Why should you do a dopamine fast?

[Gorlami]

To open the space for English speakers, I bring a fundamental classic for personal development and a topic selected by users as one of the best in this place.

All credits due to @Patrulheiro


Have you ever had one of those days where you eat junk all day, browse the internet all day, watch TV all day, and at the end of the day, you feel like a horrible piece of crap that didn't accomplish anything?

That's because you spent a day being "rewarded" by dopamine and not doing anything productive.

Do these days make it seem like you have no control over your life?

The answer is yes, of course, but the question is why? Why do these days happen? And why do these days prevent you from doing something productive?

Let me answer these questions for you...

Every day, you are bombarded with things that flood your brain with dopamine.

Things like smartphones, movies, Netflix, social media, TV entertainment, music entertainment, internet pornography, video games, and others.

All these things are meant to entertain you (and they give you so much dopamine that they become highly addictive). Unfortunately, while you are entertained, your brain is essentially "shut off" or in a trance.

These things reward you with dopamine, and because they reward you with dopamine, your brain doesn't need to do anything.

The more fun you have, the worse you feel about yourself, and the less confidence you have.

Self-discipline disappears, and you get lost in the world of dopamine rushes.

These constant dopamine hits seem to reduce you to a mere spectator in your life, instead of a commander of your life.

But I have a solution for you,

How to stop being a spectator and start being a commander:

To overcome this unpleasant addiction to dopamine agents and stop being a spectator and start being a commander, here's what you can do: "dopamine fasting."

What is dopamine fasting?

Spend the entire day doing the opposite of what you usually do.

In the modern world, everything we do rewards our dopamine systems (and in the process makes our lives more unpleasant).

Phones, computers, apps, food, sex, masturbation, video games.

Everything we do "rewards" us with dopamine, making us completely impulsive, overstimulated, impatient, and highly unproductive.

Because everything we do rewards us with dopamine, we never get to do meaningful work. In fact, we never develop the ability to do meaningful work.

The #1 thing that is vitally important for doing great work is called IMAGINATION.

It is imagination that is the great divide between great men and average/weak men.

Without a strong ability to imagine your great work in your mind, you will never develop the ability to create the great work in reality.

And when you are constantly bombarded with dopamine-enhancing agents (like YouTube, internet pornography, smartphone apps, etc.), you never have time to be alone with your thoughts.

So do the opposite.

Stay with your thoughts and do nothing else. Being alone with your thoughts is crucial to becoming great.

As long as you remain a slave to modern entertainment and dopamine rewards, you will always be the loser wasting your day doing nothing productive.

Everything that has been created, every great work that has ever been produced, was first created in the creator's imagination.

To produce that great work, it's important to spend time alone and away from dopamine-enhancing agents.

That's why I suggest you spend the day with a dopamine fast.

During your dopamine fast, these things are completely banned:

• Rich and/or sweet food
  
• Sex
  
• Masturbation
  
• Phone
  
• Computer
  
• Television
  
• Music
  
• Podcasts
  
• Video games
  
• Caffeine
  
• Alcohol
  
• Drugs of any kind
  
• Any other stimulating or dopamine-rewarding activity
  

Here's what is allowed:

• Your imagination
  
  

That's it.

That's all you're allowed on the dopamine fast.

You must spend the day with nothing but your imagination.

• A notebook and a pen are not prohibited but also not necessary and are completely optional.
  
• Food is not prohibited, but rich/sweet food is. It is suggested to take a break from food for the day, but it's not entirely necessary. If you eat, it should be simple food.
  

You must confront yourself, be alone with yourself, and develop your imagination.

You can call it "meditation," you can call it "prayer," or you can call it "brain training." They are all the same method.

This is the exact method that all great inventors, poets, artists, architects, and composers of the past used to develop their tremendous skills.

There would be no Johann Sebastian Bach, Nikola Tesla, Leonardo DaVinci, or William Shakespeare without this imagination training method.

IF YOU WANT TO BE GREAT, YOU MUST FOLLOW THE STEPS OF THOSE WHO WERE GREAT.

Imagination must be trained.

Your imagination is like a muscle. If you don't train it, you won't be able to use it. Unused, it will fade away.

To train your imagination, you must stay away from dopamine reward gadgets and technology.

Spend the day in the forest or at home. But don't allow yourself to be "rewarded" with dopamine from external sources.

You must develop your inner ability to create in your mind so that you can then create in reality.

Imagination training, through your dopamine fast, is what will directly lead to real results in your life.

Wealth, women, and power come from the same place. The mind of a great man who spent time in solitude thinking about how to create and achieve it.

Instead of wasting the day on nonsense, you could spend the day thinking about your great work.

THINK.

__________________________________________________________________

Comrades, I did this experiment for a week, and it was SPECTACULAR.

I simply adopted the practice of the great men of old: wake up, work, and go learn something you have interference in!

This was crucial for a stunning week.

I simply gave up on news, globo.com, YouTube, social media, and other crap. I don't have WhatsApp groups. I only accessed the forum and sites related to my professional area or areas that can genuinely change my life!

Thinking about it, what news has changed our lives? Do you really need to know what's happening on the other side of the world? What has Flávio Bolsonaro been up to? Who is the new football sensation? Is this really important, or just noise?

It's amazing how this exercise changes us. You think about 'n' things, pending matters, things that need improvement, all of this only comes when you ignore the numbness of entertainment.

My routine is as follows: wake up, exercise, work, and study. At the end of the day, I access the forum and read about something I CAN ACTUALLY CHANGE.

Nutrition, physical exercises, sex positions, in short, THINGS I HAVE INTERFERENCE IN. I simply didn't see any more filthy news or got involved in empty discussions and social media.

It's liberating.

I hope you enjoy the reading.

___________________________________________________________