New Year, New Neurotransmitters

You are not your brain.

You are not your biology or your physiology or your neurochemistry. You are a being separate from your brain, but your brain chemistry is making a far bigger impact on your life, your feelings, and your choices than you may realize.

Today on the podcast I’m teaching you about some of the most important neurotransmitters in your brain, why they work the way they do, and how you can use that knowledge to hack your neurochemistry so that you can get more of the things you want in your life.

 We’re going to be talking about specific, actionable changes and behaviors that you can do to stimulate more of the neurotransmitters you want and limit the ones that may be getting in your way.

I think this discussion will change the relationship you have with your brain and allow you to be much more proactive in nurturing your brain health. It will also help you understand why you feel the way you do and how to use your neurotransmitters to create the life you want and not the one your brain gives you on default.

**EPISODE NOTES:

During the episode, I talk at length about creating a dopamine menu. To learn more about this idea, you can check out this video:

DOPAMINE MENU VIDEO

This episode is packed with helpful things you can do to increase certain neurotransmitters. To make it easier for you, I created a guide with all the information about the things you can do for each neurotransmitter as well as a dopamine menu template that you can use to make your own dopamine menu. You can download the neurotransmitter cheat sheet here:

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the 100% Awesome Podcast with April Price. You might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thoughts you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome.

Hello podcast universe! Welcome to episode 245 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price and I want to wish you a Happy New Year. I know we're actually like 11 days in by the time you're hearing this, but I've been off for a little bit enjoying the holidays, and I am finally back in my podcast studio and back in my daughter's closet. And welcome to the New Year. I think it is worth noting that last week was episode 244, and it came out on January 4th of 2024, and four is my lucky number.

So, I felt like that was like really auspicious for all of us, that the first episode of the podcast lined up with all those fours. And so I think it means that a lot of good things are going to happen this year on the podcast. So, I'm excited anyway. How are you? How is your year going? We are, as I said, 11 days in. How are we doing? I just wanted to check in and see how you're feeling about things. Don't worry if you already feel like it's been a really long 11 days. I've got some help for you today, okay? There is so much discomfort for most of us in January, right? The holidays are over and now we're just like in the slog of winter.

And like a lot of us have new goals and new plans, and that's requiring a lot of extra effort and energy. And our brain is protesting. And so it can be uncomfortable. And so I'm really excited about this episode. I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I think it's really going to help you have a really good month, but also a really good year. And so we're going to talk about some things that you can come back to again and again throughout this year that will help you feel better. All right. So before we get started, I just want to remind you that you do not have to do any of it alone.

You do not have to do this year alone. And I just want to invite all of you to coaching. I'm coaching my clients one on one, and you can sign up for a month at a time for as long as you need or as long as you want. And I have some slots open. I coach my clients. Either you can choose to be coached every other week or every single week, and we'll meet together and talk about what's going on in your life, whether you're working on goals or you just want to change how you feel about yourself or your life. Yeah, anything you want to change your mind about, we can work on in coaching.

So, you can get more information for that at my website Aprilpricecoaching.com I have a couple of slots open this January. So, if you have been thinking about coaching, I just really want to encourage you to invest in yourself and invest in your year and decide that you're worth it. That if you want it, that it's worth it. Okay, all right on to the podcast. So, the basis for everything that we're going to talk about today is the idea that you are not your brain.

You have a brain, but you are not your brain. You are not your biology and your biology, your physiology and your biochemistry in particular, your neurochemistry makes a really big impact on the way that you feel within your body, the way you feel inside your life. Okay. And so today we're going to talk about your neurotransmitters in particular and give you a little insight into how those neurotransmitters work so that you can kind of hack the system so you can feel better on purpose, and that you can start doing the things that you want to do, kind of like getting around your brain so that you can do the things you want to do and feel more of the neurotransmitters you want less of, the ones you don't want know what to do when the ones you don't want show up and really help you to change your life, right? Like, like I was thinking about this episode and I was like, oh, it's a new year, new neurotransmitters, right? So I'm hoping that this discussion will change the relationship you have with your brain and with yourself, and allow you to kind of separate yourself from your brain to see the difference between you and your brain.

