One of my favorite girls asked me about Dopamine.
You see I’ve been feeling it alot lately and pondering about it too.
The question is, Dopamine, needed? or over rated?
I loved getting asked this.
And a week ago I was asking myself the same thing.
Can I trust the emotions associated with Dopamine?
Lets talk a walk with Dopamine real quick to sort out the reality of it’s potential.
“Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them.”
So we know it as a simple organic chemical. Yet, deficiency of this chemical can lead to Parkinson’s disease, so in that regard, yes, Dopamine is not over rated and lots of great research shows the benefits of it.
We need dopamine in the right place
at the right time
in the right amounts.
When it all comes together, we are the awesom-est person around.
We, or I shall speak for me. I feel so enriched by the world around me,
and I just can’t stop smiling.
There is always something to be grateful for.
Can dopamine increase our gratitude?
Its happening to me now.
It’s really the opposition of emotions that can generate more dopamine.
You know happiness because you have experience sadness.
Dopamine will motivate us,
and it is the driving neurotransmitter in competitive behaviors.
It should be found in every romantic relationship.
Not in an competitive, I’ll beat you at this crossfit workout, but a competitive edge to want to be your best self as you serve and love your significant other.
And this dopamine should be there from the get go..
ESPECIALLY from the get go.
That’s what turns one date into two dates and so on and so forth.
ESPECIALLY from the get go.
That’s what turns one date into two dates and so on and so forth.
When you feel great levels of excitement and joy, those are associated to
dopamine. So what’s make you happy? Really truly happy?
Ponder that for a bit.
Below is the source and donor to my dopamine bucket for the past 3 weeks
His name is Jack. and although its only been three weeks,
When we are talking about dopamine, time is irrelavant.
I would like to insert a disclaimer here.
I am not attracted to Jack because I experience large doses of dopamine.
Although they help,
my attraction to him comes from the happiness
I have within myself.
I have identified what makes me happy.
When you know what makes you happy and what you want and you work to obtain that on your own, crossing paths with someone that values the same type of happiness as you is
turns into straight bliss. (another blog post)
To open up my heart a bit more,
I have had experiences that brought me unhappiness.
They were based off of lack of trust and dis honesty,
so I have continually grown and became more attracted to trust, and honesty.
Its something I really want in a lasting relationship.
Jack feels the same way about trust and honesty as I do and as we share and validate those needs in our own personal relationships, that communication enhances our dopamine.
I mean yes, I love that he is all about garden and pruning my fruit trees, building furniture and photography,
those were secondary to what our true happiness was.
Growing into interests is important when building relationships,
but having prinicples of truth as your foundation is a rock solid way to progress a healthy relationship with anyone.
Jack and I talk about dopamine.
We study it and discuss other methods to continually
increase the dopamine between us.
We found really cool stuff!
Jack is a plant based eater which I love, with that commonality we have of
loving veggies and other plants of the earth,
we found that there are founds that
may enhance your level of dopamine.
Fava Beans
Mustard greens
Wheat germ
Edamane
Dark Chocolate
Bananas
Avocados.
See Dark Chocolate=LOVE. ha
But can one person have too much dopamine?
This is the only example I could find where Dopamine was bad.
On a silly note.
On a serious note.
I have experienced relationships where dopamine was generated by a drug addiction,
It was fatal, which left me with tons of grief and wonderment about true feelings,
and levels of happiness in general.
Thankfully, I always relied on the gospel for the happiness.
But I missed the romantic dopamine.
The emotion of knowing someone gave you their heart and it was completely mutual and safe.
Being received when sharing dopamine is honestly the secret to maintaining those levels and
continually striving to enhance experiences with that person you care about.
Insert silly dopamine song here.
And if there was a spiritual dopamine, what would we call it?
Dopamine creates happiness.
But what is happiness?
In the scriptures, happiness is based off of principles of righteousness and the
foundational core of all righteousness is the faith.
Faith is acting before knowing. It’s believing before receiving.
It’s putting yourself out there in the name of Christ,
for the sake of happiness and for the sake of the Kingdom.
My personal experience had help me to use these
principles in
pursuing and maintaining relationships.
Thus far, I’m ALL ABOUT DOPAMINE.
It keeps me coming back for more.
To me, Dopamine is my “save button” in the brain.
When dopamine is present during an event or experience,
we remember it;
when it is absent, nothing seems to stick.
Maybe that’s why you were never even that interested in that guy.
He did nothing for your dopamine……
That’s why its important for men and women alike to do their part to make things
new, exciting and stimulating.
Please pass me the dopaMINE.
AND THEN FILL UP SOMEONES DOPAMINE BUCKET
AND THEN FILL UP SOMEONES DOPAMINE BUCKET
I love this:) Most times I get a few dates into it with a guy, there's no dopamine, no rush, no extra smiling, and I wonder if I'm fantasizing what a relationship should start out like. But I've had that experience before…long time before…but I want it back, and I can't seem to find the person with the attributes to give me that. So, I again start to wonder if it's overrated, even though I want it so much.