How to Control Your Dopamine for Maximum Productivity
Summary
TLDRDieses Video präsentiert eine umfassende Analyse der Dopamin-Funktion im Gehirn und wie es unsere Belohnungssysteme beeinflusst. Es erklärt die Begriffe 'tonischer' und 'phasischer' Dopamin-Austausch und wie sie unsere Motivation und Belohnungsgefühle steuern. Der Kanalgründer, Ali, teilt vier praktische Strategien, wie man seine Dopamin-Auswirkungen steuern kann, darunter das Prinzip 'Schmerz vor Freude', um Produktivität und Wohlbefinden zu verbessern. Zudem wird das Konzept der 'Dopamin-Entgiftung' diskutiert, um eine ausgewogene Lebensweise zu erreichen.
Takeaways
- 😀 Dopamin ist ein Neurotransmitter, der vor allem im Gehirn für die Kommunikation zwischen Nervenzellen zuständig ist und in Belohnung und Motivation involviert ist.
- 🔍 Dopamin arbeitet in zwei Arten: Tonic Transmission (Kontinuierliche, kleine Mengen) und Phasic Transmission (Sporadische, hohe Mengen), die als Signal über dem Hintergrundrauschen fungieren.
- 📈 Die Veränderung von Dopaminspiegeln beeinflusst unsere Gefühle: Unerwartete Belohnungen erhöhen Dopaminspiegel und fühlen gut, während erwartete oder fehlende Belohnungen keine oder sogar eine Verringerung des Dopamins auslösen.
- 🌐 Soziale Medien und Spiele können unsere Dopaminsysteme manipulieren, indem sie uns zu längerer Nutzung und damit zu erhöhten Dopamin-Freigaben animieren.
- 🚫 Der Begriff 'Dopamin-Detox' bezieht sich nicht auf das Entfernen von Dopamin, sondern auf die Abstiegsphase von Aktivitäten, die hohe Dopamin-Freigaben verursachen, um die Balance wiederherzustellen.
- 🏋️♂️ Die Regel 'Schmerz vor Freude' empfiehlt, unangenehme oder schwierige Aufgaben zuerst zu erledigen, bevor man sich auf angenehme Aktivitäten konzentriert, um die Freude zu verstärken.
- 🏃♀️ Die Regel der Vermeidung schlägt vor, sich bewusst von Aktivitäten fernzuhalten, die hohe Dopamin-Freigaben verursachen, um die Dopamin-Balance wiederherzustellen.
- 🏰 Die Regel der Barrieren empfiehlt, persönliche Regeln und Einschränkungen einzuführen, um die Zeit und den Umgang mit Dopamin-aktiven Aktivitäten zu kontrollieren.
- 🤔 Die Regel der Langeweile fördert die Akzeptanz von Zeiten ohne hohere Reize und fördert die Kreativität und das Genuss von einfachen Freuden.
- 📚 Das Buch 'Dopamin Nation' von Dr. Anna Lembke bietet nützliche Einblicke in die Kontrolle von Dopamin und wie man die Balance im Leben wiederherstellen kann.
Q & A
Was ist Dopamin?
-Dopamin ist ein kleines Molekül namens Neurotransmitter, das im Gehirn vor allem für die Kommunikation zwischen den Nervenzellen zuständig ist. Es ist in verschiedenen Funktionen wie Bewegung, Schlaf und Stimmung involviert, aber vor allem spielt es in der Belohnungs- und Motivationsfunktion eine Rolle.
Wie funktioniert die Belohnungssystem im Gehirn mit Dopamin?
-Im Belohnungssystem des Gehirns ist Dopamin die Hauptwährung, die uns antreibt, Dinge zu tun. Es gibt zwei Arten der Dopamin-Übertragung: tonische Übertragung und phasische Übertragung. Tonica Übertragung ist wie der ständige Hintergrundgeräuschpegel, der von den Nervenzellen kontinuierlich und zufällig freigesetzt wird, während phasische Übertragung wie ein plötzlicher Anstieg des Dopamins ist, wenn wir eine Belohnung erwarten und erhalten.
Was passiert, wenn wir mehr Likes auf Instagram erhalten, als wir erwartet haben?
