I think a balance is key, sure if you wanna go the extreme route and unhook yourself from the pleasures all together that would probably create a richer experience of life as more mundane things will be enough to give you some “dopamine”, but I think it’s nice to include some of that pleasure but sparingly and if you do it sparingly you’re able to enjoy it more than if you do it too often because you’re not draining your dopamine. That’s ideal imo. A simple example is if you eat sweets too much it stops being as tasty. That’s how it works for the brain. 
 

Maybe I sound too obvious lol. Sometimes I be like that

Edited Tuesday at 10:37 AM by Sugarcoat

[LastThursday]

You could also take the intent angle and ask yourself does "sober living" align with your intent? 

Nearly all of us carry on living without any strong intent, and we end up relying on what society provides to give us meaning: news, social media, streaming, junk food and on and on. All those things can be quite exciting or strongly stimulating and a way to fill time or to feel like you're taking part in society. And, we end up being neurotic because we start relying on that stimulation to feel "normal". Without it we feel lost or detached from society, and without the distraction we start looking inward at all the bad things about ourselves.

To re-engage with loving life, you need to build up strong intent in how you go about things. In other words you actively choose what you want for yourself, instead of being spoonfed by society: a life purpose. But a good start, is to cut out the time wasting distractions, so you can at least give yourself time and mental space for working out what you want out of life.

[RawJudah]

I’ve found that if your life is shit, being sober is really hard. But if your life is amazing, being sober is easy.

And forget about ‘dopamine’. Forget that word altogether. Chances are you saw the word dopamine on YouTube and you didn’t know it existed when you were a kid. 

We’re all addicts. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have an addiction to something. 

[Terell Kirby]

15 minutes ago, RawJudah said:

I’ve found that if your life is shit, being sober is really hard. But if your life is amazing, being sober is easy.

 

I hear you- although I will say at some point you hit bottom. Your life becomes shit and you have no other option but to change- even though it’s difficult. A willingness to go to any length 

[RawJudah]

1 hour ago, Terell Kirby said:

I hear you- although I will say at some point you hit bottom. Your life becomes shit and you have no other option but to change- even though it’s difficult. A willingness to go to any length 

Absolutely. Especially for alcoholics and serious drug addicts. 
I’m addicted to caffeine and nicotine. I know they’re both causing problems but my god it’s hard to quit them both. There’s nobody to blame but caffeine and nicotine is everywhere. People offer me coffee for free all the time, so you have to constantly be on your guard if you want to quit caffeine for good. 

[Sandhu]

7 hours ago, shahar uriel said:

Today, i have rewatched leo's video :"How to fall in love with life". I think in modern times this is one of the most important teaching leo gave us.

Can't agree more, I have watched this video many many times. It's the best video Leo could have put out for young people. The Joy of sober Living.