This cake makes me feel better!

“Eating this cake makes me feel better.”

Did the cake really make you feel better?

Or did the thought about it make you feel better?

If you had to eat your cake in front of a large audience of people staring at you while you ate, would the cake still make you feel better?

No.

In fact, you would feel entirely different about eating it. I’m guessing it would NOT make you feel good to eat it.

And does your body feel fantastic AFTER eating cake? Full of energy and vigor? Highly satisfied and nourished?

Probably not.

So it’s not the cake that makes you feel better, it’s the fantasy attached to eating it.

Yes, you got your dopamine reward. Your brain chemicals got a “hit.”

But really what’s happening is that when you ate the cake you quit thinking about “x”.

That’s what made you feel better, not the cake.