-Wenn wir mehr Likes erhalten, als wir erwartet haben, gibt es einen Anstieg des Dopamins, was als Belohnungsvorhersagefehler bezeichnet wird. Unser Gehirn hat eine Vorhersage über die Anzahl der Likes gemacht und diese wurde übertroffen, was zu einem erhöhten Dopaminspiegel führt und uns ein Gefühl von Wohlstand vermittelt.
Was geschieht, wenn wir die gleiche Anzahl von Likes erhalten, wie wir erwartet haben?
-Wenn wir die gleiche Anzahl von Likes erhalten, wie wir erwartet haben, gibt es trotz des Anstiegs des Dopamins durch die Benachrichtigung keine zusätzliche Dopamin-Freigabe, weil die Belohnung erwartet wurde und keine Überraschung darstellt.
Wie wirkt sich eine unerwartete geringere Anzahl von Likes auf die Dopaminspiegel aus?
-Wenn wir eine unerwartete geringere Anzahl von Likes erhalten, führt dies zu einer Verringerung der Dopaminspiegel. Dies kann uns schlecht fühlen, weil wir eine Vorhersagefehler gemacht haben und die Belohnung fehlt.
Was ist der Begriff 'Dopamin-Detox' und was bedeutet er?
-Dopamin-Detox bezieht sich nicht auf die Entfernung von Dopamin, sondern auf die Abstiegsphase von Aktivitäten, die Dopamin freisetzt. Das Ziel ist es, die Balance zwischen tonischer und phasischer Dopamin-Freigabe wiederherzustellen und die Grundgenuss-Level zurückzusetzen.
Wie kann man seine Dopamin-Ebene kontrollieren?
-Man kann seine Dopamin-Ebene kontrollieren, indem man die Balance zwischen tonischer und phasischer Dopamin-Freigabe wiederherstellt. Dies kann durch die Vermeidung von Aktivitäten erreicht werden, die zu hohe Dopamin-Freigaben verursachen, wie z.B. das ständige Scrollen in sozialen Medien, Videospielen oder dem Konsum von zu viel Zucker.
Was sind die vier Strategien, die im Video vorgestellt werden, um die Dopamin-Kontrolle zu verbessern?
-Die vier Strategien sind: 1) Die Regel des Schmerzes vor dem Genuss, 2) Die Regel der Vermeidung, 3) Die Regel der Barrieren und 4) Die Regel der Langeweile. Diese Strategien zielen darauf ab, die Dopamin-Freigabe zu regulieren und ein Gleichgewicht zwischen Freude und Genuss zu finden.
Was ist die 'Regel des Schmerzes vor dem Genuss' und wie kann sie angewandt werden?
-Die 'Regel des Schmerzes vor dem Genuss' besagt, dass man sich zuerst einem unangenehmen oder unkomfortablen Ereignis aussetzen sollte, bevor man sich auf ein angenehmes Ereignis freut. Dies kann dazu beitragen, dass das angenehme Ereignis nach dem unangenehmen Ereignis mehr Freude bereitet.
Was sind 'chronologische Barrieren' und wie können sie verwendet werden?
-Chronologische Barrieren sind Zeitbeschränkungen, die man sich selbst auferlegt, um die Zeit, die man für bestimmte Aktivitäten aufwendet, zu begrenzen. Beispielsweise könnte man soziale Medien von 21:00 Uhr bis 9:00 Uhr morgens sperren, um die Zeit, die man auf diese Apps aufwendet, zu reduzieren.
Was ist der Nutzen von 'Langeweile' in der Kontrolle der Dopamin-Freigabe?
-Langeweile kann dazu beitragen, dass wir uns an die Freude kleinerer Dinge gewöhnen und nicht immer nach extremer Aufregung oder Ablenkung suchen. Es ermöglicht uns, kreative Ideen zu entwickeln und uns von der ständigen Stimulation durch digitale Geräte zu lösen.
