How I Tricked My Brain To Like Doing Hard Things (dopamine detox)

 Some people seem to have no problem studying, exercising or working on their side projects regularly. But some people prefer watching TV, playing video games and scrolling through social media. Dopamine is what makes us desire things. And it gives us the motivation to get up and do stuff. Your brain develops priorities in large part based on how much dopamine it's expecting to get. If an activity releases too little dopamine, you wo n't have much motivation to do it. But if a high dopamine activity releases a lot of dopamine , you'll be motivated to repeat it, over and over. Nearly everything releases some amount of dopamine. Even drinking water when you 're thirsty, does. But the highest dopamine release happens when you get a reward randomly. Your body tries to maintain homeostasis, so it down-regulates your dopamine receptors. Essentially your brain gets used to having high levels of dopamine and those levels become your new normal. Thus you develop a dopamine tolerance. This can be a huge problem because the things that do n't give you as much dopamine, don't interest you any longer. This is one of the reasons why drug addicts who try to quit have a hard time adjusting to a normal life. People who are addicted to video games, social media or internet pornography experience the same thing.

Dopamine detox works because you become so bored that boring stuff becomes more fun. It starves you of all the pleasure you usually get, and in turn, it makes those less satisfying activities more desirable. If you want radical results and you want them fast, you need to be able to take radical action. You want to let your dopamine receptors recover from the unnaturally high dopamine that's been flooding your brain. And boredom is going to propel you to do other things that day that day. Things that you would normally put off because they do n't release as much dopamine. And because you 're bored it 's easier for you' to do them. Of course avoiding high dopamine behavior once in a while is good. But ideally you should avoid those behaviors altogether. If you have motivation problems, start dopamine detoxing your brain as soon as possible. Separate yourself from unnaturally high amounts of dopamine, or expose yourself to it far less frequently. Only then will normal, every day, low dopamine activities become exciting again and you'll be able to do them for longer.