Boost your Dopamine the right way and Compensate its Effect
I love what I do everyday: I help people transform their lives… but I do more than that really…I SERVE people…. by leading by example and by caring, I serve people…
Recently I was listening to a presentation by a famous anthropologist- Simon Sinek- and he was talking about Dopamine.
According to Dr.Daniel Amen, Dopamine is one of the over 100 Neurotransmitters in the human brain.
Often called the “motivation molecule,” dopamine provides the drive and focus you need to be productive. It is heavily involved with attention span, focus, follow-through, motivation, and the ability to experience pleasure.
We can release dopamine every time when we: receive a text, achieve a task, get an award, have a cup of coffee etc., and that is ok, the problem is that Dopamine is highly highly addictive…
Based on Dr. Amen research, many of the things that people do to boost their focus and energy end up backfiring. Nicotine, caffeine, and sugar-laden, fat-filled treats are all very effective at increasing dopamine levels.
However, these things that provide a quick boost end up disrupting the natural dopamine production process resulting in decreased dopamine production in the long-term.
So we need to do two things: 1) Boost Dopamine the right way and 2) Compensate the Dopamine effect with the other two brain chemicals-Serotonin (the leadership chemical) and Oxytocin (the love chemical).
1) How to boost dopamine the right way (based on Dr. Amen’s work):
• Eat foods rich in tyrosine: almonds, bananas, avocados, eggs, beans, fish, chicken
• Exercise regularly
• Learn to meditate
• Get a massage
• Sleep
• Listen to music
2) Release serotonin and oxytocin.
There are so many different ways in our lives where we can release these two chemicals (leading a task , managing a team, loving people, kissing a baby, being compassionate, expressing gratitude, etc.)…but, according to Simon Sinek, there is one way, the number ONE way to release serotonin and oxytocin and therefore compensate the Dopamine effect is: TO SERVE OTHERS.
And we can ALL Serve Others: in our jobs, our family, our communities, our hobbies, our sports!!
So I encourage you to go ahead and serve others, but, starting by yourself, to serve yourself, to love yourself. As Bernie Siegel says, “the number one problem in society is the inability for people to love themselves”…don’t be one of them…
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Virginia