The Dopamine and Manifestation Problem (and how to fix it)

In this episode, I'm going to be showing you one of the most powerful realizations I've had as of the last month. This connection that I've made between understanding more about dopamine, how our pain and pleasure mechanism works in our body, and how you can totally hack this in your favor in a completely new way that helps you not only to achieve your goals faster, but in a more meaningful way understanding from which, where that energy comes. So this is something that I think will plant a seed that may completely transform your life. And in this video, I'm going to kind of talk you through my current epiphanies in a way as well, because I'm learning this as we go. I'm reading books. I've had my own inspiration for my own life experience, and I'm making connections in my mind that everything makes more sense now. And I'm excited to share that with you in this episode. Welcome back to another episode on the Aaron "Aaron Doughty Podcast." My name is Aaron Doughty, and one thing I wanna do with these videos is more so have a conversation with you as if I'm talking to you, because these realizations that I'm sharing with you right now are realizations that I just shared with my buddy Victor when I went to like, we went to get IVs the other day where we get these like health IVs, and I was excited to express this to him. But what I noticed is sometimes when I'm doing these episodes, I have kind of like this voice I put on where I'm like, welcome back to another video. My name is Aaron. Have you guys ever seen those videos where it's like, I saw one the other day where it's like an anchorwoman is narrating her husband's life in her anchor voice and he gets super annoyed by it. But it was like this funny little video. But there's like, there's some people that I noticed on social media that are very good at just talking on camera as if they're talking to a friend. And I wanna talk to all of you, like, you know, like friends, not like I'm like, yo, my name's Aaron Doughty and I'm making another episode today on dopamine and how it affects your body. Like, I don't know, maybe that is like a cool vibe because some people can feel that energy or something. But sometimes I just wanna have a freaking conversation, okay? And in this episode, the theme of this, I read a quote last night. Let me read this quote to you just to kind of get you hooked into this episode so you see where we're going with this. Now dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the body and it is something that is, they say it's normally the reward hormone. It's the reward hormone. And when you feel dopamine, it's like, you know, I used to take Adderall back in the day. Adderall is the prescription drug. It's pretty much legal meth. And I was prescribed it 'cause I had ADHD. And when I take that thing, I would be so focused and I would feel so good while taking it too. I'd feel so focused. I'd be really into whatever I was doing, even if it was something kind of boring. And which is interesting too, because from what I hear from people that do meth, they will like be in their car and like doing some, I've seen, what was this on some video or something like that on like cops or where they do some type of sting operation where someone breaks into a car. And there was this guy that was playing with the center console for like 10 minutes, just like super into like moving and figuring out the center console in this car. And it was really bizarre, but I can kind of relate 'cause when I took amphetamine, which is legal prescribed, which is Adderall or Ritalin or whatever, I took Adderall, which is what I was prescribed back in 2012 before my spiritual awakening, I'd be super focused on whatever I was doing. But what would happen is I'd be super focused, and then what would happen is I'd, at the end of the day, it would wear off and I would crash. And that's what happens with a lot of these dopamine spikes that we have. Now, you don't have to take Adderall or any prescription drug for this. Some people, many people, like we're all addicted to dopamine in some form or another. And the dopamine is, in a way, it is like the reward hormone or the reward molecule inside of us. And you can, I just got done recently watching Game of Thrones. I literally spent a month and a half binging out on 60 hours or more of Game of Thrones. And it was amazing up until the last season. 'Cause if you've watched Game of Thrones, then you know what happens in the last season. I was so late on that whole thing, by the way. Years later, I was like, I know once I start watching Game of Thrones, I'm gonna get addicted, I'm gonna finish it. And I did. I got sick like 2 months ago and I was like, this is a great opportunity for me to, I can't do anything else. I got that thing that was going around, still going around. But if you say it, social media and the algorithms don't like it because everything's controlled in a weird way. But basically I realized that, so for me, dopamine, I realized this even like 3 months ago, 4 months ago, is that I watched the show Vikings, amazing show, one of my favorite shows. Before that I watched Breaking Bad, also an amazing show. These aren't the highest vibrational shows. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're like, oh, Aaron's, he seems so high vibe, I bet you he just watches this stuff that just blasts his third eye open and his root chakra just becomes so like, when he watches these shows? No, some of these shows are not the highest vibrational shows, but they make you release a lot of dopamine because you get bought into the stories. So 3 or 4 months ago, I watched Vikings, not even, 2 or 3 months ago, I watched Vikings, binged it, watched it all, finished it, missed it. So guess what I found? I found Game of Thrones. And then I started watching that. And guess what? It took me 2 seasons to get into 'cause there's so many damn storylines and there's so much shit going on. But by second or third season, I'm like, okay, I kind of get what's going on right now. At first I'm like, who are these fricking characters? I was like, can we just keep it simple? I was like, Vikings only had 2 or 3 storylines going on at a time. This has 6, it's too much. But eventually what I did is I got hooked into Game of Thrones and then Game of Thrones ended. Guess what? I'm like looking for something else now to put my dopamine into. Where can I put my energy? Is