Outlines
🧠 Dopamin: Wissenschaft und Kontrolle
Dieses Absatz thematisiert Dopamin, ein Neurotransmitter im Gehirn, der für Belohnung und Motivation verantwortlich ist. Es wird erklärt, dass Dopamin durch zwei Arten von Transmission im Gehirn funktioniert: Tonic Transmission als Hintergrundaktivität und Phasic Transmission als Signal über dem Rauschen. Der Absatz erklärt anhand von Beispielen wie Instagram-Benachrichtigungen, wie Dopamin durch unerwartete Belohnungen freigesetzt wird und wie dies zu einem Verlangen nach weiteren Belohnungen führt. Es werden auch die verschiedenen Auswirkungen auf Dopamin-Niveaus, abhängig von der Übereinstimmung mit der erwarteten Belohnung, diskutiert.
📉 Dopamin-Mangel: Folgen und Manipulation
Der zweite Absatz konzentriert sich auf die Konsequenzen eines Dopamin-Mangels, der durch eine ständige Exposition gegenüber hochbelohnenden Aktivitäten entsteht. Es wird beschrieben, wie soziale Medien Unternehmen diese Dopamin-Systeme manipulieren, um das Verhalten der Nutzer zu steuern und sie länger in ihren Apps zu halten. Es wird auch auf die Idee des Dopamin-Detoxing eingegangen, welches die Abstiegsphase von Aktivitäten vorschlagen soll, die hohe Mengen an Dopamin auslösen, um die Dopamin-Niveaus wieder in Balance zu bringen.
🛑 Regeln zur Kontrolle von Dopamin
In diesem Absatz werden vier Strategien vorgestellt, die helfen sollen, die Kontrolle über die Dopamin-Freissetzung zurückzugewinnen. Dies beinhaltet das 'Schmerz vor Freude' Prinzip, das Vermeiden von Aktivitäten, die Dopamin auslösen, die Einrichtung von Barrieren, um der Versuchung zu widerstehen, und das Erleben von Langeweile, um die Fähigkeit wiederzufinden, sich in einer weniger stimulierten Umgebung zu amüsieren. Jeder dieser Strategien zielt darauf ab, eine ausgewogene Dopamin-Freissetzung zu erreichen und die Abhängigkeit von ständigen high-Dopamin-Aktivitäten zu reduzieren.
🌟 Die Macht der Einfachheit und Langeweile
Der vierte Absatz schließt den Video-Script mit einer Betrachtung des Wertes der Einfachheit und des Lernens, sich in der Langeweile wohlzufühlen. Es wird betont, dass es möglich ist, Freude in Alltagsaktivitäten zu finden und dass nicht ständig nach extremer Unterhaltung gesucht werden muss. Der Sprecher teilt persönliche Erfahrungen und gibt einen Ausblick darauf, wie man durch die Anwendung der vorgestellten Strategien ein ausgewogenes Leben führen kann, das sowohl produktiv als auch erfüllend ist.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Dopamin
💡Tonische Übertragung
💡Phasische Übertragung
💡Belohnungsprädiktionsfehler
💡Dopamin-Detox
💡Dopamin-Mangelzustand
💡Regel der Schmerzvorpleasure
💡Regel der Vermeidung
💡Regel der Barrieren
💡Langweile
Highlights
Dopamin ist ein Neurotransmitter, der in unserem Gehirn hauptsächlich für die Kommunikation zwischen Nervenzellen zuständig ist.
Dopamin spielt eine zentrale Rolle in der Belohnungs- und Motivationssystematik unseres Gehirns.
Tonische Übertragung und phasische Übertragung sind zwei verschiedene Arten, wie Dopamin im Gehirn wirkt.
Tonische Übertragung stellt den Hintergrund-Dopaminspiegel dar, während phasische Übertragung auf einen Anstieg des Dopamins reagiert.
Die Belohnung und Motivation werden durch die Veränderung des Dopaminspiegels beeinflusst, insbesondere durch Überraschungen und Fehler in der Belohnungsvorhersage.
Soziale Medien können den Dopaminsystem manipulieren, um unser Verhalten zu verändern und uns länger in den Apps zu halten.
Dopamin-Detox beinhaltet das Abstinieren von Dopamin-induzierenden Aktivitäten, um die Dopamin-Auswirkungen zu kontrollieren.
