Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction

• There is a baseline level of dopamine circulating in your brain and body all the time (important for how you feel generally) - tonic release of dopamine
• You can experience peaks dopamine above baseline - phasic release of dopamine

IMPORTANT: Your baseline level of dopamine drops after you experience or crave something desirable.

All of us have different levels of baseline dopamine, with some genetic component.

How much dopamine you experience from something depends on your baseline level of dopamine when you arrive there and your previous dopamine peaks.

Thus, when you repeatedly engage in something you enjoy your threshold for enjoyment goes up and up and up.

• Chocolate - 1.5x increase above baseline
• Sex (pursuit and act) - 2x baseline
• Nicotine (when smoked) - 2.5x baseline
• Cocaine - 2.5x baseline
• Amphetamine - 10x baseline
• Exercise - 2x baseline if you enjoy it, NO CHANGE if you don't enjoy it
• Caffeine - does not increase dopamine significantly but it does increase dopamine receptors (yerba mate is the best source)

There are subjective experiences that differentially increase dopamine depending on enjoyment versus things like chocolate, sex, nicotine, etc. which universally increase dopamine.

• The key is to not expect or chase high levels of dopamine when we participate in certain activities.
• Intermittent schedules can keep you motivated and engaged: make sure dopamine peaks don’t occur too often and vary how much dopamine you experience with that activity.
• Whatever activities you’d like to continue over time, pay attention to how much dopamine you get and modulate accordingly

• Cold water exposure can boost dopamine up to 2.5x above baseline – but is sustained for up to three hours post-exposure
• Dopamine controls the perception of time: when we engage in activity for the sole purpose of reward, time will feel longer because we are not releasing dopamine during the effort – only the reward

IMPORTANT: Access reward from the process and associate dopamine release from friction and challenge you are in during effort instead of only once goal is achieved – convince yourself the effort part is the good part (e.g., intermittent fasting)

• Mucuna pruriens contain L-dopa which is the precursor for dopamine– but the crash takes place
• L-tyrosine is an amino acid precursor to L-dopa; leads to a increase in dopamine and can improve focus but dosing is difficult to dial in and will be followed by a crash
• Phenethylamine (PEA) can be used similarly to L-tyrosine, intermittently to improve focus + ALPHA-GPC

IMPORTANT: A drop in dopamine is inevitable after a spike