dopamine re-sensitize Archives - The Art of Semen Retention

December 30, 2022December 30, 2022

Conquering Flatlines and Overcoming PAWS

For the first few weeks, you feel great. Tons of energy, tons of motivation, everything seems to be clicking. And then one day, you wake up and just feel kinda “blah”. Things seem less exciting. You’re less interested in your hobbies and quest for self-mastery. The ladies no longer seem as interested, and that spark of confidence you found seems to have died out.

What gives? You were doing everything by the book, what kind of cruel trick is this?

The Flatline/PAWS Phenomenon

In the retention community, you’ve hit what’s called a flatline. In the world of addiction and recovery, this same phenomenon is known as PAWS – Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome. Both are marked by varying degrees of anhedonia (loss of a sense of pleasure), mood swings, depression, lack of libido, irritability, brain fog, even sleep issues.

In short, life becomes dull, gray and more difficult and annoying than usual. Fun stuff.

Without going into too much detail, what’s happening is your brain is trying to readjust its neurochemistry and come back into balance after you’ve taken away its drug of choice – whether that drug is cocaine, alcohol, opiates, or porn and masturbation. You’ve been overstimulating the reward circuitry in your brain, and now that you’ve taken away that stimulus, you’re left feeling at a loss.

PAWS usually comes in waves or cycles, for a few months up to a few years, depending on the severity of the addiction and a person’s personal biochemistry. The same will apply to flatlining, although I’d venture to guess that for most of us it will be milder than for those with serious drug addictions – though your mileage may vary.

It’s important to remember that if you hit a flatline, it won’t last forever. It’s also important to remember that when that flatline ends, you may hit another one in a few days, weeks or months. Your brain is readjusting, and you have to be patient considering the years of abuse you put it through.

Please check out this great podcast on understanding addiction and the process of PAWS, if you’d like a deeper dive.

The good news is there are a ton of ways to mitigate the effects of PAWS/flatlines, and these same strategies can be used any time you’re feeling down, for whatever reason. Let’s get to it.

Laying the Foundation

The first step for anyone going through a flatline or PAWS is maximizing brain health. We want to be creating an environment conducive to feeling like an unstoppable badass, and we do this by providing the brain with the building blocks it needs for healthy amounts of neurotransmitters, and by reducing inflammation.

This is stuff we should already be doing – eating properly, getting enough sleep, and getting daily/near daily exercise.

Food

We’ve heard the saying “You are what you eat” so many times it’s lost its profundity, but if you are eating crap foods, you will feel like crap. Period. I could write an entire book on this topic but let’s keep things shit simple, shall we?

Our diet profoundly impacts our severity of flatlining (and mood in general) for two main reasons.

The first is that the nutrients found in the food you eat, specifically vitamins, amino acids and minerals, are the building blocks of neurotransmitters – such as dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, endorphins and GABA – which have profound effects on your mood, energy levels and outlook on life. The amount of nutrients found in junk food will obviously pale in comparison to that found in natural, minimally processed whole foods.

The amino acids that make up your neurotransmitters come from protein. Therefore, whether you’re vegan or not, you need to be eating sufficient amounts of protein. If vegan, realize that most plant sources of protein are incomplete, and you need to combine them in order to get a full amino acid profile. If you’re working out and lifting weights, you need to consume even more protein.

Simply put, more of these specific nutrients = more raw substrate for your body to synthesize what it needs in order to grab life by the balls and kick major ass.

Second, what you eat profoundly affects your levels of inflammation. Junk food is not only devoid of crucial nutrients, it’s almost always extremely inflammatory, and the link between inflammation and depression, chronic disease, pain and low energy levels is beyond obvious at this point. In the sake of brevity I will leave it to you to research this topic if you are interested.

Of particular importance is cutting out refined vegetable/seed/nut oils and deep fried foods, as these oils are not only extremely high in Omega 6 fatty acids that are pro-inflammatory, but these oils are also rancid due to their polyunsaturated fatty acids and the refinement process they go through. Your body tries to incorporate these rancid fatty acids into the cellular membranes, wreaking all kinds of havoc.

The only extracted oils you should be using are high quality olive oil, butter from free range cows, coconut oil, avocado oil and red palm oil. Also to note, most packaged snacks, chips, crackers, etc. are loaded with these oils as they’re much cheaper to produce than the healthier varieties, so you should avoid them or at least reduce them.

Foods that are high in polyphenols, phytochemicals and Omega 3s are foods to focus on. Fatty fish, berries, green tea, dark chocolate, herbs and spices (especially turmeric, ginger, rosemary) and dark leafy greens should be consumed on the regs.

You can also supplement with a high quality fish oil and a turmeric/curcumin supplement as well, to further lower inflammation.

Less junk food, more protein, no vegetable oils/deep fried foods, as many fresh, whole foods as possible.

Sleep

Sleep is the great restorer. Your brain is healing. You need to prioritize your sleeping habits to recover. I won’t go into detail beyond saying to make sure you get regular, deep, high quality sleep.

Check out this in-depth podcast if you’d like to learn how to perfect your sleep.

Exercise

On the flip side of sleep, exercise is the great amplifier. It boosts mood, energy levels, self-worth, and precious, precious dopamine.

It’s also the best example of a state-changer. Do you feel depressed? Go on a long run, or do some hill sprints. You’re angry? Lift some heavy ass weights.

Again, I’m not going to go into detail here – we all know exercise does wonders on mood, motivation and energy levels. If you aren’t getting some form of regular, somewhat-intense exercise, then, well… I guess you don’t want to help yourself get out of this hole you dug for yourself.

Increase Your Yang Jing Energy

I’ve talked a lot about increasing sexual energy before, which is known as jing within Traditional Chinese Medicine. This is split into two categories – yin jing, which is deeply nourishing and restorative, and yang jing, which is more activating and motivating. Using jing-boosting herbs is the easiest and most effective way to increase these energies.

When we begin on our retention path, we don’t want to increase the amount of yang energy too much, as it will generally increase our libido, and lead to relapse. Plus, practicing retention naturally increases our yang jing. As we progress on the path and increase our levels of control, we can begin to start adding in some more yang-boosting herbs.

Increasing our yang energy leads to an increase in drive, motivation, libido, and hunger for both life and women. As such, these herbs should only be used by those experiencing a flatline or by those who have learned to control their impulses, but it feels damn fine to increase that fiery yang jing. It’s like being a teenager all over again – loads of energy, super high libido, and the whole world feels fresh and juicy.