Die Idee hinter Dopamin-Detox ist es, den Gleichgewicht zwischen tonischer und phasischer Dopamin-Freigabe wiederherzustellen.
Die vier Strategien zur Kontrolle von Dopamin umfassen das Regeln von Schmerz vor Freude, Vermeidung, Barrieren und Langeweile.
Das Regeln von Schmerz vor Freude suggeriert, dass man sich zunächst einer Unannehmlichkeit aussetzen sollte, bevor man sich auf eine angenehme Aktivität konzentriert.
Die Strategie der Vermeidung empfiehlt, sich bewusst von den Ursprüngen abzuhalten, die man süchtig machen könnte.
Das Regeln der Barrieren schlägt vor, persönliche Regeln und Grenzen für die Art der Aktivitäten zu setzen, die man ausführt.
Das Regeln der Langeweile fördert die Akzeptanz von Zeiten ohne hohere Dopamin-Aktivitäten und fördert die Kreativität.
Die Verwendung von Apps wie Rise kann helfen, die Zeitverwendung zu verfolgen und die Produktivität zu steigern.
Die Wichtigkeit der Kontrolle der eigenen Dopamin-Auswirkungen und die Verwendung von Technologie als Werkzeug anstatt als Kontrollinstrument wird betont.
Das Buch 'Feelgood Productivity' bietet praktische Anleitungen, wie man seine Arbeit genießt und die Produktivität steigert.
Die Bedeutung der Schaffung von Balance zwischen hoher und niedriger Dopamin-Aktivitäten für das allgemeine Wohlbefinden wird hervorgehoben.
Transcripts
so in The Last 5 Years there's been a
lot of stuff online about
dopamine and how it causes us to be
addicted to things like our phones and
in particular the idea of dopamine
detoxing today I'm talking about
dopamine detoxing dopamine detox
dopamine detox you do not control
dopamine dopamine controls you and so
given all these Trends I wanted to
better understand the actual science
about what dopamine is but also how we
can manage our dopamine levels to
improve our overall productivity and
well-being so me and my team spent
absolutely ages reading a bunch of
research papers listening to tons of
podcasts and going through some books to
try and figure out exactly what is going
on with dopamine now in particular this
involved going through Dr Anna ly's work
she's a psychiatrist at Stanford
University School of Medicine and she
recently published a book called
dopamine Nation finding balance in the
age of indulgence and she's got some
really helpful takeaways that I hope
will be genuinely needle moving for your
productivity so in this video we're
going to be looking at what dopamine is
the science behind how to control
dopamine and four actionable tips that
will hopefully help boost your overall
productivity and by the way if you're
new to the channel then hello my name is
Ali I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur and
I'm the author of the book Feelgood
productivity which is about how to do
more of what matters to you in a way
that's enjoyable effective and
sustainable and I've actually got a
personal interest in dopamine given that
a I went through med school B I did an
extra degree in Psychology with some
modules on cognitive Neuroscience which
featured dopamine pretty heavily and so
exploring dopamine for this video was
kind of fun because it was sort of
revisiting some of the stuff I did at
University but with more of a focus on
how understanding dopamine can genuinely
help us boost our productivity and
ideally improve our lives as well
part one what is
dopamine okay so this is dopamine it is
a small molecule called a
neurotransmitter that works in our brain
mostly and it helps our neurons or our
nerve cells communicate with each other
now dopamine is involved in a bunch of
different things including movement and
sleep and mood but most importantly for
this video it's involved in reward and
motivation and the way we can think of
it is that in our brain's reward system
dopamine is the major currency that
motivates us to actually do stuff okay
so how do they do that well there are
Broly two different ways in which
dopamine works in the brain there is
tonic transmission and then there is
phasic
[Music]
transmission so to understand these
let's imagine that you're in a
restaurant now tonic transmission is
like the constant hum of the people who
are chattering around you it's basically
background noise and you can't really
make out any individual conversations
and tonic transmission is when your
neurons are randomly but continuously
releasing small amounts of dopamine and
this sets your Baseline dopamine
[Music]
level and then you can think of phasic
transmission as if someone is calling
your name out in the restaurant which
you can make out and respond to even
though there are lots of other people
talking and this represents a surge of
dopamine which is sort of the signal
above the noise this by the way is
sometimes called the cocktail party
effect where you're in a cocktail party
there is a hum of chatter in the the
background and if someone says your name
oh hey Alie you'll be able to hear it
now here's how this might work in
reality so imagine getting an Instagram
notification on your phone for some
likes on a new Instagram post that
you've just posted now at first your
dopamine is set at its Baseline because
of tonic transmission but then when your
phone buzzes and lights up with a
notification this is called a Q and this
causes a phasic release of dopamine
