We live in a society who puts a huge premium on indulgences. Ads are full of phrases like "Reward yourself", and other phrases with a similar message. Just about everybody are looking for their "dream wedding", "dream car", "dream house" and so on. It has become common to renovate a newly brought house or apartment in order to make it "dreamy", never mind that the seller renovated it a few weeks ago in order to rise the price.
But is this frenzied hunt for indulgences a realistic goal? Another trend in our society is different forms of addiction: alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, sex, and so on. I guess that different eating disorders can be sorted into this category as well, if you regard good looks as an indulgence.
And when reading about different addictive patterns and habits, a common trend is that the addict admits that the habit begun with having a high form the addiction, but that high fades away and eventually they fell into a pattern where they continued with the addiction just to avoid feeling even worse or avoiding pain. The hangover after overindulgence of alcohol is well known, and the hangover for a Heroin addict is so strong that medical assistance is essential. Addicts to sex, gambling, and shopping tend to make statements that confirms this pattern as well. The high comes in the beginning of the addiction, but it is soon replaced with increasing pain and embarrassment.
It becomes likely that our bodies are not made for that type of permanent high's, that the feelings of those indulgences are fleeting and fading. You might dream of permanently having those "butterflies in the stomach! from new love, or the buzz from alcohol, or the high from cocaine or Heroine, but our bodies will not allow that. We are just not made that way. One or two glasses of a nice wine can be very enjoyable, especially with a good cheese to accompany it. But with the third and fourth your enjoyment dos not goes up, it goes down due to the mind becoming clouded and your attention to the taste fading.
A more realistic and mature position seems to be to enjoy everything in smaller measures. You can take those two glasses of a nice port and a cheese selection, but avoid the third. Instead you can enjoy: some music, or a painting, or the sunshine, or maybe the colors of the leafs in the autumn. The possibilities are endless, but in order to maximize your enjoyment you have to sample everyone of them like a bee samples the flowers. Spend a few seconds with each and every one, and then on to the next one. Life as a permanent chase for new sensations, before you fall into the trap of addiction to any of them. And enjoy the small things in life, the great lottery win and the great love might be tempting dreams, but for a lot of us they are doomed to remain just dreams. A nice meal might be less exiting to fantasize over, but those meals are cheap and can come regularly for most of us.