Everything you need to know about Dopamine, and how to take advantage of it.
So many of us simply want to “feel good”. We experience that in many different ways, and have different levels of being happy. We don’t often think about the role of our own brain in how we feel or how we experience the world. Dopamine is an extremely important part of the daily functioning of your brain, and is very closely linked to pleasure and reward. It is therefore often referred to as the “happiness drug”. What can you learn about dopamine that will help you take the most advantage of it, and ultimately feel better throughout your day?
Neurotransmitters are used to communicate messages across different parts of the brain and between the brain and the rest of the body. Dopamine is one of these neurotransmitters, a chemical “messenger” released by neurons (our nerve cells) to transmit a signal between one neuron to the next. Without a neurotransmitter, connections between pieces of information wouldn’t be made in our brain.
Dopamine specifically plays a role in the brain’s reward system, helping to reinforce behaviors that result in reward. Essentially, dopamine encourages us to move. An increase in dopamine is what makes us grab that second glass of wine, piece of chocolate, or cigarette. Unfortunately the more we use something that gives us dopamine, the more dopamine we need to get the same feelings the next time.
There are a few key things to know about dopamine:
Your brain loves certainty.
Our brains love certainty and hate uncertainty, therefore we are constantly making predictions in life. We often do this subconsciously. Studies have shown that we still understand incomplete emails because our brains predict the missing text, or that we can still hear people talk in a loud nightclub because we are using these prediction skills.
Our brain loves predicting, and we especially love it when we get it right as it makes us feel certain; which then provides us with dopamine. This explains why we are addicted to our smartphones. We can get a lot of certainty by opening up our weather app, knowing how long it will take to get somewhere, or searching for specific information.
If we know that we get a surge of dopamine through our accurate predictions, how else can we get this hit without reaching for our phones?
Dopamine can help us reach our goals.
Dopamine neurons are activated when something good or unexpected happens. The neat thing about dopamine is that it allows other areas of the brain to quiet down so that we can focus on one thing at a time. Enough dopamine helps the functioning of our prefrontal cortex, so dopamine allows us to be efficient and stay on course. (Also see “Overwhelmed or demotivated? Blame your brain.”)
When you come to associate a certain activity with pleasure, mere anticipation may be enough to raise dopamine levels. This activation motivates you to keep doing what you were doing, as dopamine pushes you to seek more instant gratification. For example, you get a compliment from your boss on the way you handled a project. That hit of dopamine will make you want to continue to do work in that same way.
Triggering dopamine from just thinking about a small rewarding task will make it easier to follow through with bigger goals. Since dopamine is more closely connected to immediate reward, the key here is to align your small goals with your big goals. When you think about cleaning up your inbox, you might experience a dopamine release. If you get a “buzz” every time you hit archive, this will help you sort through more emails. Celebrating small wins that align with your long term ambition is also extremely helpful. If you celebrate every time you make €1000, it will keep you more motivated to reach €100,000.
What small (easily achievable) tasks can you align with bigger goals?
How can you reward yourself for small wins?
How do you celebrate your successes?
We are greatly affected by expectations.
Because dopamine allows more connections to be made between neurons in our brain; when we are feeling good, we are actually able to take in more information, process more data, and therefore make more informed decisions. We are also better equipped to deal with uncertainty. Facing an unknown when you’re in a happy mood, is a lot less harsh than when you’re already down.
Remember how dopamine increases when something good or unexpected happens? The unexpected in this case is something positive, like a friend showing up as a surprise, noticing that a cool new restaurant has just opened around the corner from you, or maybe just a colleague bringing a cold beer to your desk on a friday afternoon.
Perhaps not surprisingly then, dopamine is also reduced when expectations are not met. When it is something small (like a train being a few minutes late) we might not notice it too much, but when it is something major (like finding out you were passed up for a promotion), it triggers the same response in your brain as a real threat, which is painful.
The tricky thing here is that when we expect something positive our dopamine increases (whether it has happened yet or not), but then when reality does not meet our expectations we can feel the effects quite dramatically.
So what’s the trick here? Awareness.
Notice on a regular basis where your expectations are at.
Ask yourself how realistic it is that they will come true?
What situations can you focus on where you know your expectations will be met?
What situations can you focus on where you know your expectations might be exceeded? (Hence getting that nice reward through the unexpected).
When things don’t go your way, remind yourself to remember that things will get better (triggering those positive expectations).
When it comes to expectations, a key question is: how can you keep things interesting but putting yourself in situations where you might be faced with positive unexpected rewards? There is a saying that says “the magic happens outside your comfort zone”. That magic, is basically dopamine.
Want to learn more about the brain and how it can help you in your day to day?
About the author:
Noreen Chadha is a transformational coach in the field of leadership and personal development, based out of Berlin. Using the concepts of mindfulness as well as basic neuroscience, she supports clients in their quest to grow and unlock their full potential.
