Matthew Reed > Quotes

“An environment that is stressful is not healthy for any human being. When we are in distress, our level of well-being diminishes.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“There is a deeper, more systemic cause of our distress, and it has to do with the way in which the modern world has lost touch with our most basic needs and our very nature.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“Sometimes we have no control over the stressor, and in this case, the stress can become chronic.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“To gain clarity about what may cause the atmosphere of stress within us in the first place, we must look at the two ways in which stress or pain usually arise.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“All human beings on the planet strive for pleasurable experiences and want to avoid negative ones. A negative experience can be nearly anything that has to do with a negative emotion such as fear, guilt, shame, disappointment, depression, frustration, anger, or hurt. In Freudian psychology, this is called the “pleasure principle,” which can be understood as the instinctive pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain in order to satisfy biological and psychological needs.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“Because of it, nature has pre-installed some very effective mechanisms in us to ensure that we meet the need, not least because connection and reproduction ensure the survival of our species.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction

“Research shows that people who spend large portions of their day in fragmented attention, meaning they are distracted by frequently checking notifications, feeds, receiving ads, and other supernormal stimuli, over time lose their ability for sustained concentration and focus.”
― Matthew Reed, Your Brain on Dopamine: Heal Your Overstimulated Brain, Master Your Cravings, and Find Purpose and Meaning in a World of Distraction