there another show? My buddy Matt's like, you gotta watch The Last Kingdom. It's kind of like a mix of Game of Thrones and Vikings. I'm like, oh, maybe this is the key. Maybe if I just find this other show, then I'll have something to do at the end of the night where I work hard during the day and then at the end of the day, just get this big dopamine reward chemical that flows or flows through my body. So there's people that are addicted to shows, TV, their phones, literally, The mechanism of scrolling through Instagram is, can admit for many people, is very addicting. Pornography is probably one of the most biggest addictions where people are constantly feeling in like, you know, that sense of dopamine flush through their body every time they masturbate. And people become addicted to that. There is substances. This is another huge one. Alcohol. If you look at these graphs, by the way, these waves, What happens is when you take and you start drinking alcohol, it gives you a big dopamine, it gives you a big dopamine like rush, and then it starts falling down after a while. Now what happens is the more addicting something is, is normally the quicker you feel that dopamine spike. And then normally the harder the spike is. So if you were to do some other drug, might spike right quicker. And that's why they say, I was reading this book last night, and I'll share all this with you. I'm gonna read you this quote in a second, but, Crack, they say that smoking crack is more addictive than cocaine because you feel it so quickly. Like I remember in the movie Wolf of Wall Street where you see Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill smoking and then they take it and then immediately they're like feeling and they wanna go like, let's go. What do they say? They're like, let's go. They start running around and they're gonna go look for bears or I forget, they scream something ridiculous. They're instantly feeling that dopamine. And from that, they are feeling very alive and then it crashes very hard. Now, the more quickly that dopamine spike happens, the more addictive something generally is because the quicker it is that you take it, that you feel that huge spike. And that has an addictive quality. So that's another aspect of it. That one of the biggest epiphanies I've had just recently is one, becoming aware of how addicted to things I am and even my own sense of dopamine. And I'll share with you how society kind of rewards this in a way. And honestly, with the media and the way things are set up, it has us constantly being addicted to more and more and more and more because then we buy more and more and more and more. But I can see now just how primed and conditioned I am. And I'm doing my best to become aware of this. And I'm not the best at it, to be honest with you. I had that stint with Vikings, Game of Thrones, all these different things. And then here I am right now in a house with a new studio. If you're seeing this on my second YouTube channel, then you'll see this background and it's awesome. I moved recently. I moved about 4 months ago from Sedona to Austin, Texas. And I love Austin, Texas 'cause there's some more stimulation, but also it's just more practical for me. Because I'm close to an airport. I'm gonna be traveling, doing live events here, stuff like that. So I moved to down, I actually bought a house in a part of Austin. It's like downtown Austin. It's like in the middle of everything. It's awesome, old school Austin, bought a really nice house and I bought it off market. So I got really lucky with it. I felt like it was very synchronous and it got me out here. But then after like 2 or 3 months of being in that house and it's a dope house and if you've seen some of my older YouTube videos, you'll see it. However, what I realized is after about 2 or 3, after about a month or 2 of being in it, I realized it was just too small. It was just too small for my lifestyle in the way that like I make videos for a living. It was like a, it's a 3-bedroom plus an office house, but it's all in one, like it's 2,200 square feet. So it's not too crazy small, but I'm also in the middle of the city and I just felt like the energy was kind of a lot there. What I realized is basically, there's this addiction to more, more than just this size house. I was like, you know what I really want? And before I was in Sedona, I'm like, you know what I really want? I wanna be in Austin. I wanna be in a different place. This is like, things are moving too slow just to get to the airport's an hour and a half drive. Then I moved to Austin and I'm here for like a month or two and I'm like, this house I just bought, you know, it was a big investment. And then I'm like, you know what? I do need more space. I need a, you know, I have team coming over to my house. You know, I'm growing my team. I'm doing all these things. And I don't think I wanna be in the middle of the city. I actually wanna be more in nature. So now I have a backyard with a pool, a jacuzzi, a fire pit. I have a 4,000 square foot house, much bigger than my other house. I've got many, I've got a studio room, an office, like 2 extra beds. I've got all this space here. And I can tell that this last week has been so stimulating for me because I had movers move everything from Sedona here. I'm renting out my other 2 houses now. And then I'm renting this house. And so I have two houses I own that I'm renting out. And then this house right here is like the one I'm renting because it just wasn't good enough or this is more optimal. And I do think there's some truth in this, but I can tell that now that I'm moved in, pretty much everything is set up, but my garage still isn't set up and I can feel this addiction, this dopamine rush in my body that's like, there's, so let me say this. Dopamine is kind of like the reward hormone that then you feel and it feels really good, but then you kind of crash on later. They say that that is the reward hormone or the reward molecule, but it's not actually that. Dopamine is the anticipation molecule. And I've realized that in my life, I'm always anticipating something. And anything I want, I want right meow. Not tomorrow, not the next day, right meow. And what I've been doing is I'm always anticipating the next thing. It's like once I do this, then I'll actually be there. My whole house is pretty much set up. I spent the money to make that happen where I had 5 movers move everything from Sedona to here, which wasn't