STEPHAN GARDNER JANUARY 20, 2016
“Dopamine
is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure
centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional response, and it
enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them.” – Psychology Today
There
are a lot of articles on the internet about dopamine and how it affects your
mood, behavior, energy, and focus. What’s not commonly spoken about, however,
is how dopamine is affected by your perception. Discussed more rarely still is
the reason why your dopamine levels may be low. Below are 10 ways to increase
your dopamine levels, courtesy of Power of
Positivity, as well as my own observations regarding the underlying
issues which may have led to each situation, and how to tackle them.
1.
Don’t Get Addicted
“Many people get
addicted to something because it gives them some kind of instant gratification
– drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, shopping, and other addictive behaviors
actually have the opposite effect on dopamine levels in the long-term. In
essence, when we get overly addicted to something, the ‘reward circuitry’ of
our brain kicks into overdrive and we crave the ‘quick hit.’ This is not a
sustainable solution for dopamine production, which can and should be done
naturally.”
What’s missing here is the
fact that addiction is quite often a result of low dopamine, meaning addiction
is more of an attempt to fix an already existing problem. In essence, “the
underpinning of your addictive personality is a lack of fulfillment from within,
with a resulting urge to achieve fulfillment through substances, objects, or
events that relieve the inevitable pain – for a while.”
“When we receive a reward
of any kind, dopamine is released in our brains. Over time, this stimulus and
release of dopamine can lead to learning. Researchers have recently found that
how quickly and permanently we learn things relates directly
to how much dopamine we have available in our brains. As we get
rewarded over and over again for something, we learn that we should keep doing
whatever that is very deeply, and it’s hard to unlearn those kinds of
behaviours.”
What this means is that
low-dopamine is a response to a lifestyle which doesn’t offer much in terms of
reward to the person living it. It may be a response to the environment you’re
living in, the clothes you’re wearing, the tight budget you’re working within,
the relationship choices you’ve made or have been made for you, or a result of
trauma where there was no perceived reward. It’s very easy to understand how
dopamine levels may appear low when we consider all the potentials leading to
less-rewarding lifestyles and life-experiences.
What’s necessary then is
less of a ‘don’t get addicted’ approach and more of an ‘increase the
rewards in your life’ style of applied advice. Fact is, you’ll constantly feel
less fulfilled through low dopamine when you’re not (or are unable to) fill
your day with things that inspire and reward you. Meaning, the most effective
protection against addiction and greatest advantage to high-dopamine levels is
a defense against low-rewarding activities and an offence working towards
rewarding actions, activities, and ultimately, a lifestyle of fulfillment and
achievement.
Also, because addiction is
most often rooted in past traumatic experiences, where emotions create a fight
or flight response that becomes rooted in your core emotions, it’s vitally important
to seek proper and effective help in dissolving past trauma. Doing so can only
help you perceive more rewarding experiences in your life, rather than
filtering experiences through a ‘traumatized’ awareness.
2.
Checklist Small Task
“Dopamine increases
when we are organized and finish tasks – regardless if the task is small or
large. So, don’t allow your brain to worry about things that need to be done.
Instead, write these tasks down and then check them off one at a time. It’s
been shown that it’s more satisfying to the brain’s dopamine levels when we
physically check something off of our to-do list. Also, write down and check
stuff off regardless if you can mentally remember the tasks.”
In reading the book Principles of Self-Management, I came across a brilliantly
well-researched understanding of motivation when it comes to tasks. In short,
if a task is greater than 25% of a change in a person’s routine, the person
will be overwhelmed with feeling incapable of achieving it. This leads them to
self-defeat and self-sabotage to avoid accomplishing the task. On the other
side, if a task is less than 10% different than a person’s normal routine,
they don’t do it because it won’t have enough meaning for them to do so. As
such, it’s wise to make sure you write down goals and tasks that are in between
this 10% to 25% range of new behaviors and actions, otherwise, you just won’t
do it.
However, this 10-25% range
is simply a guide for tasks that are not directly linked to our highest values.
In reality, if you can link a task to your highest values and see clearly how
it will help you accomplish what’s truly most important to you, you’ll do it.
If you can’t see how it will help fulfill your highest values, you’ll
procrastinate, hesitate, and get frustrated in the attempt to do it. By linking
a task to your highest values, you’ll both increase the chances of you doing it
and also increase the reward you will feel when you accomplish it, a result of
producing more dopamine in the brain.
3.
Create Something
“For us writers,
painters, sculptors, poets, singers, dancers, and other artists, we can
identify with this. When we’re in creative mode, we can become hyper-focused.
As a result, we can enter a state called flow. Dopamine is the brain
chemical that allows us to achieve this state. The lesson is this: take up a
hobby or activity in which you actually create something tangible. Try
something like arts, crafts, auto repair, drawing, photography, or something
else that sounds interesting.”
