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Have you ever eaten a third slice of pizza despite feeling full, or bought something online you didn’t really need, only to hear a small inner voice whisper, “This isn’t doing you any good”?

That's the guilt in guilty pleasure. Your brain knows the difference between what feels good and what's actually good for you. The guilt shows up because some part of you recognizes you're not getting real satisfaction—just a temporary hit of…something.

We've mixed up pleasure and happiness so badly that most of us don't even know the difference anymore. That confusion is the reason why we're all running around exhausted, chasing things that never actually fill us up.

Pleasure gets you moving. It's like having someone constantly whispering "Psst, over here! This will make you feel better." So you follow the call. Then what? You either indulge in it so much that you burn out from it, or it stops working so you need more.

Perhaps your morning coffee was once a cherished ritual, but now it feels joyless. The problem? When you don’t have a cup, you end up with a headache. Having your coffee went from doing something good to avoiding something bad. That's the pleasure trap right there.

The same thing happens with social media likes, shopping, going out to nice dinners, and sometimes even relationships. First you're chasing the high, then you're trying to escape from needing the high.

Watch people at parties who've been drinking. Or someone who's been gaming for six hours straight. Or anyone deep in a gambling rabbit hole. They’re not chasing fun anymore—they’re escaping their usual thoughts. But you can't disappear forever.

The exhaustion comes from all that running, toward the good feeling, then away from too much of it. You never get to just be somewhere and really enjoy the feeling.

Real happiness isn't a big emotional thing. It's more like not needing anything to be different than it is right now—just being genuinely okay with what's happening at the moment. 

Happiness is a habit we need to cultivate. 

When you're actually happy, you're not scanning the room for what might make you feel better. You're not counting likes or waiting for texts or planning your next purchase. You're just there, and that's enough.

It's like the difference between being thirsty and not being thirsty. When you're thirsty, everything else kind of fades into the background until you get water. When you're not thirsty, you can just focus on whatever you're doing.

Most of us are emotionally thirsty all the time without realizing it.

Pay attention to what you instinctively reach for. How often do you grab your phone with no real purpose? Eat when you’re not hungry? Shop when you don’t need anything?

Also, notice: What leaves you feeling guilty? Real satisfaction doesn’t carry guilt. If something meant to feel good makes you feel bad, it’s likely pleasure, not happiness, you’re chasing.

Ask yourself, "Can I go without this and still be okay?"

If missing your usual thing ruins your mood, that's pleasure dependency. 

If you enjoy something when it's there but you're fine when it's not, that's closer to real contentment.

In a world designed to keep you wanting the next thing, being genuinely okay with what you have is a superpower. You stop being so easy to manipulate. You stop exhausting yourself chasing stuff that doesn't actually work.

And here's the best part: When you stop desperately needing good experiences, you actually enjoy life more. 

The goal here isn't to never want things or enjoy them. It's to want things without being owned by wanting them. You should be able to enjoy good experiences without falling apart if and when they end.

Most of us spend our lives running toward something or away from something. But what if you could just. stop running? What if the exact way things are right here, right now could actually be enough?

That's not giving up on life. That's finally showing up for it.

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Mona & The Sol TV Team ❤️

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