You are a being that is separate from your brain, and you are not your brain or your neurotransmitters or your neurochemistry. And too many of us make ourselves feel really bad and feel really wrong because of the biology that is happening inside of our brain. All right. And so instead of thinking like that, there is something wrong with me and I got to fix myself, right? Like that's the message we're hearing so much right now. New year, new you like, fix yourself, change yourself, be a different you. And that somehow we all kind of buy into this idea that we have to be different and we have to be new.

And instead of that, what I really want to advocate for today is, like I said, new year, new neurotransmitters, a new focus on your neurotransmitters, and helping you just be more aware and more proactive in nurturing your brain health so that you can set things up in your life in a way that will make it more conducive for you and more productive in the way that you want to be. And. Use your neurotransmitters to get more of what you want out of your life. Okay, so as usual, I just want to give you a disclaimer to not use anything I say against yourself.

I'm going to tell you how your neurotransmitters work, and the point of that is to help you see that it's not you, it's your brain. And you should never make yourself wrong for the way that your brain works. Like this. Information is just there to help you be more proactive in nurturing the neurotransmitters that you want to have more of in your life. Let me also say that you don't have to implement every suggestion that I'm going to make, and what I really want you to do is to think about it like a toolbox like that you can come back to, and that you can use these tools and make tweaks and make changes, and so that you can have more of the experiences that you want in your life.

Right or kind of like a menu that you can order off of. What do I want more of? What do I want less of? It's like, send that back to the kitchen. I want something else, okay? And I also want to say that this is like a super, super simplified discussion. Okay? There is a lot at play when it comes to your neurochemistry. And I'm not going to pretend like this is going to change it completely. And this is like all the answers to all your problems. And most of like our understanding of the brain is so primitive, it is so new, there's so much that we don't know and we don't understand. And that's especially true when it comes to the action of our neurotransmitters. So, there's a ton of things that affect your neurotransmitters, including your genetics and your environment and the food that you eat and supplements and medication and all of those kinds of things are going to make an impact, right? And today we're just going to be talking about behavior modifications, things that you can do that you can change in your life, actions that you can take that can influence the amount and the action of the neurotransmitters in your life.

Actions you can take okay. So we're just going to start with basic biology. Your brain is made up of neurons. And your neurons don't touch. All right. You have all of these neurons in your brain. And they communicate with each other through neurotransmitters. The neurons themselves don't touch. There's a space between them called the synapse. And each neuron then releases these neurotransmitters, chemicals, if you will. Neuromodulators that are also called in this sophisticated system of chemical communication.

One neuron releases those neurotransmitters out into the synapse and they attach to the other neurotransmitter. And that's how they communicate. And basically what's happening is the neurotransmitters are making the next neuron more or less electrically active. And we actually have over 100 neurotransmitters. And like I said, we don't really fully understand how they work. But some of the ones that you're probably most familiar with are ones like dopamine and serotonin and oxytocin, cortisol, endorphins, epinephrine which is also called adrenaline. Acetylcholine. These are all neurotransmitters that you might have heard of. Now as I say, those already, your brain might be shutting down and saying like, okay, this is this is too much. This is too complicated, right? But we're really just going to be focused on the function of some of these neurotransmitters and practical actions that you can take to increase or decrease them as you want more or less of them. And it's important to remember that those neurotransmitters are there. They're doing their job in order to help your brain do its ultimate job of keeping you alive.

And so, they're programmed to act in such a way that keeps you alive, but not necessarily to, like, help you live the life that you want. And this is one of the reasons that January is such a hard, uncomfortable month, because we're asking ourselves to do new things. We're asking ourselves to act outside of our comfort zone, outside of the things that just keep us alive. And our neurotransmitters are programmed to give us, like a lot of discomfort about this. They're providing a lot of resistance to all these new things that we're trying to do.

