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Dopamine, Elixir or Addiction?

 Dopamine


In layman language, Dopamine is a medical term used for the chemicals that our brain produces when we are happy or we achieve something, basically a state that leaves everybody in a good mood & makes one feel better within.

What are some things that trigger within us this preparation of Dopamine? There might be different things like
* Taking a selfie & posting on Insta.
* Winning a lottery
* Going out for shopping or doing online shopping
* Being appreciated in either ways
* Achieving targets, objectives
* Going for a dinner date
* Travelling for a vacation
All of the above resources at some point in time might have been used to get that shot of Dopamine are widely known, discussed & understood, but what is fascinating to understand is that there are some least acknowledged & realized activities that we use to keep ourselves busy with, they too are Dopamine addiction drives. 
* Hitting the Gym
* Morning or evening walks
* Going for a long drive
* Chasing those very difficult targets, financially & physically
* Overthinking, over caring, over loving, almost everything in excess
* Every other hobby, listening to music, dancing, craft work etc.
* Recreational tours or breaks, giving a helping hand to someone.
* People pleasing, creating drama, playing narcissistic & so on.
Few to say but it's clearly understood here that anything & everything we do or get & was unexpected or different from the mundane schedule can help us generate that Dopamine in our brain that will bring about that happy feeling.
But when we try to look deeper in the process, today the majority of us are getting so much addicted to this Dopamine effect, that we are hardly able to live without it even for a while.
We continuously hop from one means of that Dopamine generation to the another, FB to Insta & Insta to Whatsapp & then Whatsapp to Snapchat & Snapchat to Linkedin & the cycle keeps repeating, if we check our on screen time we will realize that we must be spending about 20 to 25% of that 24 hours in a day & that is almost 45 to 50% of our daily life active time.
If someone is getting conscious that their on screen time is too much & if they want to leave their handsets aside the next thing will come up is Netflix, Prime, TataSky, Dstv & so on, & then we don't need to look elsewhere.

And so on, all these activities in one or another way are producing doses of Dopamine.

The fact is, like every other addictions, Dopamine doses gradually keeps reducing in it production with the same old methods of its generation, that means the joy, pleasure & fun we may have been getting then with that volume of production of Dopamine with one particular activity, gradually that too will become mundane, to an extent that spending time on those activities will no longer produce any Dopamine.

And in today's time, one may feel non-alive if there is too long a gap on Dopamine production, believe it or not it's an unfathomable addiction, that will keep growing.

So what do we do now, as going dry isn't an option, neither the same mundane resources can help to maintain the consistency & quality of the most needed Dopamine doses?

For those who are chasing financial targets, can continue with one project after another, but again that requires lots of hardworking conviction, determination & most important sacrifices, with consistency, so it is not a cup of tea for everyone, rather it shouldn't even be, life is not about creating fortune for next 20 generations.

To the best of my understanding & experience so far it isn't rocket science, anything that we do daily or more than once in a day is obviously going to become ineffective in short a run to produce the same amount of Dopamine.
So now we have to carefully study and list out all of our likes & resources that are available with us that we have been using to generate these Dopamine doses. 
Try and arrange the activities as such that they do not repeat more than two times in a week, especially those that are falling under the category of unrecognized & for that of on screen & social media, pick topics & subjects different in their nature & content so that it may still remain little more effective. Do not have more than 15 minutes of continuous on screen time, especially with social media, get up, take a walk, have a talk & so on. 

Most importantly, practice & learn to give a break from this strive of consistently producing that Dopamine, try as much as possible to get closer to the nature, open skies, shining sun, trees, hearing the birds, I understand these are the most natural & effective genuine Dopamine generators for those who all are is in love with doing this things, & if it isn't their type, utmost they may not produce any Dopamine, but at least will not leave them dry & empty & thus a necessary break can be given!

All the very Best!

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