Wednesday wonderings

Tags

Dubllin, psychological studies, psychology, Sriram Chellappan, temptation, thoughts, wednesday, wonderings

Today Dublins sky is a pale slate grey and really doesn’t entice me to leave the home. Warm socks and cups of tea are what this day calls for, but filling out forms and a few meetings are what is scheduled.

However I can’t help but wonder, as I gaze out into the greyness of the day, how easy it would be to give in to temptation and just curl up with a good book and ignore the world outside.

Our material world is driven by temptation: advertisement plays on it, the shops stock to enhance it, the ping of emails, Facebook and instant messages trigger it and the allure of delicious food even makes us salivate. And the pleasure we derive from giving in to all the temptation around us somehow allows us to justify it.

A recent study by associate professor Sriram Chellappan shows that giving in to temptation may be all down to alleviating pain. His study looked at the internet usage of students and he quickly discovered that those students suffering from depression checked their emails a lot more than those who didn’t.

The reason behind this could be the fact that people who are experiencing negative thoughts and feel anxious are looking for ways to make them feel batter, lessen their emotional pain, and turning towards the the web seems to boost their mood.

And since trying to make ourselves feel good is what we all do, not just those with depression, our brains are primed to seek out ways to lessen pain and increase joy. And since how we experience physical pain and emotional pain are very closely linked our brain even adds pain to things we experienced as pleasurable to push us to seek out what our bodies want. So when our body, or mind, wants something, not only does our brain open up our pleasure responses it also adds our stress response into the mix.

“Chocolate cravers” stated in a 2005 study that when they imagine themselves eating the yummy goodness, they didn’t only feel good about it, but they also experienced feelings of agitation and a sense of loss of control – temptation for them wasn’t only pleasurable, it had quite a lot of stress attached to it.

And then of course there is the “fear of missing out” – if the person next to you has something, you may want it too. Just think of siblings having desert and making sure that they both have the exact same amount, even the same thing – give one a larger slice or more smarties, or even give one ice cream and the other cake, there is sure to be a war.

It seems that temptation is just something we all have to deal with – one way or another. And giving in doesn’t really seem to be the solution, since the relief is just short lived, but always resisting won’t make us happy either, since our minds are programmed to want. So maybe it is all about picking which temptation to give in to. Maybe we should really just try to figure out which one has the most positive and long-lasting effect – both physically and emotionally.

So keeping that in mind I think it is time to ignore that beckoning book and head out into the grey world and find another temptation to give in to.

muddy community

Tags

community, community garden, Dubllin, gardening, mud island, photography, photos

After last nights downpour and heavy winds I was thrilled to see the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. Not that I had any big plans for the day but my local community garden “Mud Island” had been planning their open day for weeks.

So with a freshly backed cake and a happy heart I wandered down the road and into a world of green.  It was great to see kids playing ad adults chatting out in the sun, not bothered by the wind and enjoying the community spirt.

And since it is nearly time to wander back down for a BBQ and some songs I leave you all with a few photos of my afternoon spent in the muddy community.

Mud Island Community Garden

Flower Pot

Guess how many

New use

Kids artwork

the finished product

Tyre potatoes

chives in bloom

a honeybee at work

another project

zucchini

lavender

lettuce

someone was here

an unfinished mural

still unfinished

last section waiting for paint

a brilliant flower

what’s behind the green door?

growing wild

 

street BBQ

Tags

BBQ, cul de sac, Dubllin, food, german bread, Ireland, miscellaneous, music, random, stary night, thoughts

What a great and late night it was, who knew how much fun it could be hanging out with just your neighbours? Not only did we sit, dance, sing, drink and eat in the street till 4.30am but it was a clear stary night and the air only added a little chill in the wee hours of the morning.

At first it looked as if people had forgotten and while a few of use tidied up the street, picking up wandering plastic bags, rolling tins and just your general street-weeds we discovered that the guy with the grill had gone on holiday and left us without the fire. But luck was on our side and another neighbour had a grill just waiting be fired up and used. We then set up some chairs and small tables, had a buffet groaning under the weight of numerous salads, breads, a gorgeous cake and many, many bottles of wine beer and some aquavit.

bread, wine and bbq, what more could one want?

Jazz was turned on as the neighbours turned up and as the meat sizzled on the grill words and laughter mingled with the music. While we ate and drank, we chatted and got to know each other and a few musical inhabitants of the street pulled out their fiddles and guitars and suddenly Irish song filled the air. After a little while others got up and started to dance to the tunes, Irish legs kicking high into the air.

playing an Irish reel

As I watched, listened, chatted, laughed, ate and drank I could not help but be amazed at how multicultural our little cul-de-sac is and how everyone brought something of their own country to the party. We had German bread and sausages, Polish shashliks, cake and beer, Scottish fish and a jig, Irish music, Guinness and  coleslaw and as very special treat a traditional Swiss folk song. All they needed was a special pottery bowl in which a Swiss coin was spun and a high pitched ringing called out over the street, clear like a bell yet very different. Accompanied by a yodel like song we could have been sitting in the Alps waiting for Heidi to arrive.

the bowl is held in one hand and like a hula-hoop the coin is kept in motion

As the shadow grew longer and the sun set behind the roof tops we sat and talked till it started to rise again. A complete success we all agreed and we really have to it all again, maybe next month.