And so, I'm hoping that this discussion will just help you be able to keep going when you're uncomfortable, when your brain is offering you all kinds of resistance and discomfort and releasing all kinds of neurotransmitters that are keeping you from your goals, then you can really understand what's happening, what's happening in your brain and not see it as like a character default. Also, then start to take some action. That's what I mean when I say we don't want to let our brain keep us from the life we want, keep us from the things we want.

We don't want our neurochemistry to get in the way of our goals. And when you can understand what's happening in your brain and why it's happening, then you will also know what you need to do in order to feel better. All right? For example, cortisol is a stress neurotransmitter and it's always released in anticipation of pain, right? It's there. It's released to dissuade you from doing painful things. So let's say you make a goal to go exercise and your brain every morning in anticipation of the pain that's ahead, that painful difficulty, it's going to release a whole bunch of cortisol in anticipation of the discomfort that is coming.

And then we feel inside of us all kinds of dread, and our brain offers us as excuses, and then we don't show up to exercise. Right? Just this morning, I was sitting in the gym parking lot in my brain was like, here's some cortisol, right? Trying to talk me out of going in there. And again, it's just a neurotransmitter being released in anticipation of the pain that's coming. And if I know that's all that's happening, then I can just continue forward and recognize this is just what's happening in my brain. I still get to keep going towards my goals. If you know that cortisol is the normal neurotransmitter of a well-functioning brain, then you know that dread is going to be a part of exercise and it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you or that, like you aren't the type of person who reaches their goals or that you should quit.

It just means your brain is focused on survival. And so it released a bunch of cortisol in anticipation of pain. And now you have a choice. Just that information that your brain is making cortisol. And there isn't like a discipline deficiency or something wrong with you can help you. It can help you move towards your goal. All right. So okay, so I want you to think about what behaviors might change right there. Knowing that this is how your brain works. Right. Knowing that cortisol will be released allows me to keep choosing what I want, even when I'm faced with dread.

Like, that's just a feeling that's a result of that cortisol. And also I want that cortisol release to be as short as possible. Meaning the faster I get to the painful things, the faster I start doing the hard thing, the faster my brain is going to stop releasing cortisol and start releasing endorphins, right? The faster that I get through my dread, the quicker I get to the endorphins which are released in response to pain and stress to my body. So there, the analgesic there, the feel good neurotransmitters that are released in response to pain.

So, think about that. Cortisol is there is an anticipation of the pain. But as soon as I get to the hard thing, then I start to be able to enjoy the release of the endorphins, increasing the amount of those endorphins in your brain. And your body is going to feel so good. All right. And I want to get to that part. Right. So just know that before I get to the endorphins, I'm gonna have a release of the cortisol. And that's normal. And it's not a problem. And I can keep going. So let's talk about some of the neurotransmitters that you might want more of this year and the actions that you can take to increase them.

So first let's talk about epinephrine. This goes by a bunch of different names. And there are like slight variations to all of them. But epinephrine, norepinephrine and adrenaline all basically the same thing. So for the sake of this podcast anyway. All right. So we'll just we'll just call it adrenaline. And this is the neurotransmitter of course, that controls your energy. The amount of adrenaline that you have is associated with your states of energy, your states of readiness. And they can also increase your immune system activity.

All right. And the way like we probably all want a little bit more energy, right? We have moments where we can feel more ready and alert and attentive and energetic. And the way that we can increase this is by getting into action. Any physical activity that you take is going to increase the amount of epinephrine in your system. Just moving your body is going to release that neurotransmitter in your brain. And I know that kind of sounds, you know, like a pyramid scheme.

