As you may know, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps with controlling the brain’s pleasure centers. Your dopamine levels can affect your mood in a number of ways.
Your dopamine levels could be lower than they need to be based on your perception. There are, however, many ways to increase your dopamine levels and get you feeling better quickly. Eight ways to increase your dopamine levels:
- Don’t become addicted to anything- When we get overly addicted to things we kick the ‘reward’ concept in our minds into overdrive meaning we get small quick hits of dopamine rather than the real things. Addiction is also something that can result from low dopamine levels. In a sense meaning that becoming addicted to something is an attempt to fix a problem that you are already dealing with. Work towards higher rewarding activities.
- Create things- When in creative mode people tend to reach a state of flow. By doing something that truly inspires you and achieving the end goal you will be able to increase your dopamine levels. You will be rewarded by the completion of your own creations.
- Exercise- Exercise reduces stress and makes us more productive. By exercising you are also increasing some of the neurotransmitters in your mind. This can be done by even the simplest of workout for instance walking or jogging.
- Make checklists even for small tasks- By writing things down and checking them off one by one you are able to satisfy your dopamine levels in a sense. You will feel accomplished for completing your list.
- Keep a streak going- Even if it is something as small as buying a calendar and marking off things as you do them. Say you exercise once or twice a week write those things in on the calendar and mark them off as you do them. The longer you keep the streak going the more dopamine you will have. This could apply to anything from taking your birth control at the same time every day to buying groceries each week with a schedule.
- Build up your tyrosine- Tyrosine is one of the chemicals that works to make up dopamine. It is important that you get plenty of protein in order to keep you tyrosine built up. Foods good for increasing tyrosine are bananas, eggs, almonds and watermelon.
- Listen to music- Almost all people love music. Listening to music makes us happy. Listening to music increases dopamine levels the same way that eating our favorite foods or watching our favorite television show does. When you’re feeling sad the best option is actually to grab your favorite snacks, throw on your favorite jam and relax.
- Meditate- Overthinking is something that can have a negative effect on us n many ways. Meditating is very important when it comes to having a healthy mind. If done properly meditating can increase dopamine levels strongly. Meditation works to clear all the clutter from your mind which makes you feel much happier in the long run.
So you see, boosting your dopamine levels is not as hard as it seems. By doing the things listed above you will be improving your quality of life, being happy is very important. We are here to live happily not to simply exist. If you’re feeling down I highly suggest trying some of the things above.