When the ego holds positive ideas and perspectives, we call it optimism.
When the ego lives in the future, it‘s attempting to suspend the psychological suffering of living in the now.
It is now hoping.
Hope – hopium - is one of the most toxic ideas that the mind can cling to.
The word “hope” can mean different things to different people.
We need to define what hope is - as compared to the emotion of optimism.
Time.
That's the difference between them.
Optimism is a present tense emotion. An ‘in the now‘, feeling.
Hope is an emotion firmly based in the future. (A future that does not yet exist).
There‘s a fine line between the two perspectives. And at the same time , a difference wider than the grand Canyon.
One is dynamic, energizing and pro-active.
One is corrosive, stagnant, and creates the 'hodling mentality'.
(I’ll let you guess which one is which).
When we can grasp onto optimistic ideas too tightly they become hope.
Hope for the future can become toxic on many different psychological levels.
Optimism doesn't change your mindset. Optimistic today is optimistic tomorrow.
Hopium DOES change your mindset. Hopium today becomes quiet desperation tomorrow.
Unlike optimism, hopium becomes addictive.
Hopium is an emotional state that's hinged on a future that doesn't yet exist.
Relinquishing hope from your mindset can involve severe psychological pain.
And THAT, is something that the human being is not very good at.
That involves knowing yourself, being self aware, and facing up to yourself and your choices.
Relinquishing hope means admitting to yourself that you were WRONG.
It’s much easier (less psychologically painful), to continue to hope - irrelevant of reality around you that's telling you a very different story.
Think of hive/steem as an example:
How many hodlers are there, out there, that have lost 80% of their investment?
Or 80% of the value that they could have realized - if hope (and greed) were not their masters?
'Rationalization' is a trick employed by the brain to avoid facing such reality (and thus, psychological pain)...
$4 dollars steem drops to $3 ‚ 'it’s a dip, a cycle - , it'll go up in price again, soon‘...
$3 dollar steam drops to $2 ‚ 'I have faith that it will go up again soon‘...
$2 dollar steem drops to $1 'I can't believe it's so cheap – it’s a good time to buy!‘
...You get the idea...
The hopium addict (just like the opium addict), will justify any real world events so as so fit in with their own internal psychological landscape.
Reality and logic play no part.
It's ALL ABOUT avoiding the pain that they were WRONG.
(This is also indicative of weak ego development overall - and is something that I’ve covered in previous posts).
Hope becomes an unhealthy habit (addiction).
It’s the act of taking the consciousness out of the present moment (being optimistic) and forcing yourself to live in an abstraction of the future - in order to avoid the pain of 'the now'.
Imagine a person who feels like they've made poor decisions, and feels dis-empowered (low self esteem) by their poor life choices that have led to the now.
It can be much easier to not face up to yourself, and instead - fantasize about a future that doesn't exist!
It’s always better to experience what is happening in the present without running away from your deepest feelings, no matter how painful and scary they might appear to be.
It tends to be the most profitable also - in the long run.
Not just financially, it affects all areas of your life.
We can only start to actualize that 'optimistic future', by feeling it in the present.
That, by definition is a feeling based in reality.
And now IS the only reality.
It's much better to find the courage wihin and know the truth of 'who I am', right now, (the admitting to yourself of 'I was WRONG') than it is to endlessly strive for something that has no logical basis.
Hope can become extremely toxic when we lose our sense of 'the now‘.
Forever living in the future means that you miss out on seeing the opportunities of today.
And paradoxically - it’s seeing the opportunities of today that leads you to the very future that you had your focus on!
Hopium poisons the very fabric of the soul,(or whatever you want to call it)... and in doing so, creates deep, unconscious bitterness and resentment when the 'hopium fix' is not fulfilled.
(Resentment, hopium, narcissism, and weak ego, are all intertwined).
It's very human to attach ourselves to ideas - because life can be dull, boring, monotonous – and incredibly hard.
It's also quite natural to be optimistic in mindset – It is, after all, the driving emotion that took the human being out from the savanahha’s and into the villages...