because we expect to open Instagram to
find a message from someone and that is
the reward and this short burst of dope
creates this feeling of wanting or
craving and it m moates us to do
something so in this case we feel the
urge and we feel motivated to unlock our
phone and open
Instagram now at this point there are
three potential different outcomes
outcome number one is that we get more
likes than we predicted so in this post
I got 11,000 likes and maybe I predicted
only getting 5,000 likes and so when I
open this post and I see 11,000 likes I
get a release in dopamine so here in
blue we've got the tonic release of
dopamine we get a little bit of phasic
release of dopamine when I see the Q I.E
the Ping and the buzz of the
notification and then once I open my
phone and I get the reward which is more
likes than I thought I would get
suddenly we get an increase in dopamine
and that is the surge of dopamine and
this is called a reward prediction error
our brain made a prediction of how many
likes we're going to get we made an
error in that prediction and we ended up
getting more likes than we thought and
this unexpected reward is what causes
that increase in dopamine that is option
number one now we've got option number
two which is let's say we get exactly
the same amount amount of likes as we
predicted so I predict I would get 5,000
likes for this picture and I got about
5,000 likes for this picture now I still
get the increase in dopamine from the
que I seeing the notification pop up but
in this case because the reward was
expected I got exactly the same number
of likes as I expected my brain did not
make an error in the prediction the
prediction was correct and I get no
dopamine release so when you get an
unexpected reward you get an increase in
dopamine but when you get an expected
reward a reward that you knew was going
to come you don't get any dopamine
release that's very interesting now
option number three is what if you get
fewer likes than you predicted what if I
predicted 5,000 likes and I only got
1,000 likes now in this context I still
get the increase in dopamine from the Q
I.E the buzz of my notification because
that's the QED dopamine release but then
the reward is absent I made a prediction
error I predicted 5,000 likes I only got
1,000 likes and this very interestingly
causes a decrease in dopamine levels now
as you might appreciate from this
example when dopamine is released we
feel pretty good when dopamine is at its
Baseline we feel like m whatever that's
pretty normal but when dopamine is
decreased we feel pretty bad which is
why it feels kind of bad to get fewer
like than you expected and feels kind of
good to get more like than you expected
now in a lot of cases this relationship
between dopamine prediction reward and
feeling good or bad is actually quite
good like when we get hungry dopamine
motivates us to find food if that food
is particularly tastier than what we
predicted I.E unfortunately if it has
more sugar and fat in it than what we
potentially predicted we're going to
release dopamine that's going to make us
feel good and obviously this sort of
thing is very useful for the survival of
our species but in other cases like
social media for example our dopamine
system can be manipulated by social
media companies to change our behavior
and keep us on these apps for way longer
than we should so for example these
companies know that we release more
dopamine when we don't expect something
so sometimes you'll be scrolling through
Instagram reals or whatever and none of
them will seem particularly interesting
but suddenly you're hit with something
super funny or you might have been
browsing Instagram for some time and
then it randomly will send you a
notification telling you how many likes
you got on your most recent post and
this is what is called a random
intermittent reward where you are shown
something rewarding at random intervals
and social media algorithms use this to
keep giving us hits of dopamine and it
keeps us on the apps for longer and the
rise of social media and gaming and
other addictive stuff is why dopamine is
becoming an increasingly bigger topic of
discussion oh by the way on route to
being able to control your dopamine
figuring out all this stuff you might
like to check out a really helpful app
called rise who are very kindly
sponsoring this video rise is a really
good automatic time tracker so what you
do is that you install it on any device
and what it does is that in the
background it figures out what app
you're using or what website you're on
or whatever and it will then categorize
things into work or entertainment or
emails or communication and a bunch of
different categories you can create
custom categories as well I've been
using rice for the last 2 and 1 half
years now and it's just super helpful to
see exactly where my time is going so I
can see things like last month I spent
an ungodly amount of time watching
random Youtube videos during working
hours where I sort of intended to work
but then I ended up getting distracted
by YouTube it's also got a built-in
pomodora timer which is just kind of
nice for being able to time your work
sessions and the other nice thing about
it is that it pops up with these like
distraction reminders so if it senses