It’s essentially the opposite of a flatline.

I haven’t shared much about these herbs as they can easily push most guys over the edge, and most guys practicing retention should steer clear of them, until they really have their game down… But for the guy in the midst of relapse, they can really help you break out of it.

My top picks would be cistanche, cordyceps and red ginseng. These all increase yang jing without being too stimulating, with cistanche being the least stimulating to libido, then cordyceps, and then red ginseng.

Head over to Nootropics Depot or Dragon Herbs if you’d like to snag some. Whichever product you use, try it out until you begin to feel like you’re coming out of a flatline, and then either shelf it, or decrease your dosage/usage so it doesn’t lead to a relapse.

Cut out Other Dopamine Wasters

This is another biggie. We cut out what may be our biggest empty waste of dopamine – the PMO cycle. There are still these other stragglers we likely are engaging in daily that are further interfering with our recovery, namely things such as social media (including Reddit and Discord), constant gaming, binge watching tv shows, etc.

Now in a perfect world, you could just cut these things out and find more productive, engaging things to participate in. But we’re living in the middle of a pandemic, we may not have the funds or the means to find all sorts of fun, interesting things to do. And since we cut out PMO, our brain is going to be craving more sources of dopamine release, which is only going to be making these time wasters even more attractive.

If you’re the strong willed type, highly motivated to recover, and already have plenty of other things to do with your time, it’s time to nut up and cut them out completely for a while. It might sting a little, life will feel kinda blah, but give it two weeks and things will start looking up. A month later and you’ve got a whole new you.

If this sounds too difficult, at least limit these activities. Scrolling on Instagram, Reddit or TikTok is absolutely pointless, and is nothing but a stimulating distraction from your actual life. These things are masturabtion for your mind! I’d cut those things out completely, or at least limit it to 15 mins in the morning and 15 mins in the evening.

Stop binge watching things on Netflix or YouTube. When you watch things, at least try to make it educational by watching a documentary or something inspirational. In either case, put a limit on that as well – a little bit in the evening, certainly no more than half an hour most days, occasionally allowing yourself a bit more on the weekends or something.

Limit gaming as well, but in my eyes, it isn’t quite as bad. It’s interactive, requires some skill, and can even have a social aspect to it. But again, you need to place limits on it. Bottom line, either cut out pointless screen time or reduce it drastically.

Environmental Enrichment

Environmental enrichment is defined as “a combination of more opportunities for physical activity, learning and social interaction,” and has repeatedly been demonstrated to not only increase neurogenesis (the brain building new neural connections) but to prevent addictive behavior and reduce relapses after addiction has set in.

The classic example is a study of the effect of two different environments on rats in relation to self-administration of cocaine. One group of rats were placed in isolated cages, where the only other things in the cage were water, food, and a lever they could press that would self-administer cocaine. Obviously, with not much else to do, these little fellas turned into your veritable Tony Montana, doing more booger sugar than Jack Nicholson’s character in The Departed.

The other rats were placed in cages with the same water, food, and cocaine set up, but also had access to mazes, wheels to run in, and other rats to hang and shoot the shit with. These rats would occasionally go over to the cocaine lever, but spent a ton of time doing other stuff.

One group of rats thrived in their enriched environment; the other group succumbed to the woes of boredom by constant self-administration of fine, Columbian nose candy.

Let’s just look at the abstract of a 2010 study, Prevention and treatment of drug addiction by environmental enrichment –

“Accumulating evidence indicates that EE can mimic positive life experiences and prevent the development of drug addiction. More recently, EE has also been shown to eliminate already developed addiction-related behaviors and to reduce the risks of relapse. These preventive and ‘curative’ effects of EE are associated with dramatic plastic changes (neurogenesis) in several brain areas such as the hippocampus, the frontal cortex and the striatum. EE alters neurotransmitter systems, produces changes in gene expression and transcription factors, induces chromatin rearrangement, and stimulates hippocampal neurogenesis. Here we review the existent literature on behavioral, neurochemical, cellular and molecular effects of EE and we discuss different possible ways in which EE-induced neuroadaptations result in decreased vulnerability to addiction and relapse. We propose a unified theoretical framework in which EE is seen as a functional opposite of stress. On the one hand, the antistress effects of EE would reduce the reinforcing effects of drugs and their ability to induce long-lasting neuroplastic changes and, thus, they would prevent the development of drug addiction. On the other hand, permanent or transient restoration of the normal, pre-drug functioning of the stress system would facilitate resisting prepotent desire to take drugs and it would decrease the risks of relapse.”

Quit PMO -> have nothing else to do -> depression and withdrawal -> relapse -> feelings of guilt, shame, powerlessness and regret

Vs.

Quit PMO -> have enriched environment -> THRIVE

How do we enrich our environments?

For one thing, exercise. “Many of these changes can be effected merely by introducing a physical exercise regimen rather than requiring cognitive activity per se.”

Interaction with other people is huge. You have to constantly be on your toes and mentally agile to keep the conversation going, to keep things lively.

Spice up your living space. Get yourself some damn house plants. Whenever I have a lady over I get tons of compliments for having multiple plants in my house. Learn a musical instrument and keep it out of its case and ready to be played. Have interesting books lying around. Listen to new music. Hell, I haven’t seen any research on it but I guarantee you playing a new video game has a bit of the same beneficial effect.

Make your living space as interesting as possible. Make your life as interesting as possible.

Go out and hike, or even better, join a hiking group. Put yourself in a whole new environment by hiking, visiting a different coffee shop rather than your staple one, and taking a different route to work or school. Learn a new sport, hobby, craft. Travel. Go to a new restaurant. Learn how to cook a new meal. For God’s sake, do something with your life!

The great Louis CK – “People say, ‘My phone sucks.’ No, it doesn’t! The shittiest cellphone in the world is a miracle. Your life sucks. Around the phone.”

Make sure your life doesn’t suck.

Brain Hacking

Dopamine

A big pursuit in the nootropics community is improving “dopaminergic tone”. This is done either by using compounds that increase dopamine synthesis/release and/or using other compounds that increase your brain’s sensitivity to dopamine.

The basic premise is: enhance dopaminergic tone -> increase motivation, drive and pleasure.