Sparking your creative
drive is an effective way to increase your potential for feeling great,
achieving goals and inspiring yourself through your accomplishments. However,
it can also be a distraction from a feel-bad lifestyle, if it’s not maintained
with a purpose in mind. Whenever you’re working on a project, creative or not,
that truly inspires you, you’ll activate your ‘flow state,’ where time and
space seem to stand still. So how to you determine what it is that truly
inspires you?
The most important goal in
revealing your most authentic creative energy is to remove the creative
energies of other people from your life. So many of us look up to the creations
of others, whether works of art or music, and their works or talents take up
time and space in our own minds. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it can
influence your own beliefs about what you can create. If you compare yourself
to others and minimize yourself, you’ll repress your own creative ability. This
can affect your dopamine levels, because if you can’t see your own creations as
rewarding to you, as much as someone else’s, you’ll feel inferior and
incapable.
One very effective way of
neutralizing the influence other people have on your mind is to literally look
at the negatives or downsides of their accomplishment. This isn’t to practice
being a critic, but it can enable you to de-infatuate with their creative
powers, helping you to stop minimizing your own. Once you recognize that
your creative endeavors can exist on the level of those you admire, through
practice (just like they did), you’ll increase your ability to see your own
creations as meaningful and rewarding.
4.
Exercise
“Same ‘ole, same
‘ole, we know. We’ve discussed repeatedly the importance and benefits of
physical exercise, and we’re just going to add to this list again. So, not only
does exercise help us relieve stress, achieve better physical health and make
us more productive; it boosts our dopamine levels.
More specifically, exercise increases multiple neurotransmitters – serotonin
and endorphins, besides dopamine, receive a boost. Here’s something else cool:
the exercise needn’t not be arduous. Simply taking a stroll or climbing some
stairs will achieve a good dopamine jolt.”
Exercise is important, but
it can also become a crutch or an addiction if it’s not something being
integrated into your daily life. Many people go to the gym to work out, yet
don’t live a life that requires the body they’re building. Another thing is
actually placing a value on exercise itself. Many people buy the gym
memberships, yet never use them. So what’s the easiest way to make exercise a
part of your life?
There’s a branch of
exercise called ‘functional
training’ in which exercises are tailored to help you with your
daily tasks. This is much more helpful than just ‘workouts,’ because if you can
train your body into a state where your daily tasks are not taxing on your
energy, you’ll breeze through the day and have more energy at the end of it.
Staying in a high energy state instead of being brought down by your daily
tasks will help you be more inspired during your day and innately feel more
inspired to exercise.
5.
Get a Streak Going
“As with creating a
checklist, getting a streak going is a great way to increase dopamine levels.
For the purpose of this article, a streak is a visual reminder of how many days
in a row you’ve achieved something.
Get a calendar
specifically for this purpose: write down whatever goal you have and the days
of the week or month when they are scheduled. For example, if you work out on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday, mark these days on the calendar for the month. As
you finish a workout, mark it off on the calendar. Keep a streak going, and
you’ll keep the dopamine coming.”
While the ‘streak’ is a
useful tool for celebrating accomplishments, it unfortunately has a
downside—routine. Doing something enough times becomes a routine, especially if
the action isn’t continuously fulfilling to your highest values. To counter
this, try adapting the ‘goal’ or ‘action’ in terms of efficiency and
effectiveness. By continuously finding ways to improve the performance of the
behavior, over time, you can look back at how many times you’ve done it, but
also how much better you’ve become at it. This way, your performance becomes a
competition with yourself, which increases your potential for feeling rewarded
as you master a skill.
6.
Increase Tyrosine
“Of the chemicals
that make up dopamine, none are more important than tyrosine. In fact, tyrosine
is considered the building block of dopamine. Therefore, it is important that
you get enough of this protein. There’s a large list of foods that increase
Tyrosine, including: Almonds, Avocados, Bananas, Beef, Chicken, Chocolate,
Coffee, Eggs, Green Tea, Watermelon, Yogurt.”
Food is a reward, not a
chore. This is the difference between living to eat and eating to live. While
it’s important to utilize foods to your advantage, it’s just as important to
recognize that the brain is its own best pharmacy. Few foods actually make it
past the blood-brain barrier and this actually includes Tyrosine.
“Tyrosine is one of the 22
key amino acids that are used for building proteins around the body. In
addition to this, however, it also raises the levels of certain
neurotransmitters in the brain, namely dopamine and norepinephrine. These are
famous for being ‘feel good’ chemicals that can help boost mood and elevate
concentration, making tyrosine a popular nootropic. However, tyrosine is
completely incapable of passing the BBB. This way, no matter how much of it you
were to take, you’d feel almost no effects.”
