This month I am talking about Dopamine, its purpose, effect, and habits that produce it.
Let us start with what Dopamine actually is:
“Dopamine is a neurotransmitter made in your brain. It plays a role as a “reward center” and in many body functions, including memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention and more.”
Source- The Cleveland Clinic
Dopamine is produced in two areas of the brain, the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental. It is released when you partake in an activity that you enjoy, such as eating your favorite food, exercising, having sex, and when we have successful social interactions, to name a few.
Dopamine is directly linked to motivation, it is about wanting, not about having. Dopamine is released before we do something that we think is going to be enjoyable, signaling to you that you will feel a sense of joy and happiness if you do it. Who does not want that feeling?
Personally, I am known to procrastinate on the things I find tedious or hard, which for me are tasks like report writing, spreadsheets, accounts, office tasks. Honestly, I would rather go for a run. To combat this, I set myself small goals around short timelines to get me started. Once I start something, I acknowledge it and put a check in the “winning” box. I love to celebrate my wins, but not every win. The key to keep this working is random rewards. In my experience, when I succeed in hitting a milestone it works if I sometimes enjoy it and other times continue with the task in hand. The goal is to associate “winning” with the effort put in rather than the outcome. In my life, this would mean entering my accounts and completing a month versus completing my whole report.
Although Dopamine is known as the “feel good” neurotransmitter, there is another side to it, as unhealthy habits can also cause a rush of dopamine leading to addiction and motivation to continue with the unhealthy habit. The “feel good” moniker attached is also slightly misleading, as it is actually the release of serotonin that increases your mood level.
Now we know the facts and the science, let’s look at ways to achieve optimum baseline levels of Dopamine. According to Andrew Huberman (Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford School of Medicine / Huberman Lab) the following things are essential for your Dopamine levels:
- A healthy sleeping pattern, 8 hours is the desired amount.
- Non- sleep deep rest, such as meditation. There is a further study that supports this, which I have linked here
- Nutrition
- Sunlight
- Movement
As I mentioned before, there are certain things that I procrastinate on and blog writing is one, but here we are at the end. I hope you find all this information useful and that it will help you to understand a little more about how to tackle tasks and habits you want to change.