like for me if I'm on Google Docs cuz
I'm working on a writing project and
then I open a new browser window to go
on a news site or YouTube or something
like that it will recognize hang on
that's probably a distraction will pop
up with a big popup asking hey are you
getting distracted and then you can say
yep thanks for the reminder or you can
say nope this is not a distraction and
even just that it's just like a oh yeah
I getting distracted whoops thanks for
the reminder let me go back to the thing
that I was actually trying to do if
you're interested in checking it out you
can get a free trial at rise. i/ Al
abdal and that will be linked down in
the video description as well thank you
so much rise for sponsoring this video
okay so now that we know all of that
let's talk about how can we control our
dopamine and use it potentially to our
advantage rather than becoming a slave
to the social media
algorithms part two how to control your
dopamine okay so one thing that's fairly
common here on YouTube around how to
control your dopamine is the idea of a
dopamine detox and the general idea here
is that if you're feeling particularly
addicted to social media or video games
or porn or whatever the thing might be
then by completely abstaining from those
things and going cold turkey for a
period of days or weeks you can in
theory reset your dopamine levels and
you can stop the addiction to that
specific behavior now a lot of people
don't understand the term dopamine detox
they think it means detoxing from
dopamine but you can't detox from
dopamine because you need dopamine to
like live and move and survive and it
would be very bad if you tried to detox
from dopamine instead dopamine detox is
when you detox from dopamine inducing
activities like The Addictive behaviors
or the social media or the video games
or whatever the thing might
be so let's let's imagine two different
scenarios we've got scenario 1 and
scenario 2 and scenario 1 is someone who
tries drugs for the first time the blue
is their tonic background level of
dopamine release and then at some point
they try a drug and they get a phasic
release of dopamine and this feels
wonderful because you get lots of
dopamine and dopamine feels good and
this makes you want to continue using
the drugs or whatever addictive behavior
the thing might be but then the problem
is if you use the addictive thing the
drug the video game whatever the thing
might be if you use it too often you
actually increase your tonic levels of
dopamine transmission and that means the
next time you know after a while if you
take the drug you get a phasic release
but this phasic release doesn't really
stand out compared to the tonic
background level of dopamine and so to
get the same hit of euphoria you need to
increase the dose you need to take
double the dose of the drug or play
video games for even longer or go even
more extreme and whatever the thing
might be to get any sense of feeling
good and when you're in this cycle of
constantly having to seek out more to
get that same sense of feeling good this
is sometimes called a dopamine deficit
State I believe that what's happening is
that we as both individ ual and nations
are exposed to so many high reward
substances from our coffee in the
morning to that first text that we read
to our Netflix binge at night that were
all in a chronic dopamine deficit State
barely able to enjoy the modest rewards
of life and experiencing more and more
anxiety and depression that was Dr Anna
lmy who we mentioned before is a
dopamine expert and the author of this
book dopamine Nation why our addiction
to pleasure is causing us pain and so
really in this chronic dopamine deficit
State the problem is that things that
don't release a lot of dopamine like
reading or watching a slow TV show or
taking a walk in the park or hanging out
with friends those things no longer make
us feel good cuz we've got such a high
tonic level of dopamine that we need an
enormous signal to feel anything at all
and that's one of the reasons why a lot
of us find it hard to watch a TV show or
a movie without checking our phone
because we kind of need that extra hit
of dopamine to feel anything at all
which is kind of scary and so if you
want to do a dopamine detox the idea is
that really it's about resetting the
balance between tonic and phasic
dopamine release and you can almost
think of it as resetting your Baseline
levels of enjoyment we actively want the
phasic signals to be heard above the
tonic background noise of dopamine again
and to do this we need to stop doing too
much of the things that give us those
big spikes in dopamine and those instant
feelings of pleasure things like
scrolling Tik Tok for too long or video
gaming or gambling or eating too much
sugary food late at night and really in
short a dopamine detox is kind of just a
fancy way of saying that we need to
learn to enjoy The Simple Pleasures in
life and the idea is that by resetting
this balance between tonic and phasic
dopamine release we will learn to become
happier in a less stimulating
environment oh by the way if you're
enjoying this video so far you might
like to check out my completely free
Focus crash course it's at Focus
crashcourse tocom it's a 7-Day series of
emails where each day I'll email you
some actionable strategies and tools
