Quick Spoon: What are you trying not to feel?

Sometimes, when something feels difficult, uncomfortable or overwhelming, our instinct is to make the feeling go away.

We distract ourselves.

We work.

We scroll.

We reach for something that changes how we feel.

In this Quick Spoon, Dr Ryan Kemp talks about this in the context of addiction — and about what happens when we aren't willing to stay with an uncomfortable experience for long enough to understand it.

I'm not suggesting that these everyday behaviours are necessarily addictions.

But Ryan's perspective raises an interesting question for all of us:

What am I trying not to feel?

And perhaps, before we rush to make an uncomfortable feeling disappear, there might be something useful to notice.

That's the idea behind this People Soup Quick Spoon.

🎧 This Quick Spoon comes from my conversation with Dr Ryan Kemp, When the Future Gets Smaller: Dr Ryan Kemp on Addiction.