I was packing lunch boxes while my kids were watching “Bluey”, the episode called “The Sign.” In that episode, Bluey’s dad gets a new job in another city, with better pay, which means the family has to sell their home and leave behind all their memories. The kids and mum are sad. At the end, when the dad decides not to take the job and stay in their small city, everyone cheers and hugs him.
That’s when my little boy said loudly, “I love this part.”
I paused. My hands were still busy arranging sandwiches, but my eyes suddenly filled with tears. Just moments before, my mind had been occupied with Arthur Schopenhauer’s idea that desire is the force driving the universe. He called it “the will”, an invisible gravity that pulls all living beings to keep wanting, chasing, striving.
You get one thing you desire, and almost instantly, another appears like hunger. A better job. A higher degree. A new city. A different life.
When my son said, “This is the part I like,” and I looked at the screen, something cracked open inside me. I couldn’t hold back the tears.
This idea from scientific view is like desire lights up the brain’s dopamine system. It’s not the reward that drives us, it’s the chase. Once you achieve something, chase ends, dopamine fades, and the mind searches for the next one. But to find inner peace, you have to learn to step outside that cycle of chasing.
You may not be able to stop desiring because it is a built-in feature in humans, but you can understand it, manage it, and sometimes, pause it.
The only way to give you control of being able to step out of the loop is “awareness”. Finding small moments of joy with your child, listening to music, or walking in nature or art can calm the mind and remind you what truly matters.
I found the resolution to my thoughts in my child’s words, in a cartoon about love, and in a tear that reminded me: sometimes, the richest moment is right here, already happening if only we stop chasing the next one.
Mohsin With E 
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