that you can use to improve your focus
and to really help take control of your
dopamine it's completely free you can
unsubscribe whenever you want there's a
link down below or head over to focus
crashcourse
tocom part three four actionable
strategies for controlling your dopamine
strategy number one the rule of pain
before pleasure
so there's this nice diagram in Dr
Anna's book that shows this seesaw
between Pleasure and Pain if you press
too much on the pleasure side the brain
will want to achieve homeostasis and go
back towards pain it wants these things
to be level but crucially if you press
on the pain side then you're more likely
to then experience pleasure and that's
why this strategy is the rule of pain
before pleasure because if you can get
yourself to feel some sort of pain or do
an uncomfortable thing first you're more
likely to then experience the pleasure
of doing the more pleasurable thing
afterwards like for example when you've
just finished watching an episode of
your favorite Netflix show then you're
going to want to watch another one and
then another and then another but if you
decide at any point not to continue
watching that episode that next episode
you're going to start to feel the sense
of pain and so the way that I personally
think about this is that if I'm about to
do something that's highly dopamine
inducing or highly pleasurable I'll sort
of think how can I pay for this upfront
by experiencing a little bit of
discomfort so on the weekends for
example I've got the whole day to myself
and I know I want to play some Horizon
forbidden West on the PS5 on the days
where I just play Horizon forbidden West
all day I actually don't feel that great
but if I can talk myself into to the gym
first or getting my 10,000 steps by
walking around the park first and then
it's almost like I'm rewarding myself
for experiencing that discomfort with
the video game the video game feels
better and then also like going to the
gym or going for a walk in the park
those generally low dopamine activities
also start to feel good and there's an
interesting way of thinking of this
which is sort of separating out two
types of fun there's type one fun and
then there's type two fun type one fun
is the pure fun type of fun like playing
a video game or whatever but type two
fun is the fun that sort of fun in
hindsight like running a marathon or
like going on a on a big challenge hike
those are also fun but they're like kind
of painful in the moment but they give
you this incredible feeling of Joy
afterwards and that's this idea of the
pleasure pain seesaw tipping in the pain
Direction so that you get more pleasure
afterwards all right strategy number two
is the rule of voidance so we talked
about how always having these high
dopamine activities like social media or
videos or whatever always having them on
increases our tonic levels of dopamine
and so the rule of avoidance is
basically to cultivate moments where you
are not doing a high doine activity and
you're ideally slowly phasing out those
activities now it's worth appreciating
that it takes about 4 weeks to reset our
dopamine balance according to Dr Ana lmy
and in those four weeks we need to avoid
the addictive behavior altogether if we
can this is the idea of dopamine
detoxing and one of the best ways to do
this is to avoid anything that reminds
you of the thing that you find addictive
and triggers are things that make us
want to go back to using our drug and
the key thing about triggers whatever
they are is they also release a little
bit of dopamine right so just thinking
about whatever the trigger is that we
associate with drug use or just thinking
about drug use can already release this
anticipatory DOP mean this little mini
Spike so for example if you find
yourself scrolling on Tik Tok too much
at night then you might need to turn off
your notifications entirely or just
uninstall the app and get rid of
notifications so that you don't have any
cue or craving to open the app now
breaking this cycle will take a bit of
effort and you're definitely going to
feel worse before you feel better
because you'll experience this almost as
withdrawal symptoms and this might
include feeling agitated feeling angry
and sometimes even not being being able
to sleep but the idea is that over this
4 weeks as we explicitly avoid that
behavior or detox from it we need to
learn to enjoy ourselves without relying
on those things that release lots of
dopamine next up we have the rule of
barriers so avoiding something entirely
can be really hard especially if you
feel kind of addicted to it so another
way to help with this is to put up
barriers and personal rules and this is
more about creating a healthy balance of
these kind of high dopamine behaviors
rather than necessarily cutting them out
completely and there are these three
types of barriers that Dr analy talks
about there is chronological
geographical and categorical now
chronological barriers are time barriers
like limiting the amount of time you
spend on social media apps or on your
phone or in video games for example one
thing that I personally do is I use the
app opal which is a very good
distraction blocker and it blocks all
social media apps from 9:00 p.m. at
night all the way through to 9:00 a.m.
