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What Is Cheap Dopamine? And How Can A Dopamine Menu Help?
What Is Cheap Dopamine? And How Can A Dopamine Menu Help?
Dopamine is one of our key happy hormones that’s vital for our brain's reward system, providing a sense of motivation, mood, and attention. But it’s also vital we get it from the right sources.
You see, our brain will automatically choose the easiest path to feeling good, and when it comes to dopamine, we don’t always get our hit from the healthiest sources (ahem our phones). The short burst of joy can leave us feeling worse in the long run.
Cheap dopamine is like fast food – it’s ‘cheap’, easy, and makes us feel good for a short time, but leads to a crash soon after.
Instead, create a ‘dopamine menu’ to ensure your dopamine comes from natural, nourishing, and healthy sources.
Cheap dopamine refers to quick and easily accessible sources of pleasure that don’t offer lasting satisfaction and nourishment. These are often tied to activities that can lead to a cycle of dependency, such as scrolling through social media or binge-watching shows.
They provide instant gratification, but leave you drooling for more - just like your favourite takeaway meal!
Since we all carry them around most of the time, our phones have become our easiest and quickest dopamine hit.
Like chocolate for our brains, they give us quick hits of dopamine every time we scroll, like, or swipe. Every notification or interesting thing we see is like a small reward, releasing dopamine until it becomes addictive. The more we engage, the more our brains crave that quick pleasure, turning our phones into a habit we can't shake even when we know nothing is interesting to see there. Ironically, it’s when we’re glued to our phones we miss out on activities that are really rewarding. That’s where a ‘dopamine menu’ comes in.
Popular within the neurodiverse community, a dopamine menu is a curated list of activities designed to provide a dopamine boost whenever you need it. Think of it as meal-prepping for your mind! This tool is particularly helpful when your dopamine levels are low, as it’s a visual reminder of activities that will uplift you, alleviating the overwhelm of choosing an activity and reducing the temptation to pick up your phone.
What you put on your dopamine menu will depend on what feels personally rewarding for you, but here’re some tips on how to structure it and ideas for each section.
Starters
Main Course
Sides
Dessert
Specials
Dopamine is one of our key happy hormones that’s vital for our brain's reward system, providing a sense of motivation, mood, and attention. But it’s also vital we get it from the right sources.
You see, our brain will automatically choose the easiest path to feeling good, and when it comes to dopamine, we don’t always get our hit from the healthiest sources (ahem our phones). The short burst of joy can leave us feeling worse in the long run.
Cheap dopamine is like fast food – it’s ‘cheap’, easy, and makes us feel good for a short time, but leads to a crash soon after.
Instead, create a ‘dopamine menu’ to ensure your dopamine comes from natural, nourishing, and healthy sources.
What Is Cheap Dopamine?
Cheap dopamine refers to quick and easily accessible sources of pleasure that don’t offer lasting satisfaction and nourishment. These are often tied to activities that can lead to a cycle of dependency, such as scrolling through social media or binge-watching shows.
They provide instant gratification, but leave you drooling for more - just like your favourite takeaway meal!
Dopamine and Screen Time
Since we all carry them around most of the time, our phones have become our easiest and quickest dopamine hit.
Like chocolate for our brains, they give us quick hits of dopamine every time we scroll, like, or swipe. Every notification or interesting thing we see is like a small reward, releasing dopamine until it becomes addictive. The more we engage, the more our brains crave that quick pleasure, turning our phones into a habit we can't shake even when we know nothing is interesting to see there. Ironically, it’s when we’re glued to our phones we miss out on activities that are really rewarding. That’s where a ‘dopamine menu’ comes in.
What’s A Dopamine Menu?
Popular within the neurodiverse community, a dopamine menu is a curated list of activities designed to provide a dopamine boost whenever you need it. Think of it as meal-prepping for your mind! This tool is particularly helpful when your dopamine levels are low, as it’s a visual reminder of activities that will uplift you, alleviating the overwhelm of choosing an activity and reducing the temptation to pick up your phone.
Create Your Dopamine Menu
What you put on your dopamine menu will depend on what feels personally rewarding for you, but here’re some tips on how to structure it and ideas for each section.
Starters
Quick, small tasks
- Take a 5-minute walk
- Drink a glass of ice-cold water
- Make a cup of tea
- Enjoy a healthy snack
- Have a dance/shake break
- Write down three things you’re grateful for
- Pet an animal
Main Course
Most fulfilling, but also more time-consuming
- Read a book
- Meet with a friend
- Cook a meal
- Go out for food
- Engage in a creative hobby
- Do a workout
- Take a bath (you can add our aromatherapy bath oils!)
Sides
Completed while doing another task
- Listen to a podcast or fun playlist
- Call a friend
- Diffuse essential oils in your Aroma Spa
- Set a timer and complete a task before it goes off
Dessert
Enjoyable but easy to over-indulge in
- Watch a feel-good movie or show
- Engage in light social media (with a time limit!)
- Plan a day trip
Specials
Activities you don’t do so frequently
- Take a day trip
- Use aromatherapy massage oils to create a spa-like experience at home
- Try a new class or workshop
