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.” (source)
“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 Tasks
“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.” (source)
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.” (source)
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/
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/01/20/10-ways-to-increase-dopamine-levels-in-the-brain/
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