We live in a world on constant mental stimulation and bombardment. We live with our brains constantly turned on, constantly firing, with dopamine shooting left and right throughout the entire day. And that’s even for those who don’t use substances like porn, weed, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Much less those who party and do these things. Because of this our brains can often become desensitized to the world around us and what would once give us motivation and drive, instead just leaves us with a dull feeling.
For example watching porn and masturbating instead of talking to, interacting, relating to, and sleeping with real women. Or smoking weed instead of finding more natural ways to relax and developing problem solving skills to deal with the problems that life throws at us. And so on and so forth. Most of us could do with a detox from dopamine for a little bit, something to help reboot the brain and keep it functioning as God and nature intended.
Where we chase our natural drives, feel our natural feelings, and help ourselves recover mentally from a somewhat insane world. I recommend this not just for addicts, people trying to drop bad habits, or those in trouble but also for those that simply want to get the best out of life. It’s something that I’ve done myself and seen great results from. I’ve heard many people lament how they no longer have the wonder they once had as a child. While a dopamine detox won’t quite get you to those levels, it does help you see the world with fresh, clear eyes.
Like wiping away all the mist and fog and seeing things for how they truly are. False beliefs we’ve clung to can fall away. We can get perspective on negative habits and other things. And over all it can forge a new outlook on life. So let’s talk about how to do a dopamine detox and what all it entails.
Detoxing From Dopamine
Dopamine isn’t bad, matter of fact, it’s great. Without it, we wouldn’t get very far or survive very long, both as individuals as well as a species as a whole. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying dopamine is evil. It’s an amazing thing and properly functioning, essential to life. The problem is that we are overstimulated by it in the modern age. Well, more than just dopamine, but I’m using dopamine as a bit of a catch all for our purposes here. We should all have periods where we detox from the stimulation of the modern world and learn to just breathe, live, and live primally.
So how long does a dopamine detox last? And what exactly are we doing here? Living in a black room with no sound? Abstaining from bad habits for a little bit? Meditating in the woods?
Well some of that, but it can look different for everyone. First, let’s talk about length. How long does a dopamine detox last? And there is no one answer to that question. I recommend a week for starters, doing the best you can with work and such. But even having one day a week that you do the detox can also work wonders. Others have gone to extremes of months or more. I’ll leave it up to you. Maybe start with a trial run of three days, anyone can do three days, and work from there to see if you want to do it again for longer. Or maybe once a week. Again, whatever works for you.
Now what does it look like? Again that is going to be what works for you. Here’s what I recommend but you can do more or less depending on where you’re at. Understand that if you do the bare minimum you’ll get bare minimum results. But here’s my recommendations.
Recommend Dopamine Detox
- Abstain from all ‘unnatural’ stimuli. This means social media, really internet in general, tobacco, weed, junk food, staying up late, pornography, masturbation, drugs, alcohol, parties, concerts, modern music, and anything else you think stimulates you unnaturally. Don’t stare at girls or things that excite you. Maybe don’t watch sports for this time period. Remember not permanent, though some of these things should be.
- Do the following. Meditate, spend time in nature, listen to the wind, feel the sun/snow, walk around the woods and forest. Train but don’t train too hard, go soft and smooth. Breathe, focus on breathing deep as you go about your day. Nap if you can. Get next to or onto water such as lakes, rivers, ocean if you can. Swimming is good exercise as is hiking for this time period. Canoeing and the like is also good. Listen to the wind and nature as you go. Spend time in solitude.
- That’s the basics of it.
You can do and you can do less, if you wish. Again, this is not something I’d recommend to do forever. Some of the things, sure, you should always abstain from but we’re going beyond that to truly reset your mind. And again this is for a limited time. For the above I’d recommend a week, see how that works. If you really want to push it then do a month. Or try the ‘trial run’ of three days. You’ll still see some benefits and may want to try to longer stretch later.
In The Stillness We Recover
So much of us focus on hustling, grinding, pushing, working, moving forward that we forget the other half of the equation, resting and recovering. Our minds were made to be at rest at certain points. We were supposed to be able to breathe and take a little nap during the day here and there. Not every day but here and there. We were made to have times of rest and relaxation. And when we forget this we end up with all sorts of nasty things happening to us. The above is good for those looking to accomplish much in life, those looking to live the best life, those looking to overcome addictions and bad habits, recover mental health, and so much more.
Give it a try and see what it does for you, you may be surprised at its potency.
If anything I said here helped you I’d recommend checking my books out on Amazon.
-Charles Sledge
