Can you think about a few things that instantly make you feel good? Perhaps it’s eating a specific food, listening to your favourite song, the laughter of a loved one or an act of kindness… Whenever we do something that feels good, our brain releases dopamine, which makes us more likely to repeat behaviours that induce pleasure or reward. Dopamine is often referred to as the ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter and plays a role in regulating our mood and motivation.
You may have come across a recent social media trend with people sharing their ‘dopamine menu’. This is a personalized ‘menu’ of activities to choose from that can help boost our dopamine in a healthy and natural way. The idea behind a dopamine menu is that we can be proactive about our mental health in a sustainable way.
Dopamine plays a role in motivation and reward and is released when we achieve a goal. This acts as a signal of pleasure, which reinforces that behavior. It helps regulate physical movement and supports concentration, learning and decision-making.
Low levels of dopamine can pose challenges for us. For example:
- Low drive or motivation to accomplish tasks and goals
- Depressive symptoms such as fatigue and anhedonia (loss of enjoyment in things previously enjoyed)
- Addictive behaviours (to substances, gambling, porn, etc)
- Memory and cognitive issues
We often see the dark side of dopamine in modern day lives, where the need for instant gratification can lead to long term problems:
- Substances such as alcohol, nicotine and other drugs artificially stimulate dopamine pathways, while negatively affecting our physical and mental health.
- Social media scrolling, ‘likes’, ‘follows’ and positive engagement produces very short-lived dopamine spikes. While this may seem harmless, it can foster dependence on social media, which negatively affects other aspects of our lives – it takes away time from meaningful activities, reduces productivity, may impact on relationships and affect our self esteem.
- Compulsive shopping and gambling are examples of how the need for instant gratification and pleasure seeking can create financial issues.
- Emotional eating, where we reach out for food that feels comforting.
Such habits can deplete our natural dopamine reserves and hinder our pleasure from daily experiences. In order to maintain optimal levels of dopamine, we need to incorporate sustainable practices.
So, let’s create a personal dopamine menu. As we now know, the purpose of this dopamine menu is to have a variety of healthy dopamine-boosting activities that we can easily choose from. Just like it’s beneficial to have a balanced diet, we should strive for balance in creating a dopamine menu.
My advice would be to personalize your menu by including activities in three main categories – physical, emotional and social. Here are a few examples that you can choose from.
Physical
- Good bedtime routine
- Nutritious food
- Hydration
- Movement or exercise
- A dopamine boosting playlist
- Meditation
- Time in Nature
- Creativity
- Breathing exercises
Emotional
- Gratitude practices
- Positive self talk and affirmations
- Journaling about feelings and accomplishments
- Laughter
- Emotional expression through art, music or writing
- Reliving happy memories
Social
- Spending time with a loved one
- Engaging meaningfully
- An activity that promotes social connection
- Phone call with someone you enjoy speaking to
- Charity, volunteering or random acts of kindness
- Learning a new skill
- Bonding with pets
Use these items as inspiration to create a menu of a few activities that are realistic for you. Have this easily accessible. The key is to practice them consistently, because they will then be more effective when you do face inevitable challenges in life.
Be proactive with your mental health by creating your personal dopamine menu.
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