Dopamine Detox isn’t the Answer | How to Achieve Your Goals Effortlessly
Most people are already familiar with dopamine, the hormone that drives pleasure, motivation, and attention in the body. I’m sure you’ve seen dopamine detox videos on the internet in the hopes of increasing productivity. And it may work, but it’s just a temporary solution. In this article, I’m going to be talking about how you can use dopamine to help you achieve your goals.
What is Dopamine
Everyone knows that dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in pleasure. But what people don’t know is that there are other functions that dopamine deals with heart rate, blood vessel function, kidney function, pain processing, motivation, and more.
Different Layers of the Brain
There are three layers of the brain that I’m going to quickly cover:
Neocortex: The outer layer of the brain that deals with higher levels of thought and planning.
Limbic System: The second layer of the brain that deals with emotions and feelings.
Lizard Brain: Deals with instinctual behavior.
The one we will be focusing on pertains to the limbic system. Within the limbic system is where the reward pathway occurs, in which dopamine is produced. For example, when you eat a piece of cake, your dopamine is released and goes through the reward pathway. In this pathway, it hits different parts of the brain, such as the amygdala telling you to feel happy since you ate something that tasted good. The hippocampus will help you remember what restaurant you ate that piece of cake at. The nucleus accumbens will motivate you to move your hand to take another bite. The prefrontal cortex allows you to focus on that cake to perform the task.
Dopamine Toxicity
But when you do too much of a high dopamine activity your dopamine receptors reduce and your brain reduces the amount of dopamine produced. Meaning you will have to do more to get the same results.
Dopamine Producers
Some common dopamine producers would be, videogames, TV, food, drugs, etc…
Ways to decrease dopamine
To achieve your goals, whether that’s fitness or studying for a test all you have to do is live a more dopamine-free life. When you do a dopamine detox it’s more of a temporary solution to your problem. Once you go back to doing all those high dopamine activities you’ll have to start the dopamine detox all over again. Here are some ways you can live a more dopamine-free life:
Don’t sit on the toilet while on your phone, instead take a book
Don’t eat and go on your phone, instead talk to your friends or just eat.
Don’t pretend to watch a movie but you trying to multitask on your phone and watching a movie.
Some natural dopamine producers to help feel motivated could be getting sunlight, aerobic exercise, and eating protein.
Don’t spend every waking moment that your brain is bored on your phone. If you are bored read a book, draw, or talk to someone. These are all good ways to help lower dopamine levels and increase productivity. A lot of people see boredom as a bad thing but boredom is a good thing. Boredom allows you to be creative and helps with problem-solving. The problem is many people don’t know how to deal with boredom.
You can also use those high dopamine activities as a reward for completing tasks such as studying or exercising. It’s like when you were a kid and your parents told you that you had to eat your vegetables before you could get your treat.
Know I’m not saying live a boring life you just need to be wise about what you spend your time doing. If you know you have a homework assignment due by 11:59 pm don’t sit on the couch and watch Dragon Ball Z all day until 11:50 pm. Instead do the assignment and watch TV afterwards as a reward.
Conclusion
As I said before dopamine detox isn’t the answer. If you want to be focused and productive you need to control the amount of dopamine you use. Now I’m not saying to stop playing video games or eat your favorite foods just be mindful of when you do it. That means studying before you play video games or eating your broccoli before you eat your cake. If you enjoyed this article please share it with friends.