Because of rampant PMO, we have dealt a massive blow to dopamine receptors and the reward circuitry in our brains. The constant smashing of the pleasure buttons in our brain has caused them to become less sensitive to dopamine (from all sources) in an effort to maintain homeostasis. Because we have finally stopped mindlessly engaging in PMO and have thus taken away our empty source of dopaminergic stimulation, we’re left with a brain that produces less dopamine from normal activities and is less sensitive to the dopamine the receptors do come into contact with. No bueno.

There are many substances out there that enhance the synthesis and/or release of dopamine within the brain, ranging from simple amino acids like L-tyrosine, to herbs such as mucuna, to pharmaceutical agents such as adderall.

I recommend trying out L-tyrosine or DL-phenylalanine (DLPA) as dopamine precursors. We want to start by providing the brain with the nutrients it needs to synthesize its own production of dopamine. The brain uses l-tyrosine to create L-DOPA, which it then converts into dopamine.

L-phenylalanine is the precursor to L-tyrosine, while *D-*phenylalanine inhibits an enzyme in the body that breaks down enkephalins, naturally occurring endorphin peptides. This means that supplementing with DLPA not only boosts dopamine synthesis but also the production of mood-boosting and pain-relieving endorphins.

On the other end of the spectrum, we want to keep our brain sensitive to the dopamine we areproducing.

The adaptogenic herb gynostemma prevents the death of over-stimulated dopamine neurons, as does magnesium. In terms of dopamine resensitization, cordyceps has to be my top pick. It’s an adaptogenic mushroom that not only boosts our sexual energy, but enhances the expression of the rate-limiting enzyme tyrosine-hydroxylase, which converts L-tyrosine to L-DOPA, working in an entirely different method than tyrosine and phenylalanine.

Uridine, as well as sulbutiamine, a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1, both up regulate dopamine D2 receptors, as does forskolin.

I highly recommend heading over to Nootropics Depot for these supplements. Dragon Herbs has a great gynostemma tea I drink daily, as well as a few awesome cordyceps products, with this tincturebeing my top pick.

Embrace the Suck

Guess what my friend? You dug yourself into this hole, now it’s time to marinate in it and grow from it.

It sucks. It’s hard. It isn’t all butterflies and rainbows and puppy kisses.

But that’s life. And you need to embrace it, because life is tough, man. Life isn’t always fun and easy, and neither should it be. “No pain, no gain” is a trite saying but there is a massive kernel of truth there. You had your wonton fun that got you into this mess, now you have to deal with the consequences, and the good news? That’s a good thing.

Growth only occurs through stress. You can’t get bigger muscles without stressing them through a workout. You can’t become smarter without putting in the time and doing some studying.

And you can’t grow as a human being without going through some hardship. This is but a small bump in your road, my dude! Feel the boredom, feel the apathy, feel the lack of energy, embrace it, and grow from it.

“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.” – Plato

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will you ever be polished?” – Rumi

“No man is more unhappy than he who has never faced adversity, for he is not permitted to prove himself.” Seneca

Wim Hof Method

The Wim Hof Method is a breathing routine you may have heard of. It combines a specific type of hyperventilation combined with breath holds, usually followed by a cold shower or ice bath. It’s very invigorating and really will get you feeling energized – with science behind it as well.

It’s helpful for us experiencing PAWS because both the breathing method and the cold exposure decrease inflammation (which leads to apathy, fatigue and depression, remember?) greatly increase levels of adrenaline within the body, boosting your mood and increasing energy levels.

It’s like a shot of espresso that you create internally yourself.

“Compared to a control group who were not trained in the Wim Hof Method, the trained participants showed fewer flu-like symptoms, lower levels of proinflammatory mediators, and increased plasma epinephrine levels. In conclusion, the trained group was able to voluntarily activate their sympathetic nervous system.”

The method also “showed activation of areas in the brain associated with pain suppression, self-reflection and well-being, in particular the periaqueductal gray area (PAG)”.

As for cold exposure, per this excellent write up by Dr. Rhonda Patrick – “There is anecdotal evidence that cold exposure improves mood and it has been suggested that cold showers may even be used to prevent and treat depression.”

“One of the most consistent and profound physiological responses to cold exposure is a robust release of norepinephrine into the bloodstream, as well as in the locus coeruleus region of the brain. What makes norepinephrine so interesting is that it’s not only a hormone but also a neurotransmitter and is involved in vigilance, focus, attention and mood… Decreased norepinephrine neurotransmission is associated with inattention, decreased focus and cognitive ability, low energy, and poor mood (generally).”

Here’s how to do it –

Breathe in through the mouth forcibly but passively let the air back out, and repeat thirty times.
On the thirtieth breath, inhale fully, release the air out passively and then hold your breath with mostly empty lungs, until it gets fairly uncomfortable.
Breathe back in, filling your lungs about 90%, and hold the breath inside for 15-20 seconds. This is one round.
Complete three rounds total.
Get in your ice bath or cold shower

And boom! Instant mood and energy boost.

This can also be done without a cold shower – it’s still quite energizing.

Motivation vs Discipline

Let’s just keep this one short and to the point. Motivation waxes and wanes, just like everything in life. When you’re feeling motivated, that’s great, time to kick some ass. When you’re not feeling motivated, guess what? That’s great, time to kick some ass!

Motivation is great when you have it, but it won’t always be there. Better to just develop unshakeable discipline instead.

“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.” – Jocko Willink

On Jocko’s instagram, he pretty much only posts his wake up times. Showing that he always wakes up before 5 am. A very boring instagram account, but one that drives the point home.

Parting Thoughts

Flatlines are a bitch, and while there are a lucky minority that don’t really experience them, most will in some form or another.

Recognize them as simply a goalpost along the way, a road marker of sorts. They are part and parcel of semen retention, and rather than being feared, should be embraced. Use these tactics, and instead of waiting for a flatline to occur, implement them beforehand.

Like all things in life, they come and they go. Don’t get attached to the highs and lows of life, just keep putting in the work, and all good things will be due to you in time.

Keep on keeping on, brothers

December 28, 2022December 28, 2022

Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 2

Meditation

Meditation is a great way to see firsthand your mind’s addiction to empty stimulation. You sit down, close your eyes, and attempt to keep your mind focused on just one thing, such as the breath. Sounds boring right? It certainly was for me at first and it is for most newcomers, who find that their mind will do anything in its power to find something more interesting.

Daydreams and distractions abound!

