Life hack #22: Create your own “Dopamine menu”

Life hack #22: Create your own "Dopamine menu"

[00:00:00] Life hack #22 Create your own dopamine menu. For anyone who doesn't know, dopamine is a neurotransmitter in our brains that regulates our body's pleasure and reward systems.

In other words, it's our feel good chemical in our brain. And so sometimes we will go and reach for things because they give us a certain pleasure,

not knowing we're actually just looking for dopamine. We're looking for a dopamine hit. Dopamine can come in so many different ways. Some people use food, some people use sex, some people use their hobbies or like, playing with their dog or playing a video game, whatever it is that gives people pleasure, they go and seek those things out.

Right. And so one of the things that when you're struggling with grief and heartbreak, you can forget, you can lose some joy in the things that you once felt joy for. That's something, you know, in the depression phase specifically about that you might struggle with. But sometimes you have trouble getting yourself to feel better.

You just, you're laying in bed. You're in that bed rot stage and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't even know what I want. So this is [00:01:00] where a dopamine menu comes in handy and you can design it. This is actually a thing that for a lot of ADHD people they recommend. Because you have it listed like appetizers and like mains and desserts. And so appetizers are like little quick hits of a dopamine.

So having a tea or playing with your pet, or coloring a picture or doing a crossword puzzle. Listening to certain song,

putting a face mask on your face, making your bed, changing your sheets. Standing outside in the sun, watering your plants, doodling, doing jumping jacks, things like that. And so for the mains, there's lots of options here that are a bit more of a commitment of time, but one of them is, hey if you like cooking a meal or your favorite meal, why don't you take a workout class?

You could go and watch one of your old favorite movies, read a book, you can reorganize your closet. So these are things that also give you that happy feel good ah feeling after you've done them right, or doing them.

Some of the side options [00:02:00] could be listening to a podcast episode, lighting a candle, calling a friend, playing with a fidget toy, listening to an audio book, doing a puzzle.

 So for desserts, these are things like buying yourself a sweet treat or online shopping, or ordering yourself something nice. You know, a little special snack or a scroll through social media for awhile. Those can just be light things that you do for a little hit here and there. And then there's this thing that at the bottom for specials that you should be adding, and it is for the big things, like planning a vacation, going to a concert, seeing a comedy show, buying a new outfit, going and actually taking a class, taking a filmmaking class, going to a paint class, doing a random act of kindness, getting a manicure and pedicure.

So these are things that are a bit bigger and they also offer a bigger hit of dopamine. Right.

So if I'm laying in bed the next time I'm sad and I just don't know what I want to do, I might order from the starter menu, a little bit of a snack or [00:03:00] something, and then I'll get to my entree.

And maybe what I'll do is I will, I don't know, start a new podcast. Called Life Hack Your Break Up and put my energy in that.

True story though. I actually am in my own struggle. And so creating content is a passion of mine, especially turning pain into purpose. And so this has been a beautiful distraction and something I order off my dopamine menu when I'm having a rough day. I'll be like, well, I guess I could make a podcast episode, you know? So it kind of works. I've been doing it.

So sometimes it's helpful to just have it listed, have it written down the things that give you joy so that when you're in a tough spot or you're sad, or you're emotional about a break up or heartbreak or whatever, you can look at that list and order a few things off of it, make yourself feel better. For me, it might be a hot bath with a certain tea with a, you know, I like cream in my tea

so it has to be made the right way, but I want to have a hot tea and a bath and maybe some soft music that would be a really good [00:04:00] half hour for me. So I'm going to order that maybe tonight off my dopamine menu.

I will just add a word of caution though, to be careful to use food and other substances that are not productive because if you keep using food, you're going to gain weight. And then if you start to gain weight, you're going to have, um, more challenges to deal with mentally about your own self-esteem and things like that.

So try to not use food as your dopamine hit as much as possible, especially if you struggle with weight gain.