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Have you waited in the line at your favorite ice cream shop, for your turn, to order that one flavor you love the most? The moment you get it you have this burst of emotions that lead to devouring that in one go? Well, this post is all about taking you on a journey on what really happens in your mind when this happens. I am not a neuroscientist or anything, but this is more about putting into words what I think is happening in my head and see if it resonates as similar experience in others as well.
Anticipation
The key character in this post is Anticipation. When I think of anticipation, I can think of yearning, a desire. A desire to get something that would give me a burst of good feelings. Anticipation comes before the experience. The experience might in turn set a new anticipation for future events. Let’s look at it a bit deeper from my perspective on the same ice cream topic as before.
The first time I had a taste of Brown Butter Almond Brittle flavored ice cream was with a very good friend of mine. That experience of having tasted that ice cream flavor on that day set a level of standard on enjoying that ice cream flavor that was so damn high. The anticipation of having ice cream and that too brown-butter-almond-brittle flavored one was so high that next time I ordered ice cream I got the same flavor. This time when I got it, because of my anticipation, the experience of eating that ice cream was not in that moment. I was comparing my current experience and evaluating it against the previous one. This experience in turn strengthens this anticipation, irrespective of whether the experience was positive or negative. From then on, the process continued, every time my anticipation high before getting it, and then failing to enjoy the taste at that moment.
Anytime I order food through Uber Eats, I automatically fall into the anticipation hype machine. As I started writing this post, I ordered some Asian fusion and my anticipation burst when the doorbell rang. But then I realized, I am not actually hungry to eat, my anticipation or my desire is the one that is hungry. Desire is pulling me into its spell and I fall prey to it, losing my contact to the present moment. Anticipation leads to focus generated through stress, that doesn’t do much good for the body.