Stick with it though, and slowly but surely the mind will begin to settle, and peace, even bliss can begin to arise. Further, it strengthens your mind’s ability to focus and stay on task, “sharpening the saw” so to speak, so that you can accomplish your goals that much more easily.

In short, meditation is the exact opposite of our attention-scattered, distracted, empty stimulation-seeking habits, and is a big part of the antidote. Our minds drive us from distraction to distraction; meditation says “no” to all of these distractions and teaches the mind to settle on just one thing.

The things we’re giving up this month are a prime example of how the mind craves distraction and stimulation. We aren’t content to just be, but instead run from distraction to distraction, from empty dopamine hit to dopamine hit, hoping to achieve some lasting satisfaction.

But these things never bring lasting satisfaction, do they? If they did, we wouldn’t get bored so fast and look for something else to fill that hole within us. If they did, that Christmas gift we wanted so badly when we were 10 would still be bringing us great satisfaction, but the satisfaction faded pretty quickly. Come to think of it, the satisfaction we get from anything fades pretty quickly, doesn’t it?

Meditation is the antithesis to our mind constantly running around seeking stimulation – you bring it back, again and again and again, to the object of meditation. And as the mind settles and lets go of its craving, peace and bliss may start to arise.

What might cause these good feelings? The joy you experience when you get something that you really wanted isn’t actually coming from that object – it’s coming from the craving for that object going away. Think about it, there is nothing inherently joy-producing from a nice juicy steak – if there was, you’d be fine eating it for every meal of the day for the rest of eternity, but anyone would get sick of that pretty quick.

The joy you experience when you get something you were really craving comes from the craving going away – and the amount of joy is proportional to the amount of craving that has ceased.

When the mind lets go of craving, it experiences peace and bliss. This is what meditation can provide, a temporary reprieve from craving, on demand. Meditation teaches you to find contentment and peace in the present moment, so that you aren’t reliant upon outer sources of happiness.

But it takes practice and commitment.

If you aren’t meditating yet, try it out this month. 5 minutes in the evening the first week, 10 the next week, 15 on week three, and 20 mins each night on week four.

Basic Meditation on the Breath

Sit in a comfortable position in a quiet room, and take 3-5 deep belly breaths to settle down. Set a timer for 5-20 mins.
Focus on the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nostrils – this will be your object of meditation. Don’t alter your breath in any way, just passively notice the sensations.
Begin to count your breaths, with one in-breath and one out-breath being one breath. So breathe in, feeling the sensations at the tip of the nose, breathe out feeling those same sensations, and mentally note “one”. Count up to five or ten, then repeat.
Conversely, you can note “in” on the in-breath, and “out” on the out-breath.
When your mind wanders, and it will, gently bring your attention back to the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nose. Do this for the entire length of the session, and each time the mind wanders and you bring it back, think of it as “reps” for your mind muscles.
If after a while, when mind wandering has been significantly reduced, drop the mental noting and try to stay with just the sensations of the breath. Try to be aware of every moment of sensation on the in-breath, be aware of the lack of sensation in between breaths, and then be aware of every sensation of the out-breath. This is more subtle and thus more difficult.
When the timer goes off, congratulate yourself. Generate positive feelings, because you just did something Kingly – you took control and overcame the urge to distract yourself.
Your mind needs to be balanced between the gentle effort of concentrating on the breath with a relaxed “letting go” of other thoughts and sensations. Just as a guitar string that is too tight or too loose won’t sound right, so too must your mind be balanced between gentle effort and relaxation.

Supplements to Enhance Dopamine

There are supplements/drugs that release dopamine on their own, called agonists, that you mainly want to avoid right now. They cause your brain to release large amounts of dopamine all at once, which feels great, but basically ruins your inherent dopamine sensitivity and production over time, leading to depression, the blahs, anhedonia, lethargy, etc etc. So for the purpose of this month-long experiment, avoid dopamine agonists like nicotine, beer, Mary Jane and drugs like (do I even need to say this?) cocaine, adderall and other ADHD meds, MDMA, opiates, kratom, etc. If you are prescribed any of these, it’s best to stick with your prescription and discuss it with your doctor if you want to get off of them.

Coffee, tea and caffeine get a pass as they actually help keep dopamine receptors sensitive, but keep the intake on the lower side – aim for reducing down to 50 to 200 mg per day tops, over a week or two.

Then there are supplements that enhance your body’s own production of dopamine, called precursors. These supply your brain with the raw material to synthesize dopamine, but almost all of them have a “rate-limiting factor”, which means the brain won’t get overloaded with dopamine and you won’t deal with decreases in natural production and loss of sensitivity.

Certain compounds are great at protecting dopaminergic neurons from toxicity from too much dopamine, aka our usual quick fixes, be it lighter things like gaming/social media or harder things like occasional drug use. These are great options to have on hand or take daily.

Finally, there are supplements that can help resensitize your neurons to dopamine – meaning however much dopamine your brain naturally releases will be better utilized. In other words, you go further with less.

All of these options are fantastic for us because once we give up our crutches, our quick fixes, our brains will be without their usual sources of quick dopamine hits, meaning we will likely be feeling pretty “blah”. Dopamine precursors will give us an immediate boost in energy and motivation, and dopamine re-sensitization agents will help us over the long term to go further with the dopamine our brains are naturally releasing from everyday life.

Dopamine precursors – must be taken on an empty stomach for full effectiveness. Pick one or two to try out, and use 1-2 times daily or keep them for when you’re really dragging ass. Don’t use a bunch at the same time! We’re just looking for a little dopaminergic boost if we need it.

L-Tyrosine – converts to L-DOPA which converts to dopamine. This and NALT are probably the strongest in terms of acute effects.
N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT) – This is more potent than plain L-Tyrosine, but I actually prefer plain Tyrosine. Many prefer NALT, so take your pick. Lots of discussion on comparisons of the two on r/nootropics.
L-Phenylalanine – converts to L-Tyrosine, then L-DOPA, then dopamine. It’s a bit less effective than L-Tyrosine
DL-Phenylalanine (DLPA) – L-Phenyl converts to L-Tyrosine like before, but the D-Phenyl blocks the enzyme in the body that breaks down endorphins, giving you a nice pain-killing, warm fuzzy feeling – you won’t get high, but it really softens the edges of going without your dopaminergic crutches. This is what I’ve been using, as it provides a very nice but subtle glow while my brain readjusts to giving up its dopamine depletors. A bit “softer” than L-Ty or NALT, but has the endorphin glow.
Cordyceps – another great pick that works in a different manner. This is an amazing jing- and qi-boosting mushroom from the orient that increases tyrosine-hydroxylase, the enzyme that converts L-Tyrosine to L-DOPA. From the linked study, “These results suggest that CME (a cordyceps extract) can upregulate the dopaminergic (DArgic) system, and may contribute to neuroprotection in neurodegenerative diseases.” I have been using Nootropic Depot’s 10:1 Cordyceps extract, and I love it.