in the morning which means I just don't
end up scrolling whoops which means I
just don't end up scrolling on my phone
at night time now geographical barriers
are simply physical barriers like if
you're addicted to chocolate just not
buying the chocolate and putting in your
house in the first place it's a lot
easier to avoid chocolate if there's
none in the house and then categorical
barriers is placing rules or limits on
yourself for the types of games or the
types of activities that you do so for
example you might put a categorical
barrier that you're no longer going to
drink any sugary drinks for
example and then finally we come to my
favorite one which is the rule of
boredom so we live in a world where
actually being bored is ridiculously
rare you always have your phone with you
there is always something that you could
be doing but the idea behind this
strategy is that boredom is something
that we should learn to become more
comfortable with what people in recovery
from addiction talk about is to some
extent having to learn to live with
things being a little boring a lot of
the time right so trying to avoid some
of this intensity and thrill
seeking and escapism that really is at
the core of addictive Tendencies now I
really like this rule uh one thing I
often say to myself is if I'm going for
a walk in the park or if I'm driving I
will often tell myself the goal here is
to be bored so I don't then put my air
pods in and start listening to an audio
book at triple speed or listen to a
podcast or watch a YouTube video in the
background with YouTube premium blah
blah blah and when boredom is the goal
then it's like all right cool well if
bedm is the goal I would just take a
stroll in the park and not really think
about too much and ironically or perhaps
expectedly when I do that you know
there's a part of the brain called the
default mode Network that becomes active
we start daydreaming and then often like
a lot of my most creative ideas happen
when I am not experiencing like the
stimulation of an audiobook or a podcast
or Instagram or YouTube all of that fun
stuff and so really for me after
thinking about all of this dopamine
stuff the main takeaway is that there is
incredible value in allowing ourselves
to appreciate the pleasures of the small
things we don't have to go on that fancy
holiday to have fun we don't have to
play those ridiculously addictive video
games we don't have to be always
scrolling on social media to feel
something and if we're in that position
already it's not really our fault it's
more like you know the social media
companies are hijacking our minds and
attention blah blah blah blah blah blah
but there is definitely stuff that we
can do to control our own dopamine
levels and to you know use the phone as
a tool rather than as something that
controls us and if you enjoyed this
video then I think you'll get a lot of
value out of my book it's called
Feelgood productivity it's about how to
do more of what matters to you in a way
that's actually enjoyable meaningful and
sustainable and really it's a practical
actionable guide on how to enjoy your
work a little bit more anything boring
that you're doing you know even though
we've got the rule of boredom you can
find ways to make it a little bit more
interesting for you and if you do that
you're more likely to be productive
you're more likely to be creative you're
less likely to be stressed and you're
also going to have more energy to give
to the truly important things in your
life it's available everywhere books are
sold it's translated into like 34
different languages available all around
the world so you might like to check it
out and if you have already read the
book then Amazon reviews are my love
language so if you enjoyed this video I
would love it if you could please leave
a review on Amazon for the book and if
you're struggling with all this derine
stuff then chances are you're also
probably struggling to focus and in that
case you might like to check out my
three-part video series over here which
is all about the actionable philosophies
strategies and tools that you can use to
improve your ability to focus so thank
you so much for watching hope you got
value out of this video and I'll see you
hopefully in the next one bye-bye
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