Dopamine challenge

Three tips & a Dopamine Challenge Worksheet

In my last post, I shared some of what I’m processing about Dopamine. Just in case it motivated you to work on your motivation system, I’m going to share a couple of ideas.

(For those who don’t have access to the previous post, here is the main point: Dopamine is designed to help motivate you to do hard things. It’s the chemical in your brain in charge of all your motivation, energy to get out of bed, find food, find purpose, find love, find safety. It works by motivating you to do a hard thing that is uncomfortable by balancing out the discomfort with a good feeling, a sensation -‘that was worth it!’ Problem: in today’s society, we get the good feeling without the effort, which spikes our Dopamine too high and then it crashes and over time, our brain produces less Dopamine.)

So, here are a few things you can try to help the Dopamine system out:

1. Try adding and decreasing effort. Here’s what I mean - add effort to tasks that are easy and that are not great for you (e.g. scrolling). For me - I have a device that I have to scan on my fridge to access apps on my phone. Even the simple effort it takes to stand up and go to the kitchen is helpful for your Dopamine. Delete apps, get processed sugar out of the house - just try to make it a little harder to get rewards with no work. On the flip side, try to decrease effort before tasks that are good for you but already feel ‘hard’ (e.g. going for a walk). Put your workout clothes on before you start your day. Place your curbside order the day before for the meal you want to cook.

2. Try resisting the craving. Anna Lembke (addiction specialist) says that one of the best ways you can help your brain escape the Dopamine spike/crash cycle is by resisting the craving after a hit. When you do something that gives you too big a spike (e.g., eat a donut), you’re going to deplete your Dopamine and experience a crash. That sense of ‘I need another one’ or ‘I can’t put the phone down’ feeling - that’s your brain wanting more Dopamine because it’s just burned through a bunch. The WORST thing you can do in this dopamine-deficient craving sensation is do something that spikes your Dopamine quickly. You’re writing checks your brain can’t pay. Resisting craving is REALLY HARD - so don’t try to be all mean to your brain. Sweetly, tell brain - ‘let’s try something different for two minutes, and then we can reassess.’ The truth is - sometimes that 2 minutes is all it takes for the craving to pass and for you to make better choices.

3. Add a Dopamine challenge.* TJ Power (neuroscientist) has come up with a few things we can start doing that all help our Dopamine system. He suggests exploring flowstate, discipline around the home, phone fasting, cold water and coming up with clear goals for your day.

Hope these help!!

P.S. I made a downloadable worksheet for these challenges for the Dopamine Detox Cohort I’m leading, and will share it below for paid subscribers!

Feel free to do a free trial, or upgrade your subscription to access stuff and support my research! I’m going to be aiming to give paid subscribers a downloadable resource once a month!!

You can read more about why I have a paid subscription option here.

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