Andrew Huberman calls this like the ultimate pyramid scheme where like, I need the energy to get moving. But as soon as I get moving, then my brain is going to release more energy to get moving. Right? And like, I need action to wake my brain up. But I also need the neurotransmitter in order to get into action. But just know, like if you don't feel like moving, you don't feel like you have the energy to move. What you need to do then is to move. Any physical activity is going to increase the amount of epinephrine in your system. Other things that can increase it is called cyclic hyperventilation, which just means like we want to do a deep inhale and a deep exhale in a cycle.

Think about that in 25 breaths. So, if you're feeling like sluggish and you have no energy you want to do a deep inhale deep exhale for 25 breaths. And then you can repeat that if you need to. Another thing that really increases it in your system is cold water exposure. So we're going to come back to cold water exposure when we talk about dopamine as well. But there are a lot of neurotransmitter benefits to being in cold water even for as little as 30s. Okay. So that can increase the amount of energy in your system. Now, in connection with this, I just want to kind of talk about acetylcholine.

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that is really about your focus states of focus. It gets released when we're learning and we're encoding new information makes our brain like pay attention and hyper focus on the things we're doing. And we, like, get in the zone. And Doctor Andrew Huberman talks about that. Sometimes when we're like trying to hyper focus on something that will also get this kind of release of norepinephrine. Our brain is telling us like, pay attention, you need to wake up and you need to like, focus on this thing.

But because, you know, that's the movement neurotransmitter, we can sometimes feel really antsy and fidgety. And maybe you've had this experience when it's like time to, like, really focus on your homework or like, I'm going to sit down and write something or I'm going to, you know, I need to send an email to my clients. And like, all of a sudden I, like, sit down and I want to focus on things and I'm feeling really antsy and fidgety and I don't really want to sit there. It's because I've had that release of norepinephrine that your brain says, wake up, you got to pay attention to this. And we get this surge of like energy.

So sometimes before that release of acetylcholine, which allows us to focus, we're going to get a release of norepinephrine. And when you know that you just know that that antsy, fidgety part that comes at the beginning is normal. And that doesn't mean I should scroll on my phone. It doesn't mean I should get up and look for a snack, which is what my brain thinks, right? It means that my brain is sending out the neurotransmitter to like, give me some energy and wake me up so that I can focus on this thing. And when I know that's going to happen, then I can anticipate that release of norepinephrine and know that that fidgety feeling at the beginning of my work is normal, and now I know what to do about it.

I need to take some action. I need to get into movement. All right. So sometimes, like, I'll just give you an example when I'm trying to do some writing and I get that release of norepinephrine, which makes me feel all kind of fidgety. I can just write my name 20 times, like before the release of that acetylcholine. I just want to do something so I can write my name 20 times, or I can write a paragraph of I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say, I don't know what to say and tell that like. Release is gone and I can focus. One thing that I that I do a lot, and I've talked about it on the podcast, is I walk while I'm writing my outline.

So sometimes when I'm going to write a like a podcast outline, I'll get that antsy, fidgety feeling. I just like, don't want to sit there and write. And so I'll let myself walk and write, because if I can stay with my task, then the acetylcholine will kick in and I'll be able to focus and get in the zone. So I want to give you a couple of other ways to boost that acetylcholine. One way is to stare at a target for 30 to 60s. So you're going to like narrow your visual focus instead of looking at the whole room, you're going to just focus on one small thing and direct your eyes toward that specific location for 30 to 60s another thing that you can intentionally do is slow your blink rate down.

So, you purposely try to blink less and focus on a particular visual image to maintain that mental focus. But notice it's a lot like cortisol. You got to wait out the norepinephrine and feel that discomfort fill that fidgety fanciness, knowing that acetylcholine is coming next, and that that's going to allow me to focus and get in the zone. Okay. The next two neurotransmitters that I want to talk about are serotonin and oxytocin. And you've probably heard about these, right. Because these are definitely the feel good hormones. And like they're pretty delicious right. Like I don't know about you, but I definitely want more of both of these neurotransmitters in my life this year, right? And I want to actively nurture and cultivate more of them in my brain. More oxytocin, more serotonin. Right. And oxytocin, of course, is like the love hormone. It's the bonding hormone. It is released traditionally you'll remember through lactation, right. And it's associated with falling in love. And a close friend of oxytocin of course, is serotonin.

