Make Your Damn Bed

How to stop scrolling.

• Start from where you are.
• Recognize what is a systemic issue.
• Practice "deciding" with intention when scrolling.
• Practice staying focused and catching yourself when you get distracted on your phone.
• Decouple your association of "dopamine" with "scrolling.
• Practice the standard addiction coping strategies: Make the desired habits more accessible + attractive. Make the habit you'd like to change less attractive + accessible.
• Practice mindful breathing work while you scroll.
• Practice ENGAGING with what you consume, instead of mindlessly consuming.
• Remember problem isn't the dopamine, it's typically the source... so make the sources you'd rather engage with more accessible + attractive for yourself.

You don't have to climb out of the hole today - but you can celebrate the fact that you finally stopped digging.

Why would you want to disconnect from your joy, when trying to restore your sense of joy?

You can't go on a T-break for pleasure. Instead, focus on the modifying the way you get your pleasure, instead of eliminating the pleasure itself.

Dopamine is just one neurotransmitter responsible for our sense of pleasure + joy. We can't and shouldn't want to detox our dopamine levels. Dopamine is essential to motivating us to do everything from moving our bodies, to sleeping properly. This is why people with dopamine issues, depression, ADHD, etc. often struggle with physical and executive functioning.

The problem isn't the dopamine, it's typically the source.

I've been working on my relationship with my phone, on and off, for years. Sometimes, I use it as a tool. Sometimes, it feels like it's using me as a tool.

Genuine + deeply rooted ad fatigue, traumatic events sprung upon me, most content is some form of engagement/rage/anxiety/fear bait, brain rot + ai slop, trolls + bot accounts. Misinformation + disinformation campaigns financed by literal government entities.

It's disheartening to feel like I am the tool being used, and I think I am finally ready to confront this toxic relationship.

People associate the feeling of feeling the most alive when they’re laughing and playing and goofing off. People feel the most connected with their purpose and life and future and desire to make the world a better place, when they are connected to joy + their ability to have fun once in a while. 

But for some reason, as we get older - we make less and less time for play. We find it frivolous and silly and a waste of time... but that means some us have lost our joie de vivre because we forgot how to play.

I overthink things that don't require second thought. I suck the fun out of joyful activities by worrying about doing it "correctly" or "perfectly" or performing "well enough to not embarrass myself" yet...

even when there is no audience, I find myself performing.

The expectations take away the true joy that comes from "creating" and "play" and "love" and "fun" and I'm trying to pay attention to this tendency so I can sit with the discomfort of not knowing if I will do a good job or not, but committing anyway.