Real Luxury in the mind

June 4, 2022
2 min read

Lately I am feeling an indomitable sense of dignity and fearlessless. Worries, pettiness, over sentitiveness were still disturbing me despite my exalted state.

After a book on happiness, I was able to find the cause. Cortisol is built up in high amount around a negative thought because of evolution. In the earlier days it was a survival necessity to focus the mind on any negativity to survive:

  • always be aware of threats
  • always be aware of potential threats
  • be on the watch of any sign of threats
  • run, fight or freeze at any perception of threat

Anyone who would be:

  • always happy
  • always thinking positive
  • ignoring the negative
  • not react at the perception of threat

, that person would have died sooner than later.

However those were really rough and tough days. In today’s modern day, death is the threat, bad things that can happen are:

  • failure
  • sabotage my another
  • others gossiping
  • being fired
  • being paid less
  • being treated unfairly
  • some level of discomfort
  • losing status

Basically these are non-life threatening. Then most of times these bad things happen without warning and thus any preparation is futile. Then other times there is knowledge of these bad things occurring but nothing can be done, except the rational action of accepting.

Thus the old mechanism works in the new world environment where minor threats of bad things are plenty and incessant.

The mind is evolutionarily trained to focus any potential threat by flooding the body with cortisol. But not only it makes us miserable, it is not necessary, and it causes more problems than it solves.

Changing this wiring of the brain, will be the greatest challenge of mankind in the 21st century and the highest luxury more than a mansion, and a private jet.