And serotonin is like the contentedness hormone, the contentedness neurotransmitter. That's what we're feeling when we're happy. It helps us feel relaxed and soothed. And it's associated with feelings of safety. You know, those are the neurotransmitters that makes us feel relaxed and happy, and we have less desire to pursue things. It's kind of like the opposite of dopamine, right? Which is dopamine is all about pursuit and drive and motivation. And this is the opposite of that. It's like the molecule of peace, right. And it gives us the feeling that we have enough and that we are okay.

And so of course, between these two hormones, oxytocin and serotonin, that can be a lot of overlap in the things that you can do to increase the amounts of those, the increase the amounts of those that you feel. All right. So there's going to be kind of some overlap as I talk about these. But yoga has been shown to increase the amounts of oxytocin and serotonin. Listening to music increases the amount of oxytocin you have. They've done studies even just with like bedridden patients, that they have more oxytocin and feel better even when they're just allowed to listen to music, getting and giving massages.

So physical contact is going to be big in feeling both of these neurotransmitters. All right. So you can either get a massage or even giving a massage there. In 2015, there was a study that shows that it increases for both the giver and the receiver, telling somebody how much you care about them, sharing your feelings about them and what they mean to you. That is going to increase the amount of oxytocin that you feel. Giving thanks increases the amount of oxytocin and serotonin, right? Receiving gratitude from other people and sharing gratitude with others increases.

Both of these, like gratitude, is a feeling that really is going to increase the amount of serotonin that you feel. Spending time with other people. Spending time with people you love, spending time with friends, sharing a meal, right? Evolutionarily, we get a release of oxytocin when we share a meal. And I think this, you know, increase the amount of human cooperation that we want to like. We actually feel better when we share that meal, not when we just eat by ourselves. And of course, the act of eating itself can increase the amount of oxytocin that we feel.

Like I said, physical contact, like holding hands, hugging and long hugs are even better. 8 seconds or 12 seconds. That physical contact, you know, for evolutionary reasons, to be around other humans like, really does increase the amount of serotonin and oxytocin that you feel. It also works with pets, like having a pet and having physical contact with that pet is shown to increase both of these as well. And doing acts of service like it's not just good for you spiritually, right? But doing acts of service will increase the amount of oxytocin in your brain and make you feel better.

So, these are all things that are going to increase the amount. These feel good hormones. So I really want you to think about this year. Think about your connections. Think about your physical connections, your personal connections, like how much you express and receive gratitude and appreciation to the people around you. Another one that I didn't mention is like meditation and mindfulness, that those can really increase the amount of oxytocin. And if you think about prayer in this way, like this a time to meditate and be mindful and also give thanks, that that can just the act of praying can really increase the amount of these feel good hormones in your body.

All right. So I want you to think about how can I intentionally include more of these in your life. Maybe, you know, you have a goal to write a thank you note every week. And I read about this woman who did 365 days of gratitude and found a way to express gratitude to someone in her life for 365 days. And like, think about all the oxytocin and serotonin in her life when she did that. Okay. All right. Last but not least, I want to talk about dopamine. And of course, I did a whole episode about. Dopamine. It was episode 184, so it's been a little while, but if you haven't heard that, it is really a good description of what's going on with dopamine.

But if you remember, dopamine is controlling our drive and motivation. It is the craving. Neurotransmitter is the thing that, like, gets us to get up and get out of the cave, as they say, all right. And it's the hormone that is released when we're anticipating a reward. So it's what we feel is we're anticipating receiving a pleasure. Okay. But it ends the release of dopamine ends as soon as we get that thing. It's kind of like cortisol, where cortisol is released in anticipation of pain. Dopamine is released in anticipation of pleasure.

