Magic Tricks of Life

If you placed a seed into dirt, waved a magic wand
and the seed instantly blossomed into a beautiful flower
would you call it magic?

If the seed took a minute to turn into a flower
would you still call it magic?

What if it took an hour, a day, a week, or a month?

When does it stop being magic and turn into life?

Is time the only difference between magic and life?

Albert Einstein noted, “For us believing physicists, the separation between past, present and future has only the meaning of an illusion, albeit a tenacious one.”

Dr. Einstein believed, “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

You don‘t have to be an Einstein to notice that time is an illusion or understand why every flower is a reminder that we’re sharing an incredible, unimaginable, unbelievable, impossible miracle.

So, why does almost everyone live as if nothing is a miracle?

Dopamine-induced addictions.

The Advantages of Raising Your Dopamine Awareness

“You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.”  – Paulo Coelho 

Raising dopamine awareness makes it possible to understand:

• Stress impedes our ability to notice miracles.
• Stress is exacerbated by dopamine-induced addictions to the survival behaviors we share with chimpanzees (who also stress out and obsess over acquiring food, sex, safety/power, acceptance/approval/attention, esteem/status).
• Junkies seldom notice miracles because the only thing addicts care about is scoring the same dopamine that 99% of us trigger with food, sex, safety/power, acceptance/approval/attention, esteem/status, and money.
• Miracles scare safety addicts who fear the unknown.
• Miracles terrify approval addicts who dread being rejected for noticing anything their peers fail to notice.
• Miracles petrify esteem addicts who desperately want to feel special for the pettiest of reasons instead of feeling blessed for being miracles capable of appreciating miracles.

If everyone spent as much time being awed by miracles as we do feeding hungers, indulging fears, seeking approval, coveting status symbols, and chasing money, planet earth would be a virtual paradise.

At best, dopamine awareness makes it possible to significantly reduce stress by identifying and addressing the dopamine influences that get in the way of experiencing miracles.

At worst, dopamine awareness helps explain how dopamine-induced addictions have turned our potential heaven into what many experience as a living hell.

At least, if you understand all this, you‘ll know why you don‘t have to be an Einstein to grasp how dopamine awareness can make you the brightest person in a very dark room.