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dopamine the neurochemical that causes
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you to self-d distract overeat and waste
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hours on Tik Tok but what if you could
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leverage your dopaminergic system to
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propel you forward such that it becomes
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your number one tool for hyperfocus well
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in this video I'm going to show you how
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I'm R Daris the CEO of flow research
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Collective where we use Neuroscience to
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help professionals access Flow State at
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[Music]
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will I'll never forget it I was 9 days
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into a silent Zen Meditation Retreat 16
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hours of meditation a day no talking
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reading or writing eating only Bland
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boring tasteless food after the retreat
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I caught a cab home and I was sitting in
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the back seat my fingers were hovering
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over the screen of my phone my
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anticipation was part excitement part
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anxiety messages flooded in and the
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dopamine reward that I got was
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intoxicating the next day though I was
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still in this heavily meditated Zen
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likee state
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and I rediscovered the mundane aspects
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of life I started working on a big
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laborious boring task that had been
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delaying for months to my surprise my
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attention was sucked into the present
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moment and I got into a flow State
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almost immediately that optimal state of
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effortless absorption and heightened
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productivity the once dreaded task
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hooked me and hours melted away any
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impulse I had to do anything else was
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overruled by the thrill of Discovery and
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problem solving that had once seemed
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dull my brain had been resensitized to
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find the work rewarding how did this
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happen how had what was once so boring
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become so rewarding well it boils down
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to dopamine dopamine has been called the
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molecule more the reason that cocaine is
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so addictive and that scrolling social
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media is so compelling it's also
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responsible for the high that we get
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from accomplishment it makes us want
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more of whatever we've done to produce
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dopamine in the first place and that
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brings us to the problem of dopamine
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detoxing scientifically you can't really
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detox dopamine it's it's a neurochemical
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we can't function without it dopamine
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plays many roles but one of its key
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roles is that of a focusing mechanism
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stimuli are paid attention to because of
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the dopamine they produce so dopamine is
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the reward we get for engaging in
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certain activities now this is key it's
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not stimulation that you want it's the
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dopamine that the stimulation squirts
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that you want however through over
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stimulation we can become desensitized
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to dopamine when this happens dopamine
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is still signaling but fewer receptors
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receive the signal so rather than
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detoxing dopamine we want to resensitize
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ourselves to it low sensitivity to
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reward means you need lots of
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stimulation to capture your attention
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High sensitivity to reward means you
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need less stimulation to capture your
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attention think of it like your Roi on
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dopamine
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how much stimulation do you need to feel
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rewarded by dopamine and have your
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attention focus into the present moment
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the less the better do you get a hit of
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dopamine while listening to a nice song
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or watching a beautiful sunset or do you
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need to play a video game and scroll Tik
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Tock while simultaneously gobbling down
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ice cream to get that same hit of
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dopamine now I used to fall more into
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the ladder Camp I needed a lot of
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stimulation for my brain to get enough
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dopamine for the activity to feel
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rewarding but I reset my reward sense
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sensitivity by sitting on a mat with my
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eyes closed for 16 hours a day but I've
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since learned that such an approach is
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not needed there are simpler ways to do
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it which I'm going to show you in a
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second so you can reset your sensitivity
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in minutes instead of days of Silence
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like I went
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through now through resensitizing we
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boost our impulse control which means we
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can delay gratification just imagine for
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a second what would happen to your
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productivity if you were as thrilled
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with writing a book book or creating a
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product or whatever you have to do
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within your day job as you were with
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scrolling Tik Tok or checking your bank
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account after payday well this is what's
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possible when you calibrate your resensi
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to reward there's a few steps step one
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to master your dop energic system means
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to master the art of making the boring
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rewarding first way to do this is to
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modify how we take breaks when we engage
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with work most people take dopamine
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fueled breaks scrolling social media
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checking email reading the news the
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critical mistake when taking breaks is
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doing something that's more stimulating
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than the work that you're breaking from
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imagine trying to read a research paper
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after swiping through social media for
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an hour against instant and infinite
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novelty reading that research paper is
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dull as all hell now the inverse stare
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at a wall for 20 minutes doing nothing
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not even meditating suddenly that
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research paper is going to make you
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salivate so take boring breaks that
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reset dopamine and heighten your reward
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sensitivity and make whatever you do
