Dopamine Management

Perhaps while we're still in January, it's a good time to think about this hormone and its effects on us. I've chatted about it lots with my youngest son, who has completed assignments on the subject for High School and University. 

Dopamine is well known as the motivational hormone, and we all know how hopeless we feel when we're unmotivated to do the things we need to do, or that our minds tell us we should want to do. For our own benefit, those in the know suggest engaging in activities that promote 'slow dopamine' release, rather than the 'fast dopamine' that skyrockets our pleasure detectors, then crashes us below baseline the following moment. 

We're all familiar with 'fast' surges, including sweet or junk food, phone scrolling, smartphone games, social media, and frequent checking of notifications, bitcoin rates, stock market prices, or anything that rings our bells. Then these sudden spikes naturally swing back the other way like a clock pendulum, depleting our dopamine baseline levels, making it increasingly difficult to experience pleasure and genuine motivation for some time afterward. 

What's more, we tend to unconsciously want to 'stack' our dopamine, for example by watching movies and eating sugary snacks simultaneously. These furtive attempts to maximize satisfaction keep playing havoc on our wellbeing.  

The dopamine experts recommend that we abstain from phone checking first thing in the morning. Setting the standard of our day with a fast spike followed by a reactive plummet reduces our craving for  more wholesome, slow dopamine release habits. We prime ourselves for a sorry state in which nothing small and simple will satisfy us for the rest of the day. ('Would you care for a crisp, juicy apple?' Meh, naw.) 

Incidentally, some authors I've come across recommend cold showers or water dips. The theory works in reverse. A sudden burst of discomfort will swing back the other way, releasing feelings of well-being in the relief of being warm. 

Okay, now, the list of wholesome, slow dopamine activities include concentrating on educational videos and books, reading fiction (and surely writing it), steady physical exercise, cooking, gardening, and DIY projects. 

It's easy to notice that these slow dopamine release activities are often driven by intrinsic motivation. We do them purely for their own sakes, enjoying the process. When our western civilization, starting in the early years of school, begin to hand out extrinsic rewards for the work we do, our intrinsic motivation really takes a nosedive. It is important to remember that although we've grown up believing that the aim of life is to accomplish our goals, in actual fact the best feelings come from merely pursuing them. It really is all about the journey rather than the destination. Having a clear pursuit that feels possible to accomplish yet not extremely easy is the best thing we can do.  

And trying to maintain an 80/20 ratio between slow and fast dopamine will only do us good. I've got to admit, I love the exciting rush that comes from engagement on my blog posts or fan fictions, and get gloomy when they're not forthcoming. Reminding myself that the work itself is the thing will help me to get back on track. I guess telling myself, 'You don't need to check that now,' or, 'Stop thinking about that at this moment,' in the light of this knowledge, might do the trick. 

(When I pair this sort of research with Oliver Burkeman's further insight into why we procrastinate on the things we genuinely want to do, it all makes a lot of sense.) 

I wonder if I can possibly change my routine from checking my phone and completing my favorite NYT puzzles to evening instead of morning? I might give it a try and see if it makes any type of difference.