And so it's driving us or giving us energy, energizing us to seek that reward, to seek the pleasure. But it ends again as soon as you get the pleasure right. And it is essential for our survival because it motivated us to eat, to leave the cave, to eat, to find a mate, to procreate, to like, you know, seek those pleasures so that we could survive. But remember, dopamine doesn't create pleasure. It just reinforces it. It tells you to do it again. And brains learn what behavior creates those rewards.

And so then it produces dopamine in anticipation of those things. And that feels like a craving, right? Like we want to eat something or get on social media. That dopamine is actually like pushing us to seek that reward. And so that was all fine and good evolutionary when when things were scarce and food was scarce. And we needed to like, you know, spend our energy getting it. But we live, like I said, in a, in the modern world, in a society with access to all kinds of pleasure. And our brain is constantly seeking more. And right now, in the middle of January, if you've set goals, probably like a lot of our discomfort is caused because we still have that craving, our brain is still driving us to those things that it thinks is going to create that pleasure.

And for some of us, we've turned off and we've decided, no, I'm not doing that anymore. And so that craving neurotic for like might be like really ramped up right now. All right. And you might feel a lot of urges to seek those things that that your brain thinks will create pleasure. And because dopamine is so readily available, our brain has really downregulated the amount of dopamine that it naturally produces. And so it's removed the amount of dopamine that our brain is producing. And it also has downregulated the amount of receptors on the other side of the synapse.

So, if you think about your brain kind of playing catch between those synapses, it's not only throwing less balls of dopamine, it's also there's less mitts on the other side to catch them. And so over time, most of us have kind of developed this dopamine deficit because we've received so much artificial dopamine from readily available, you know, sources of pleasure around us in our world. And so I just want to speak to this for a minute, because I think a lot of you probably have, like, decided, oh, I'm gonna give up some of these artificial sources of dopamine.

There's a lot of us out there like food, alcohol, sugar, porn, social media, shopping, drugs. And maybe you decided, like, I want less of that in my life because they're actually creating a net negative effect in my life. So if you do and you've thought about, okay, I'm gonna, like, shut down those artificial sources of dopamine, the question is like, after I've removed those things and decided, okay, you know, no more sugar or no more social media, whatever it is, then what? Right. How do I replace the motivation I have for that thing and get my brain to produce, you know, more naturally and put it towards other things? And so I want to introduce you to the idea of a dopamine menu.

And maybe some of you have heard about this. I recently saw a video about it on YouTube, and I'm going to post a link to this video in my show notes. Because, you know, maybe you just want to like, get it directly from the source. But they did is that our brain has kind of memorized the ways we usually get dopamine. It has habits of how it has sought pleasure in the past. And so it's going to want me to like, seek the things that I've always sought in order to, to feel better. Right. It's going to want me to eat that thing and want me to have sugar and want me to look at my phone and do all these things.

And I need some alternatives. And when your dopamine is low, it's really hard to be able to choose what else you should seek, right? You're going to do what's easy. You're going to go back to your old thing, the thing that like traditionally and reliably provided you that dopamine fix. And so what you're trying to do is set yourself up for success by creating a dopamine menu, something that you can look at and choose from other possible choices that you can make in those moments. Right? Just like making good food choices, like when you're hungry is really hard, right? Like you don't want to go grocery shopping when you're hungry because it's like you just get what's easy.

And like, it's hard to make the correct choices when you're already low on dopamine. And so instead what we're going to do is ahead of time, make a dopamine menu for the things that excite you, for things that can light you up. And when you're bored or when you're hungry, or your brain is just like driving you to your old pleasures, then you can grab that menu and decide what's next for you. All right. So we're going to use the acronym Dopa Dopa as our kind of guide as we create our menu. So the first thing D is design your menu.