It only works however , when that optimism is grounded in the real world.
Otherwise, optimism will turn into hopium.
Hopium is toxic.
It proceeds to works against us, living in a world of faux reality, and with a psyche spending increasingly larger amounts of time and energy (self delusion, and rationalization) just trying to try and hold that illusion created, together.
The worst thing to happen for the hopium addict - is that their hope realized itself.
They can confirm to themselves, that the hopium was a good choice - That they were correct.
This 'successful' event goes on to bolster the weak ego - and will, undoubtedly, create more of the same irrational hopium on making decisions going forwards.
The successful event' is poison - one that is totally blind to the hopium addict who is now high from his hopium addiction.
And just like any addiction, the hopium addict is trapped in a self destructive cycle, encouraged by the 'success' that hopium has brought him.
The hopium addict will soon be looking for his next fix, having learned nothing about himself in the process.
The mindset has not changed. The person has not grown.
Sad but true.
Very good article. I really like this. Too many people "hope for the best." Then when that doesn't work out these same people do the same thing. I've always been more of a glass half empty type. Everyone has stories in life that cause them to think or "hopium" one way or the other. My mom, bless her, is a hopium addict. Very interesting perspective. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks!... I'm glad that you found value in it.
I'm an optimist.
I love my life, and each day is a fantastic opportunity to do .... er.... er... ...SOMETHING! lol
(see my post on my girlfriends new business that I posted yesterday for example - An opportunity that we took, not one not blinded by hopium)
WHAT I THINK:
Firstly thinking Donald Chump is a force for good is HOPIUM
Secondly buying up cheap Hive when everyone is saying it's fucked is CONTRARIAN INVESTING.
My thoughts on Hive - right now it looks a bit crap next to Leo, BUT if 3Speak and DBuzz etc take off, it could suddenly be the next big thing - and I'm not expecting it will go under 10 cents anyway.
Firstly thinking Donald Chump is a force for good is HOPIUM
Thinking any politician is a force for good, is insanity, not hopium.
Secondly buying up cheap Hive when everyone is saying it's fucked is CONTRARIAN INVESTING.
The action is not relevant to the psychology that creates the action - o inaction.. (see my post on the psychological phenomena known as rationalization, ...and the 'sunk cost, logical fallacy').
You're an hopium addict, matey!
You really know how to cheer up crypto enthusiasts, hehe. But we're some persistent suckers here.
Great stuff.
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lol - Cheers.
Reality is haaaaaaard. Or so I've heard - I love it myself!
The funny thing is...(not being an hopium addict), I've dodged and weaved with my crtpyo - and increased my value of it enormously - not by hodling, but acting..
So basically you did what you are describing in the last paragraph of your previous post?
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
The pie business? Not really - not my project.
Acting is the difference in the mindset (to hodling).
Leveraging your earnings, and not sitting and waiting for fate to decide for you.
Some you win , some you lose, but it's not apathy/fear/insecurity , that's keeping you frozen in the oncoming headlights.
Proactive, not reactive.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Don't be a parasite - for your own mental health's sake.
Do some 'honest work', and feel good about yourself for adding value.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
ah, ok! ..now stop interrupting me, while I trade some crypto! lololol
..but seriously, yes, it makes a big difference (imo) to your mental well being.
Why?
I'm not exactly sure....maybe something to do with 'concept' turning itself into tangible, worldly, reality...(proof of magic?)
And yet, between Hopium & Addiction, between the In The Now & the Future and between Blind Optimism & Defensive Pessimism, there is always the inexorable Doppler Effect in force. };)
The doppler effect works well in the pie business- customers can tell when Luce is arriving with the product!
When Luce is arriving with the product... it sounds with high pitch or low pitch?
...a sound of of 'oh here's luce, with the pies!'
Oh! then let's say that it is a neutral pitch (white noise) swinging between Red & Blue light shifts projected by strawberries and blueberries of what Luce brings. :)