Vladimir Oane's Key Ideas from The Craving Mind
by Judson Brewer

It is how we develop habits. It involves

• a trigger (for example, the feeling of hunger), followed by
• a behavior (eating food), and
• a reward (feeling sated).

We want to do more of the things that feel good and less of the things that feel bad — or stressful.

Breaking out of bad habits is can involve using a meditative practice to examine the reward: For example one may notice that the 🚬 they picked up years ago to look cool don't provide coolness anymore and actually taste terrible.

Feelings feel different:

• Fear or anxiety are contracting. Which makes evolutionary sense, as we are protecting from a potential predator.
• Love, awe or curiosity are expansive.

Expensive feelings feel good 😄. If we get to notice them they connect us to the world and give us a sense we are all connected.

It's a mental hook that seeks to replace a bad behaviour by noticing that the current reward is not that rewarding after all. And to provide a better one through mindfulness. 

The main thing is to use curiosity to love from a contracting feeling, to an expansive one. Curiosity feels better than the craving.