Dopamine neuroprotectants – these won’t do much for our little month long experiment, and you likely won’t notice any “boost” when you take them, but they’re great to get in the habit of using daily to protect your dopamine neurons, or especially to use before you’re going to do anything that hammers the dopamine system – drinking, taking prescription ADHD meds, etc.

PQQ – Similar to CoQ10, PQQ is neuroprotective to dopaminergic neurons, is a powerful antioxidant and not only energizes existing mitochondria (the engines of your cells), but even creates new mitochondria, giving you more day to day energy- in other words, it boosts qi/prana. No need to cycle but it can be on the pricier side, and oftentimes you’ll find it paired with CoQ10. I’d do a 2-3 month cycles of it to get the mitochondrial benefits, or simply keep it on hand if you know you’re going to be indulging in anything that overloads the dopamine system. Here it is with CoQ10, here it is by itself.
Gynostemma – a classic adaptogen hailing from Traditional Chinese Medicine, this qi-boosting herb is also neuroprotective and “neuro-restorative” to dopaminergic neurons. Also delays fatigue, improves insulin sensitivity and a whole lot more. It’s pretty affordable – I have 1-2 cups per day of this tea, which also has extracts of schisandra, goji berry, astragalus and siberian ginseng. This combo is also available in tincture form, or you can try loose gynostemma by itself. Here is an organic source but it will cost a bit more. Also I have not tried these specific loose teas so feel free to source your own.

Dopamine resensitizing agents – these are the real gold here, as they help our neurons to actually recuperate and repair, making them more sensitive to the dopamine our brains naturally produce. While some do gently increase the amount of dopamine in the brain, the big benefit is that they make what dopamine is released more effective – but you need to take them consistently over a longer period of time to get these effects. Try one out for a few months at least, or better yet, use one for 2-3 months, then use a different one, etc, keeping those dopamine receptors fresh.

Sulbutiamine – a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1 that modulates dopaminergic systems in the brain. It actually decreases dopamine in D2 receptors, which, over the long haul, increases their expression and sensitivity. For most, it provides a pretty palpable energy boost the first 5-10 times using it, then seems to not do much for energy, but it still is working in the background on those D2 receptors. My top pick if you regularly consume alcohol, as alcohol massively depletes vitamin B1.
Uridine – a dopamine neuromodulator, uridine can increase dopamines effectiveness. Use uridine monophosphate or its more bioavailable form, triacetyluridine. It has even more potent restorative effects when combined with the omega-3 fatty acid, DHA, which you can buy in an already combined form here – highly recommended.
Forskolin – robustly upregulates dopamine D2 receptors and “receptor supersensitivity” via increasing cAMP, which has other benefits, possibly increasing testosterone as well.
Acetyl-l-carnitine – also known as ALCAR, this acetylated amino acid increases expression of dopamine D1 receptors – all the others affect D2. It’s also neuroprotective, boosts energy and helps shuttle fat into mitochondria to be burned as fuel. You’ll probably feel it’s energy boosting effects, and can get powder here (it’s sour but manageable), or pills here.

Just Be

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal

I write about this practice in the book I’ve been working on (just need to format it at this point), that of practicing just being. It isn’t a cutting-edge tool or technique, but rather a test of sorts to see how far we’ve come in terms of giving up our pointless dopamine depletors.

Just sit down on a park bench, your front porch, the end of your bed or on your couch. Put your phone on airplane mode and set a timer for 10 minutes. Don’t drink coffee, tea or a beer, don’t smoke a cigarette or a joint.

Just sit there and be.

Don’t meditate, don’t try to problem solve, don’t pray, don’t repeat a mantra, don’t do anything at all. Thoughts will come up, but try to remain a passive observer of them.

How antsy are you? How badly do you want to check your phone? How excruciating is it to just sit there calmly?

Isn’t it ironic we call ourselves human beings when 99% of us find it painful to just sit and be?

What you’re experiencing first hand is craving and aversion in the mind. Craving to do something else, something more stimulating. Aversion to just being, aversion to plain old reality as it is.

Do this once or twice a week this month. You should find that by the end of the month, it’s not so bad to just sit there. Hell, it may even be pleasant. It’s a great litmus test to see how far you’ve come in terms of seeking empty stimulation.

“When we scratch the wound and give into our addictions, we do not allow the wound to heal. But when we instead experience the raw quality of the itch or pain of the wound and do not scratch it, we actually allow the wound to heal.” – Pema Chodron

Putting it all Together

So how do we put this all together? The first part is cutting out dopamine depletors, or at least greatly reducing them. I recommend taking an inventory and seeing what activities you regularly engage in that are sources of empty pleasure, and then systematically give them up.

You should cut out drugs and alcohol entirely this month. If you’re addicted to anything beyond caffeine, that goes beyond the scope of this little experiment, so get help with that first. I’m not getting into the debate on whether caffeine should be used or not while practicing semen retention – it works fine for some and causes relapses for others. I will say that if you’re a heavy caffeine user, try tapering down by 50 mg or so each week.

Embrace boredom – you may find it leads to creativity. Don’t whip your phone out while you’re waiting in line at the store or while going to the bathroom. Don’t start texting your boys when the book you’re reading bores you. Try driving, lifting and running sometimes without music.

I want you to be raw-dogging reality! Yes, it will be boring at first. Be a man, suck it up, and persevere. It will get better as time goes on.

At the same time as you cut out your dopamine wasters, actively embrace discomfort, both the small things like chores, homework, reading, journaling, meditating, and the big things, like exercise, fasting, sauna use and/or cold showers. Create nightly lists, accomplish what’s on them first thing in the morning.

Remember, exercise, fasting, sauna use and cold showers not only toughen up the mind, but give you a big boost in terms of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin and endorphins. These hormetic stressors will provide an immediate and sustainable release of dopamine, as well as speed up the recovery process. They will make your life much less “blah” and much more rewarding.

