Psychiatrist sums up life from an Islamic perspective.

Heard a quote from a podcast recently, the Jordan Harbinger podcast, episode 1114:

So a hypothetical will make us feel fear in the present. It's not a hypothetical fear. It's like we feel the pain in the moment.

Yeah. And that's the way that our brain works.

But we cannot feel a hypothetical pleasure in the moment. We can have some degree of anticipation. Yeah, you can be paranoid about a car crash, but you can't imagine going to the movies and then get a rush of dopamine.

It doesn't work like that. You actually have to go to the movies.

When we are anticipating something exciting that we want to do, we don't get the pleasure and dopamine of that action.

To give another example, if you anticipating getting married in the near future, you won't get the dopamine hit just from the anticipation itself. You get that high when you actually do meet her, get married, and spend time with her.

On the other hand, if you think you won’t get married, the stress you might feel of not getting married actually does harm your body in the present.

This brings a new angle to the Islamic concept of how this world is not supposed to be Heaven. It’s a temporary place, which is actually a test for us.

And last time I checked, tests are stressful.

Don’t put all your hopes in this world. Take your portion of this world, but strive for the next world.