It is deeply instilled by evolution into the wiring of our brains, not to mention embedded in all of our cultural institutions that we seek security and meaning by producing, achieving, and accumulating.

This default setting, this ethos in a nutshell is known as work and shop until you drop.

An approach to living that lands us in what has been variously referred to as the rat race,

the hedonic treadmill, the daily grind, drudgery,

survival of the fittest, and the battle of life.

Given the nature of the summaries is at any surprise that the Buddha noted in its

first noble truth that life as it's commonly lived is often stressful.

We're set up to be enthralled by is often stressful.

We're set up to be enthralled by the rich neural rewards of cheesy slices of pizza, yet we seldom recall the gastric discomforts that may soon follow.

We may feel magnetically drawn into the apple store,

hypnotized by the array of shiny, beautiful, thin, light gizmos for the possibility of

buyers remorse rarely comes to mind a pair of jeans might look perfect in the

store mirror and indeed they still do that.

But back at home similar pairs have been relegated to the darkest niches of the closet.

There are many, I'm not supposed to start a smile on my own writing, that's really

a humble, no, no, no, no.

There are many reasons that peace of mind and security cannot be purchased.

First off, the brain tends to prefer and reward novelty.

New stuff, while we habituate quickly to the familiar, Louis CK has a well-known routine

about passengers on commercial airline flights complaining when the Wi-Fi drops out, which means they

are taking for granted the experience of hurtling 500 miles per hour, 30,000 feet above the

earth in tin cans crossing continents in a matter of a few

...