Does anyone have good information on "beating" these triggers? Knowing they exist is a good start, but I'd love to be able to stop checking FB / Twitter / HN (gasp) when I'm feeling bored.
Best of luck.
(1) When the urge comes, observe the urge as it rises and goes away.
(2) Do not avoid the experience. It will feel like it sucks because it does. There is no magic pill to avoid the experience.
(3) Things come and go, nothing is permanent. This urge will eventually pass.
(4) If you want to take this further: try to discern the physical sensation making up the "urge" with the "mental echo".
(5) It is important not to try to "beat" these triggers. That's a form of avoidance and rejection and will only make the urges stronger. People usually give into the urge to make the feeling of suffering go away; if you accept and experience the suffering for what it is, you break out of the dopamanine/gollumization loop.
For (4), as you know, your neurons do not fire continuously. It's an analog pulse that decays after the peak. The sensations and urges you have feel like they are continuous because you experience other things that fills in the gap. This filler is the "mental echo".
It is possible to develop enough skill in perception to distinguish between the physical sensation and the filler gap. When you can perceive this, you can see how experiences like these "urges" are actually sequences, melodies, and rhythms of sensate pulses that when combined with the mental echo, you normally recognize as a particular "urge" (or thought, or feeling).
Usually, recognizing these component parts as they happen is enough. You can still choose to go with the urge, or you can ... not.
For more information:
- Mindfulness in Plain English. http://bit.ly/mindfulness-in-plain-english
- Mastering the Core Teachings of Buddha: A Surprisingly Hardcore Book of Dharma. http://bit.ly/hardcore-dharma
- The Pomodoro technique accidentally has the features for creating a time-boxed mindfulness meditation as you work. The essential components are all in the first chapter of that book.
Obviously you don't bet the bank....