So the first thing you're going to do is think about all the things you've done in the past that make you feel excited or alive, that that create enjoyment for you. All right. And you're going to make a list and you're going to design your menu and divide all of those things out. You're going to make a list of entrees. You're going to make a list of appetizers. You're going to make a list of sides. You're going to make a list of desserts and a list of specials. All right. Just like a menu okay. So for example, dopamine entrees are activities that make you feel excited or alive that have given you joy in the past.

And maybe like you just haven't done them because they take time, they take effort. And like scrolling on your phone or getting a snack is so much easier, right? So for example, for me on my entrees, like the things that like take some time but really bring me a lot of enjoyment. It's like walking my dog, doing a puzzle, getting some exercise, baking, quilting, or doing some hand sewing work. Let yourself think about what are the things that I enjoy and make a list of them. Maybe writing or reading.

Like one thing that really increases dopamine production is like solving a puzzle, right? So maybe you do a crossword or Wordle or genealogy things where you can get little wins. Those are going to release dopamine. Okay, so you want to just make a list of things that like might take a little bit of time, might like take a little bit of energy. So like that's an entree. All right. Appetizers are quick things. Things that will give you a quick dopamine burst without taking a lot of time or a lot of effort. Right. So you can just do like a minute of jumping jacks or you can do a cold plunge or put your face just you, just your face itself in a, in a bowl of cold water, will you give you that dopamine hit? Caffeine gives you dopamine.

Maybe you want to do a dance, put a song on for three minutes and you're just going to dance. Maybe you want to set a timer for five minutes on social media. They're just things that will give you a quick hit. All right. Sides, of course, are things that you can add to other things to make them more enjoyable, like playing music. So maybe my entree is working out at the gym and the side is I also get to listen to music, right? Or a podcast. Or maybe I drink a Diet Coke that's like that. I love to do that. So you just think about things that can, like accompany your entrees, and then you can also think about specials like what are things that take special effort and that you are only going to have occasionally, but that like, you know, are really exciting for your brain and that allow you to like, work towards something and look forward to something.

These are things like concerts or vacations. I was thinking like pickleball with my husband or or going skiing or surfing or things like that that are kind of like they take a lot of effort and takes, you know, quite a bit of time out of your life. But occasionally those are just like the specials. And then, of course, desserts and desserts are things that like provide a dopamine hit. But that we like in small quantities are not a problem, but that it's really easy to overdo it on. Right. So for me, this were things like social media or binge watching television, right.

And of course it's fine to eat desserts, but I just have to be aware that if I that's all I'm eating and that's all I'm ordering, I am not going to feel very good. So you want to think about those things that give you pleasure, but you want to put some limitations on that. So you want to design all that out and put it all on paper so that you can have some options so that when your brain is like, let's go seek this thing that we always used to do, we're like, no, we're going to try something else. And and you have some options already prepared and ready. All right. The next letter is oh right. And so first we design then oh is for omit.

And you just want to like be realistic and omit options that aren't like possible right now. Right. Like maybe just like in a restaurant how things go in and out of season or maybe ingredients are too expensive, or maybe no one is ordering anymore and we just want to, like, take things off the menu. So I want you to just feel free all the time to change and adapt your menu, add things, subtract things. Right? This is not a to do list. It's a it's a dopamine menu. Right. And so you want to think about things you actually order and you actually make you actually have the ingredients for and omit everything else.

All right. So maybe if like concerts are on your specials for example, but there aren't any in the future, like take that off and maybe this season we're doing pickleball or something else. All right. Okay then P is for prepping your ingredients. So again in a restaurant when people are hungry they don't want to wait a long time. Right. So restaurants prepare and prep food ahead of time. So everything's ready to go and they can get a quick turnaround. And so you want to set things up that you want to do more of things on your menu and put them in easy place, right.