The truth is, tyrosine must
be bonded with another molecule to make it past the blood-brain barrier, so
tyrosine in itself isn’t capable of making significant impacts on the brain.
However, through natural digestion and regulating healthy bodily function, it
can assist the brain in having to work less on fixing an unhealthy system,
which in turn can help increase the potential for dopamine and dopamine related
good feelings.
7.
Listen to Music
“Do you ever wonder
why music makes you happy? I mean, we can be in the dumps one moment but once
we put on our favorite jam, we’re swaying and shaking away…feeling pretty good
about ourselves too! The reason for this is that listening to music increases
dopamine levels. In fact, scientists say that listening to music has the same
effect as eating our favorite foods or watching our favorite T.V. show. So,
when you’re feeling down, throw on some of your favorite tunes and jam out!”
Listening to music can
increase dopamine levels temporarily, but what we’re really looking for is a
lasting fulfillment feeling so you can make your daily life enjoyable and
productive for your goals. Also, popular music these days is often manufactured
in such a way as to prey on your brain’s chemical dependency, making much
of music a form of substance addiction.
However, music has been a
part of human history since as far as we can see, so its influence on our brain
is greatly appreciated. In fact, one of the greatest cultural appreciations
throughout history has been music. So, listen to music, but just make sure it’s
not the only source of dopamine in your life.
8.
Meditate
“As with exercise,
we are discovering more and more benefits to
meditation. We are again adding to the list. As we discussed, the
human brain is susceptible to a variety of addictions. One other addictive
habit that we have is overthinking. In fact, some Buddhists have a phrase for
this addiction: ‘monkey mind.’
Overthinking is not
merely a distracting habit, it’s also a genuine compulsion that leaves us in a
perplexing state, while also having a negative effect on our spiritual
development. However, scientists are finally catching up to what Buddhists have
known for thousands of years: meditation and mindfulness are essential to a
healthy mind.”
Meditation can be a highly
effective form of dopamine increase if done properly, as it can weed out the
mental influences which may be causing your chemistry to be less than desired.
With the intent of reaching a state of self-fulfillment, meditation clears
out the mental clutter and replaces it with presence and fulfillment for just
being alive. This is a state available to every human and can help assist our daily
lives by increasing our awareness of what feels good for us and what we don’t
resonate with.
9.
Take Supplements
“While there are
some great ways to increase dopamine levels, sometimes we’re facing a time
crunch. Fortunately, there are natural supplements on the market that have been
shown to increase dopamine levels. Here are a few:
Acetyl-l-tyrosine:
Another building block of dopamine. A healthy dose of this makes it easier for
the brain to produce dopamine.
Curcumin: An active
ingredient that’s also common in curry spices and turmeric.
Ginkgo Biloba: A
tremendously popular wonder supplement that’s also believed to boost dopamine
levels and keep it circulating in the brain longer.
L-theanine:
Increases multiple neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine. Green
tea is a terrific source for this.”
While supplements can
impact our dopamine response, they should by no means replace your own inner
potential for fulfillment. That responsibility lies with you and you
alone. However, with respect to inner wisdom, without knowing what feeling
amazing actually feels like, it’s difficult to strive for it as a goal.
Supplements can help us get there so we can have a reference point for what our
potential can be. The trick is to facilitate change in our lives, enough so
that the need for supplementation to feel good is lower than the feel goods we
actually experience in our life.
10.
Toxic Cleansing
“As miraculous as
our bodies are, we do accumulate toxins and bacteria that is bad for us.
Endotoxins are the kind that can cause our immune systems to get out of whack,
and it also constrains the production of dopamine. Here are a couple tips for
helping cleanse the gut of endotoxins: eat fermented food, get enough sleep,
and resist the urge to indulge in fatty or sugary foods.”
Whenever you’re not
fulfilled in your life, you run the risk of over-indulging in sugary and sweet
foods in an attempt to temporarily fulfill yourself. However, if you find
fulfillment through the challenge and support of your day, you’re more likely
to eat for the tasks you’re doing instead of eating just to feel good.
How you eat and how
fulfilled you are, are directly correlated. If you’re actively enjoying the
challenges of your life, you’re more likely to consume foods that
serve your highest interests and health, because you see a reason to eat
well. Controlling how you eat is less important than finding fulfillment in
what you do.
So the next time you find
yourself craving that candy bar, ask yourself if there isn’t something else you
could eat that could help you find fulfillment. Also, notice what you are doing
at the time you’re craving sugar and ask yourself if it’s really something you
need to do, or can you delegate it to someone else so you can get back to
things that inspire you. By focusing on what inspires and fulfills you, you’ll
find yourself actively seeking to better your health without having to really
focus on it.
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/01/20/10-ways-to-increase-dopamine-levels-in-the-brain/
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