Recall that meditation is the antithesis to the constant stimulation-seeking, craving aspect of the mind. It would do you well to make it a daily habit, even if it’s just 5 to 10 minutes each day.

Get yourself a supplement that naturally increases dopamine in a natural, controlled manner, as your brain will be in a dopamine deficit after cutting out those timewasters. Bonus points if you get a supplement that helps resensitize your dopamine receptors.

As your brain resensitizes and your hedonic setpoint gets raised, the small things will gradually become more and more interesting and pleasurable.

What you do after this experiment is, of course, your choice. If you choose to keep going, realize you’ll need to constantly be putting effort into this. Remember, we’re drowning in a world of hyperstimulating things – to push away or limit phone time, screen time, game time, drugs, junk food, and especially porn requires constant effort and vigilance.

Entropy is always working against us, boys.

You will be greatly rewarded, however, as you will no longer be a slave to your mind’s craving for constant stimulation. You will be in control. You will be a King amongst the peasants. You will tell your mind what to focus on, and it will listen. And after a few days to weeks to months, you will find accomplishing tasks and goals rewarding. You will look down sympathetically at everyone else, watching as they run towards the next empty dopamine hit, leaving behind their real dreams and goals.

You’ll need to figure out to what degree you let these vices back into your life. Some things you may want to cut out entirely, such as endless scrolling on social media, drinking alcohol, or smoking cigarettes or weed.

Or you may decide that if you had a good, productive week, a couple beers with the boys on the weekend is no big deal, or enjoying a well-rolled spliff as you game for a few hours Sunday night is no big deal.

Whatever you decide, be sure to keep constant vigilance and to push on the pain side of the balance. Make sure that you are the one in control, not the constant craving for empty stimulation.

“It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.” Invictus, William Ernest Henley

Further Resources

Dr. Anna Lembke’s book Dopamine Nation, and the Huberman Lab Podcast episode with Lembke titled Understanding and Treating Addiction, for understanding dopamine more and leveraging the “pleasure/pain balance”

James Clear’s Atomic Habits to learn best practices for creating new habits that stick and breaking old counter-productive habits

A Mind Without Craving – An excellent book by Delson Armstrong

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love – Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits – By Judson Brewer

David Goggins on the Joe Rogan Experience, episode 1080 and episode 1906, for toughening up and general bad-assery

Jocko Willink on the JRE – “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short. Don’t count on motivation; count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink

Conquering Flatlines/PAWS, a previous post – similar info but not necessary reading

December 28, 2022January 7, 2023

Raw-Dogging Reality – Recovering Your Dopamine, Pt. 1

One of the biggest benefits we get from semen retention is the huge increase in dopamine that occurs when we refrain from orgasm. Dopamine is the molecule that not only gives us the energy, confidence and motivation to get things done, but it’s also the molecule of reward, making us feel good when we accomplish our tasks and goals.

Of course, it’s also responsible for the good feelings we get from food, drugs, sex, gaming, social media – pretty much anything pleasurable.

Unfortunately, the modern world is filled to the brim with cheap thrills, quick fixes and shiny distractions that constantly drain us of our motivation/reward molecule, and I don’t mean just porn – social media, gaming, binge watching Netflix, even text and email alerts all take us out of the present moment, sapping attention and depleting dopamine.

This leaves us crippled, crabby, maybe even downright useless without our normal crutches.

In other words – we have become so hooked on chemical highs and technological distractions that bare reality has become unbearable. If we take a month or two to get rid of these chemicals and technological distractions (or at least greatly reduce them), then we will, with no further effort, become happier and more interested in the world around us.

Perhaps more importantly, we will find ourselves with both the energy and the motivation to go out there and chase after the things we really want – our dreams, our goals, our mission.

This post is about combating the modern world and all its cheap pitfalls in order to further enhance the benefits we get from abstaining from PMO, first by cutting out those addictive dopamine depletors; by learning to leverage “the suck” to further enhance the dopaminergic pathways and reward centers in the brain; and using targeted supplements to improve the functioning of dopamine within the brain. It’s similar to a “dopamine detox”, but geared towards retainers with some specific exercises and additional goodies.

Further, unlike most of my posts, there’s very little to do with transmuting sexual energy, yoga, and the esoteric. Just plain, hard science on enhancing dopamine – although this concept is essentially the same as tapas, or spiritual austerity.

This article is written with New Year in mind, and framed within a one month context. Try out what is suggested for the month of January, or any month for that matter, but realize that these are practices you should learn to adopt in your daily life, not just one month out of the year.

And let me be very transparent – I am writing this and engaging in this experiment as a kick in my own pants. I’ve gotten a little soft around the edges the last couple of months in some ways – time to get back to the grindstone.

“Resistance is the grindstone of our soul.” – Aubrey Marcus

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

Article at a glance :

Dopamine is the neurochemical currency of drive, motivation and reward. One of the biggest benefits of semen retention is how it quickly and robustly increases dopamine levels – this article is all about further optimizing our lifestyle to maximize dopaminergic function.
We are addicted to chasing empty stimulation (porn, junk food, social media, gaming, binge watching shows, texts/emails, drugs), and this addiction to distraction and empty stimulation prevents us from doing and enjoying those things we know we need to be doing.
If we give up these meaningless distractions, we allow our brains, specifically our dopamine receptors, time to recuperate and resensitize, making our normal, daily life more enjoyable. We will also reclaim the motivation to accomplish all of our goals, big and small, that we have allowed these devilish distractions to take from us.
Taking this one step further, if we actively “embrace the suck”, we can speed up this process of healing and boost levels of feel good neurotransmitters (Part 1 ends here)
Meditation is the polar opposite of constant stimulation seeking – engaging in focused meditation practice retrains the mind to focus attention and calm down, instead of scattering attention in an agitated manner.
We can use targeted supplementation to increase dopamine levels, protect dopamine neurons, and even to regain neuronal sensitivity to dopamine.
We can assess our progress not only by seeing how much more enjoyment we get out of the real world, but by practicing “just being”.

Dopamine Zombies

The way we achieve things in this life is largely due to dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in both motivation (the pursuit of our goals and interests), and the feelings of reward after we get or accomplish what we were after. One of the reasons semen retention is so powerful is because of how it’s able to increase dopamine levels so robustly – recall that orgasm leads to a rise in prolactin, which subsequently plummets dopamine levels for up to two weeks afterwards. No orgasm means little prolactin, which means more dopamine, leading to you having the energy, drive and confidence to chase after your goals and accomplish them.