For example, you can keep your puzzle table out, or you can add money to your budget for things that you want to fund. Or for me, I have a little like hand quilting project, and now I have it in a little basket beside the couch so that like, it's really easy for me to access. You can also create more barriers for the things that you don't want to do, right? So if like your quick source of dopamine is your phone and you want that on the dessert menu where you use it very rarely, then maybe you put it in the other room, or you delete certain apps or you, you know, you put a cover charge on it every time you're going to use it.

So just like the basic principle is, if I want to increase doing the activity, I need to decrease the steps and the energy that is required to get started. Right. And if I want to decrease the activity, then I need to increase the friction, increase the difficulty, increase the amount of steps that I have to take to be able to do that thing. Right. And that's what you're going to do with prep. And then finally A is to advertise. So a lot of menus, if you go to a restaurant they have descriptions. They make it look enticing.

Right so you can make your menu pretty or funny. You can you can add descriptions to the activities and like talk yourself into it. And then you want to post it. You want to advertise, you want to be able to see it. So I have one in my office and I have one in my kitchen, and I have one on the lock screen of my phone so that like I know that like when I feel that urge to participate in an activity that just really isn't serving me, there's so many other options and I can choose something else from the menu. Now I just want to say like, there should be no shoulds and no shame involved in this.

Like, you just want to approach this with curiosity and kindness, and you want to think about that dopamine menu as like fun options that are available to you that are going to create more overall enjoyment in your life. Okay, so if I can just give you a couple of warnings as you go to create your dopamine menu, first, your brain is going to be like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what brings me pleasure. I don't know what I like. Right. So I really want to encourage you to just like go for a walk and let yourself think. When I was first setting mine up, my brain was like, I can't think of anything I used to like to do.

But as I just, like, quieted my brain went for a walk. My brain was like, oh yeah, I remember we used to like this and we used to like this. And so you can just start adding those things and give yourself a chance to think about it. Now, if I could just say one more thing. This whole podcast is not about creating a life that is all pleasure. It's not about feeling good all the time. What it's really about is getting what you want. So it's about trading all these false pleasures that are taking up your time and your energy and your effort, and even sometimes your connections, and instead trading them for the things that really matter to you.

Right? It's about trading those false pleasures for things that are actually pleasurable, for things that you actually enjoy. For real connections. It's about loving your life more and really aggressively enjoying your life, and also recognizing that sometimes I'm feeling bad because I've had cortisol or norepinephrine release in my body. And that's okay. I can just get into action and those things are going to resolve on their own. And none of those things have to keep me from what I really want. I've just really think that understanding your brain and understanding your neurotransmitters allows you to promote more of the experiences you want and not just like run your life on default.

Not just like the like. Those naturally occurring neurotransmitters kind of run the show for you. And so this is what I'm really focusing on this year, is finding the things that really create true enjoyment and connection, so that I can have more of the like, good feeling neurotransmitters in my life. And I hope that it will make a really big difference in my year and increase the joy in the satisfaction that I feel, and also like the intention with which I live. And I hope that it helps you too. Okay, I know that was a lot.

There was a lot of information, a lot of actions that you can take. So I made a little cheat sheet for you. If you go to the show notes of this episode, you can download that cheat sheet. And we'll just kind of like tell you, here's the neurotransmitter and here's the actions you can take, and I hope that it will help you. And also I'll put a link to that video about the dopamine menu, because I think it's really going to make a difference in my life, and I hope it will help you too. Okay, so that was a lot. Thanks for sticking with me. I just want you to remember that you are not your brain.

You are not your neurochemistry. You have choices. You get to choose your life. And every day you can make intentional choices to influence and impact that neurochemistry and have a life that is well lived. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome. I love you for listening and I'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. If you're serious about changing your life, you first have to change your mind. And the best way to do that is through coaching. I work with my clients one on one to help them change their thoughts and their feelings. About themselves, their lives, and their challenges so that they can live a life they love. If you'd like to work with me one on one, you can learn more and schedule a free call to try coaching for yourself at Aprilpricecoaching.com.