Is changing the Trigger Point of Dopamine Rush possible?

2006^th BLOG POST

 

I remember five years back, no one even spoke about things like dopamine or adrenaline rush. People didn’t even know if something like this existed but in the age of these clickbait articles and social media, everyone is aware about it. I really get confused if knowing about these elements is really useful for us in terms of living life in discipline or happiness. I see that rather than using this information in our favour, many of us have started giving excuses pointing our fingers on terms like these. You ask a youth why do they spend so much time on their mobile – either on Instagram, Reels, Snapchat, Youtube or playing games, they blame it on dopamine rush rather than accepting that they are in bad addiction. In our times, we used to just listen all our parent’s complaints about our time wastage but never had a justification to that but surprisingly, kids, today, have an answer for something as obviously wrong as this.

 

I think it’s time for everyone of us to know – majorly who are in 20s and 30s that this is the time when we are building our career and money. Any time wasted now comes with ill consequences which stays with you for a long time until you really perform something miraculous which can take away the after-effect of all your past goof-ups. Life isn’t that fair to any of us and we know it better now. At least, many of us know. Some people are still living in their own bubble to realize how life is playing with them. They will unfortunately acknowledge once it’s all over for them. Spending these years in productive mindset can do wonders to our present as well as the future.

 

Talking about the terms I was discussing above, what triggers dopamine rush within you can be easily manipulated by you. Yes, it’s possible and I have experimented with this. We just choose wrong things for triggering these emotions and chemical reactions within us. If you start doing a productive task with happiness and curiosity, you start feeling the same vibes you get when you do something on your mobile. For e.g. when I began my walking/running and healthy eating habits, it was tough initially. But because I had this goal of healthy medical report in my mind, every time, I ditched a junk food and ate something protein-rich, I started getting the same push from my body and mind which I got previously whenever I enjoyed unhealthy food. You can call this as shift of trigger points for activating this rush within you.

 

Similarly, as you all know the kind of reader I am. Until and unless, I don’t end up reading at least 30 pages, I feel there’s something incomplete about the day.  As soon as I find myself in the company of a book or books, I start feeling the same rush I get which people experience when they keep on scrolling reels after reels. Though, I still end up getting addicted to something on Mobile but the moment I realize that I am allowing my mind to get thrilled with a stupid activity, I tend to replace that activity with something else. And mind you, it’s possible.

 

A year back, I started getting excited whenever I watched any motivational or growth-oriented Youtube videos. I also considered this a good habit for quite some time as I felt I was indulged in a no-nonsense thing. One day I realized that I am just watching these contents for hours but not implementing anything. It is then that I realized that if you don’t pause or stop watching the very first motivational video and get back to work, the video is not working at all for you. It is not motivational but just an entertaining feel-good video. It is like watching a movie or Cricket match on television and nothing else. And then I got into the habit of ensuring that I find the same pleasure in getting back to work by opting out of the very first motivational video I would watch. And now, the dopamine rush I get is by ensuring that I watch Podcasts or Interviews only on Sundays to give myself the enthusiasm which we generally start losing from Friday on wards so that I can start my Mondays with positivity and energy. From daily consumption of multiple hours, it has gone down to 2 hours of viewing once in a week. That’s the whole time on Youtube I spend now. Can you imagine? Even I can’t but well, yes, it’s possible.

 

Hence, please try to work on what makes you excited as it can never be the other way around. It is always our decision and makings. If you make yourself focused towards entertaining contents to feel happiness every day, then that is what you will run towards but if you train your mind to feel excited doing things which grow you in the process – either personally, academically or professionally, then you can’t live without performing them at least once in a day. Like, it took me sometime but I have made the dopamine rush enabled for myself when I work on recording and editing my Youtube videos otherwise doing something like that would have never been possible as I am a very shy and conscious person. I can’t even take a selfie without getting nervous; leave talking on Camera for 8-15 minutes continuously without taking a pause. Hope you get my point. Please mail and let me know if you are also able to shift the trigger points of your dopamine rush like I did. Looking forward to hearing back from you.

 

Thanks!

 

WRITING BUDDHA