The problem with today’s world is that everything, not just porn, has been designed to hijack the reward pathways in our brains – from food, to video games, to social media, to tv and movies, even to our phones, and nevermind drugs themselves.

Think back to when we were a tribal species. We evolved to get rewarded by “dopamine hits” from finding food, hunting prey, sleeping with actual mates, socializing with real friends and family in person, hearing stories and myths told by elders of the tribe (or by telling them), building and maintaining a living space, dancing and communing around the fire… In other words, we had to work for these rewards, and these rewards were useful and beneficial, ensuring we would do the things we needed to survive and form social bonds. And when we were hunter gatherers, there were essentially zero drugs.

Nowadays? We flip open our phone and have instant access to porn, distracting games, and endless scrolling on social media – which is designed to be addictive. Even texting “creates a dopamine loop” in the brain. We have access to drugs and booze that cause an immediate release of pleasure far beyond anything else in the natural world. We eat food and drink beverages that companies have spent millions of dollars designing to be as rewarding and addicting as possible.

Just take a look at this chart which shows the massive release of dopamine from some drugs –

“In today’s dopamine-rich ecosystem, we’ve all become primed for immediate gratification. We want to buy something, and the next day it shows up on our doorstep. We want to know something, and the next second the answer appears on our screen. Are we losing the knack of puzzling things out, or being frustrated while we search for the answer, or having to wait for the things we want? The neuroscientist Samuel McClure and his colleagues examined what parts of the brain are involved in choosing immediate versus delayed rewards. They found that when participants chose immediate rewards, emotion- and reward-processing parts of the brain lit up. When participants delayed their reward, the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain involved in planning and abstract thinking—became active.

The implication here is that we are all now vulnerable to prefrontal cortical atrophy as our reward pathway has become the dominant driver of our lives.” Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation

And that’s real bad news, because it means we are no longer in control of our behavior. We’re no longer using our prefrontal cortex, that part of the brain so highly developed in humans that allows us to think and plan, but are slaves to our hijacked reward pathways, switching from one source of empty stimulation to the next, not getting anything worthwhile done, not chasing after our dreams or accomplishing our goals.

We’ve become dopamine zombies, slaves to our technology and chemical crutches.

How do we overcome this issue? By getting rid of our addictive substances and timewasters, and actively engaging in the beneficial but less stimulating things we know we should be doing.

“Remember and remind yourself of a phrase favored by Epictetus: ‘persist and resist.’ Persist in your efforts. Resist giving in to distraction, discouragement, or disorder.” – Ryan Holiday

Get rid of Distraction, Lean into Discomfort and Do the Hard Thing (Weaning and Leaning)

The way we get from lazy and comfortable to action-oriented and badass? We need to wean ourselves off of our comfortable, dopaminergic distractions, and lean into those things that are tough that we know we need to be doing. It’s a simple concept, but it can be difficult to really put into place effectively.

I don’t need to tell you what your time wasters are, I’m sure you know them well. Time to start weaning yourself off of them. The most effective method is to just cut them out entirely – no scrolling on any social media apps, no Youtube, no Netflix or gaming. No distracting yourself at all – I want you to be raw-dogging reality. It’s a shock to the system, but it’s effective and there’s no wiggle room to cheat.

If you can’t imagine giving everything up, at least cut out the biggest ones, and save the smaller ones for an hour in the evening the first week, 45 minutes the second week, 30 minutes the 3rd week, cut out completely the last week.

As for drugs? Many in this community don’t use any at all, including caffeine. For those that do, try to cut them out entirely for this month – no booze, no nicotine, no adderall, no pills, no kratom, none of that. I’ll make an exception for caffeine as it’s pretty mild and actually helps to increase dopamine receptor expression, but don’t be pounding energy drinks every two hours.

If your only chemical vice is a bit of coffee each day, cut back on the amount the first couple weeks and then abstain completely the second half of the month, or the last week.

If this is too painful for you, well… Toughen the hell up, buttercup. You want to become a semen retention badass but can’t wait till the evening to engage in your time wasters? Dig deep, get in touch with your manly side, and make it happen!

After you’ve cut your dopamine depletors out or reduced them and moved them to the evening, you’ll have some free time on your hands. Now comes the leaning into part of the practice. What is it you know you should be doing, but that brings up some internal resistance to doing it? Whatever that is, do that thing right now!

That feeling of resistance should be your cue that whatever is causing said feeling is your new mission. “The Obstacle is the Way”, as Ryan Holiday titled his book on stoicism. That feeling of resistance is your call to arms, the rallying cry to go make things happen. Anyone who does cold showers knows this feeling well. Anyone who has tried to talk to that cute gal over there knows this feeling well. Shit, anyone who has tried to clean their room is familiar with this feeling.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it? The second you feel that feeling, go do that thing without even thinking about it. You don’t have your time wasters to distract you, so what else is there to do?

Just take a second and imagine how different your life would be if, starting today, you didn’t shirk from the essential-but-uncomfortable, but instead attacked head on. Think of how much you could get done today… Think about how much you could get done in a month… Now, imagine if you have been doing things this way for years!

Yeah, it’s safe to say your life would be very different and undoubtedly much better. You’d scoff at the notion of constantly suckling on the teet of whatever your vices currently are.

Make a list each night before bed of the top 3-5 things you need to get done the next day. Don’t wait until the morning to make the list, have that bad boy ready to go. Then, each time you accomplish a task, cross it off the list. Making the physical list and crossing it off is key to this process. Each time you complete a goal and cross it off the list, guess what? Instant dopamine release – you feel a sense of accomplishment at completing the task (plus some relief thrown in for good measure), and that dopamine release gives you energy and motivation to accomplish the next task.

It’s a vicious cycle of productive badassery.

Now, you can approach your productive mornings in two different ways. One way is “worst first” – you start your day doing the thing that is gonna be the biggest pain in your ass. With that out of the way, the rest of your manly duties seem much easier. If you’re one of those “fire in the belly” guys, this method may be for you.

I am many things, but a hard-charging, Type A personality I am not. I prefer to start with the smaller things and move up the ladder. The disadvantage here is things become progressively more difficult as I cross off my to-dos, but the upside is I get some small, easy wins which help me build momentum to tackle The Big Baddies. However, both energy and will-power are finite resources, so you have to be strategic about this method. Don’t drain yourself accomplishing 6 smaller tasks and then have no energy to do that 1 big thing you really needed to get done that day – I’ve done that more than I care to admit.