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before and between work as boring as
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possible we want our work to feel as
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easy as scrolling through social media
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and that's a function of dropping the
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bar for what bores us to the floor and
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making the boring rewarding so a
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20-minute nap walking stretching
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mindfulness breath work foam rolling
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light exercise all of these things are
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good things to do on a break a favorite
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of mine all jokes aside is wall staring
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I'll stop working and I'll start staring
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at a wall for 5 or 10 minutes and just
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let things simmer letting the snow globe
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of my attention just settle for a little
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bit because when on a break you want to
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starve your brain of dopamine so that it
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craves getting back to work because
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ultimately that dopamine seeking cage
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rat inside you one way or another is
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going to have its way so you may as well
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have it suck you back into work rather
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than having it keep you stuck on the
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thing you're doing in the break now the
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second thing we want to do is habit the
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in between just just take a minute and
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think about what you did the last time
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you were waiting in a line or sitting
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alone at lunch while your friend ran to
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the bathroom well you probably read your
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messages or scrolled through social
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media that'll be my guess now this is
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not ideal we all have these in between
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moments every day but we're so
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accustomed to reaching for our phones
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for that quick hit of dopamine that it's
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it's almost subconscious inhabiting the
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in between means leveraging these
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moments by allowing ourselves to Simply
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settle bring ourselves back to the
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present in these moments we cut out the
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unintentional information consumption
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which fractures our attention further
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desensitizing our dopamine receptors
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making us less sensitive to reward a few
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tips for this when you arrive early to a
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lunch meeting just sit quietly without
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your phone when waiting in line pay
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attention to your breath when commuting
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to work just drive ride or walk in
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silence you will be forced to be present
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and tolerate those moments where you
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don't have much stimulation or
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engagement and this will make you more
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and more sensitive over time your
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Baseline for what's boring will shift
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and you'll cultivate a monkik quality of
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mind which is highly conducive to
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profound levels of focus and flow third
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thing we want to do is do everything one
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thing at a time you can heighten reward
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sensitivity by simply doing things once
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at a time with singular Focus now as
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I've improved my focus and my access to
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flow there's certain things that become
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more worse at and one of those things is
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multitasking I've become way worse at
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multitasking it's embarrassing in fact
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my team laughs at me because whenever
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I'm out on a walk with them of any kind
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and I need to send a text I literally
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stop talking mids sentence reach out my
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phone then I end up not walking either
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and all of a sudden I'm standing in
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silence texting while we were made
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conversation and they're walking ahead
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of me this is due to the interplay
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between the default mode Network the dmn
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and the task positive Network the tpn in
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the brain when you're not engaged in a
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task the default mode network is active
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but when you're focused the tpn the task
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positive Network takes over in my
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texting example what's happening to me
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is I'm rapidly shifting from the default
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mode network of disengaged attention to
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the task positive network of engaged
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focused attention and this is creating a
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tunnel for my awareness such that it
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becomes attention which then makes me
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oblivious to my surroundings hence
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standing there not talking and not
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walking while sending the text now while
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this rapid shifting from the default
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mode Network to the task positive
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network is kind of a burden for
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multitasking like texting while walking
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it's a superpower for flow because the
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faster you can shift from the default
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mode Network to the task positive
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Network the faster you can engage focus
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and the higher your reward sensitivity
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the easier it is to make this shift and
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the faster you can make this shift
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because you get more focusing
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neurochemistry funneled into the system
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in the form of dopamine so to train this
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abil ility focus on one thing at a time
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it's that simple the next time you're
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eating just eat when working just work
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when you have a conversation just
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Converse Embrace Life as a series of
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singular activities rather than
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scattered efforts to secrete dopamine
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through constant novelty seeking so to
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master your dopam energic system to
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propel you forward and access Peak
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Performance take boring breaks so that
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what's boring becomes rewarding inhabit
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the in between and do everything one
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thing
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at a time now we're going to be breaking
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down the latest Neuroscience research on
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Flow State to give you practical tools
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so that you can plunge yourself into
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flow more consistently and reliably so
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that you can stay in flow for longer and
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ultimately so that you can turn your
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work into play which is the ultimate
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competitive advantage to have