No matter which method you choose, and neither is better than the other, you are now setting yourself up for success in life by training your brain to get dopamine from accomplishing goals, instead of from mindless time wasters or using substances.

Now, it must be noted that in the beginning, the dopamine released from accomplishing small tasks or goals won’t be nearly as big as that released from things like gaming, social media, nicotine, booze, marijuana, etc, etc. If it were, pretty much everyone would easily accomplish their goals off the bat. Hang in there, it will get better.

And it should be noted that the more you allow yourself to spend time on these other highly addictive time wasters, well… The less enjoyment you’ll get out of doing the things you know you need to be doing.

At the risk of repeating myself too often, moving your time wasters to the end of the day and limiting the amount spent on them is a great beginning strategy, but if you really want to get the most out of this month, you should cut them out completely. If you don’t think you can give them up completely from the get-go, start by saving the time wasters for an hour in the evening the first week, a half hour in the second, and then give them up entirely the last two weeks.

This will give your brain time to literally rewire itself – in the wake of blasting your dopamine receptors 24/7 from highly stimulating bullshit, they will re-sensitize enough so that you actually come to enjoy not just adulting, but all the other badass stuff you really want and need to be doing.

And once you reach that point, this won’t be a struggle, it’ll be your new way of life.

“Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.” WB Yeats

Pressing on the Pain Side

What if I told you I regularly engaged in a grueling practice that was difficult, increased bodily inflammation, caused oxidative stress, left me sore for days, increased blood pressure and heart rate during the activity, increased metabolic waste products, was toxic to muscle cells and even caused tears in my muscles themselves?

Other times I deprive my body of nutrients and fuel for extended periods. Sometimes I force myself to endure bouts of extreme heat, while other times I suffer through periods of immersing myself in intensely cold water.

What if I told you that all of the above practices, while harmful in the short term, actually not only improve my health over time, but also raise my hedonic set point, meaning I’m happier at baseline?

As I’m sure you’ve figured out, I was talking about exercise, fasting, deliberate hyperthermia and cold exposure. These are practices that cause acute stress that leads to an increase in overall robustness, which is great for physical health. Something that is often overlooked is that these things are also powerful means to improve your mood, motivation, and energy levels.

Your hedonic setpoint is essentially your base level of happiness. Some people just seem to be constantly happy, and the rest of us can’t stand those people. Other people are perpetual curmudgeons, the pessimistic Scrooges of the world. The happier you are, the higher your hedonic setpoint, meaning you walk around feeling pretty good the majority of the time. The grumpier you are, the lower your setpoint – you gotta get lots of things going right for you to start feeling good about your life.

Your hedonic setpoint is somewhat malleable – take addiction for example. You take your Average Joe with a normal life who derives pleasure from a multitude of different things – socializing, his dog, his hobbies, and if he’s lucky, maybe even his job. Then you get him hooked on drugs, let’s say cocaine. Cocaine releases so much dopamine that Average Joe gets high as a kite, and so he buys more the next weekend, and more the next weekend.

After a while the only thing bringing him any pleasure is cocaine, and a bit further down the road, even cocaine won’t bring Average Joe any pleasure but will only delay the withdrawals. Compared to the massive surge of dopamine released from cocaine, everything else seems boring in comparison.

Ol Joey has succeeded in making his hedonic setpoint so very low that it doesn’t matter what he does – he can’t experience pleasure. The good news is that after enough sobriety, he can raise his setpoint back up to something close to what it was before his addiction.

We may not be cocaine addicts, but we are addicted to all these other little dopamine wasters – social media, gaming, binging on Netflix, eating takeout chinese food, etc. And the cumulative effect of all these smaller things is very similar to if we’d become addicted to a drug – we become less happy at baseline and are constantly bouncing from one source of empty stimulation to the next, never feeling happy on our own, never satisfied, and rarely doing anything worthwhile.

Now, and this is key, the reverse of this is also true. Put yourself through deliberate exposure to discomfort, and you’ll begin to raise your hedonic setpoint, meaning you get more and more pleasure out of your day to day life.

Imagine you found yourself bedridden in a hospital for a month, and for the sake of argument, let’s just pretend the food was bland and you had no access to friends, family, phones, tvs, games, even books. Just you, your mind, those fluorescent lights and that eggshell-white wall over there.

Sounds awful, right?

Now imagine how great it would be once you made it out of that hospital, back into your normal life. The same old food you used to eat would taste amazing, you’d be stoked to interact with your friends again, and of course, it’d be great getting back to your hobbies and toys.

The good news is that we don’t have to be bedridden in a dystopian hospital in order to make our normal life more enjoyable – we just have to cut out the sources of empty stimulation and, simultaneously, actively and systematically embrace what is uncomfortable.

In other words, we have to embrace the suck.

I know, I just told you to give up on your comforting-but-draining timewasters, and now I’m telling you to make things worse by actively seeking out the uncomfortable… But just stick with me here.

Exercise increases all of our feel-good neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, as well as endocannabinoids and endorphins; cold immersion causes a huge and long-lasting rise in dopamine and norepinephrine, giving us energy and motivation; sauna use releases dynorphin, a chemical that makes us feel acute discomfort but actually resensitizes the brain to its own endorphins; and fasting increases dopamine, as well as serotonin and norepinephrine.

By pressing hard on the side of pain and discomfort, we are rewarded with an immediate rebound of pleasure. When we give up our addictions and plow headfirst into accomplishing our everyday tasks, we don’t get quite the same immediate reward, but the two combined over time allows us to raise our hedonic setpoint.

That means you will be happier each and every day, whether things are going your way or not.

So if you give up your junk timewasters, it might hurt today. It might be boring tomorrow. It may feel like a sludge through the doldrums for the next week or two. But by golly, stick with it, because in 2 weeks, you’ll start enjoying the little things in life again, and in 4-8 weeks, you’ll find yourself feeling happy for no damn reason most days. And this process will be sped up if you’re able to actively push on the pain side with these more concentrated practices, specifically exercise, fasting, and cold/heat exposure.

Giving up on our cheap, empty addictions is the road to recovery; actively embracing the uncomfortable makes that road a whole lot easier and shorter.

Check out Part 2 here