cheap at all, but I was like, I get it instantly. And then after being here, I've had literally workers at my house pretty much every day setting things up for this last week that I've been in this house. And I'm very grateful to be here. But even now, the garage, there's some storage stuff that needs to go to a storage unit so that I can actually work out in my garage. I've got my sauna set up. I need a TV hung up in the garage so that I can like watch TV while I'm on my sauna. All this stuff sounds ridiculous and very bougie to probably many of you, but The way dopamine works is you're always anticipating. I'm addicted to the anticipation of something new. I even recognize this when I was, as the house was being ready, I'd walk into different rooms and like imagine it being ready. Go into the garage and be like, ooh, soon this whole weight system will be set up. I'll have my squat rack up. I'll have space to work out. I now have my Tesla charger in there. So like things are more convenient and easy. There's all these, the new, the new, the next, the next. And I've realized that I have this pattern of being addicted to anticipating something in the future. And what I wanna do in this episode is merge that of both dopamine and understanding its relation to manifestation and how it also relates to wanting, to craving, to getting more, and how in society this is normally actually rewarded. If you look at someone like Kobe Bryant, Kobe Bryant to many people is one of the best basketball players of all time. Some people, he's one of the top 2 for sure. And I would say for sure top 2. You got Michael Jordan, you got Kobe, 2 best basketball players of all time. Both of them are completely addicted to the dopamine high they get from what they do. Of being the best, of being passionate about basketball. Kobe and MJ both were just totally addicted to winning, totally addicted to the dopamine rush they would get from winning, and that helped drive them to become as successful as they were. Now, let's take out good and bad from this conversation. Dopamine is simply a way that we are wired, and we are going to put dopamine into something But they, I would say that, you know, yes, being more so in putting that dopamine into being the best basketball players of all time is a better vice than that of video games. But even then, some of that's arguable because you could look at someone like Ninja or these huge social media influencers that are so passionate about gaming and people idolize them. And they're addicted to games as well. But what I'm saying is this isn't bad or good. This is about awareness. Because when I used to smoke a lot of cannabis, some people can, you know, can rationalize anything. I'm not saying cannabis is bad, and I don't believe it is actually. I believe it can be very healing, but I was smoking cannabis to escape my childhood pain. It was numbing me. It was something that when I did it, I'd instantly change my state. So I would smoke and I had dopamine going to that. And then I was taking Adderall as well, which is a huge dopamine spike thing. But then what I would do is after I went through a spiritual awakening where I realized how dependent I was to both Adderall and cannabis, is I started meditating and I started to become so passionate about spiritual awakening. I started reading books, I started meditating, I developed this whole new spiritual ego, but then I started putting that into spiritual awakening and learning more about those concepts. And then there was a time when I was eating a lot of food. I was working at Barney's New York. And then that dopamine eventually went into making YouTube videos. And I became addicted to the validation and the drive that I had to creating, really my business, creating YouTube videos at first, and then that translated into my business. And even now I can see that there is an, I am so passionate about, addiction, or not addiction, ha, I'm so passionate about, but this is the weird thing, 'cause in my mind I'm like, I'm passionate about making videos, I'm passionate about my business, but I can tell how there's a fine line between addiction to obsession to just being like in alignment. And that's what we're gonna talk about in this video. But in general, most of society has geared us to completely release dopamine. And the thing is, and that's why I think a lot of times people that smoke cannabis all day, every day, it's like there's a dopamine, there's a dopamine drain that's happening that then you can't use that dopamine for things that actually benefits you. I'm not telling you to stop using dopamine or to like that dopamine's bad and you should feel guilty if you do. I'm saying what we're gonna do in this episode is we're gonna rewire our dopamine to go towards things that actually serve us long-term, but also to be aware in the process so we don't let the dopamine use us. Does that make sense? It's a way of, you can use dopamine in your favor, but also dopamine can use you. And when it starts using you is when your life is out of control. So first off, let me read this 'cause I know I keep saying that, but I wanna show you the connection I've also made between dopamine. And many of you heard me talk before about increased importance. Anything we put on a pedestal, Anything we make very important, we create excess importance around. What happens with that is we create anxiety and we normally end up repelling that thing from coming into our life. If you really, really want someone to text you back, you're probably resisting them actually feeling aligned to texting you. If you feel like you really, really want a job and you go in really tense, you might find that you end up resisting that process. It works in energy dynamics. It's just anything you put on a pedestal, you create resistance around and you end up blocking. Now the correlation that I made from reading a book, it's called "The Molecule of More," "The Molecule of More," and it talks about dopamine. But it says, let me say a quote from that book. It says, "In a broad sense, saying something is important is another way of saying it's linked to dopamine. Why? Because among the many things it does, dopamine is an early warning system for the appearance of anything that can help us survive." When something useful to our continued existence appears, we don't have to think about it. Dopamine makes us want it right now. It doesn't matter if we're going to like it or if we even need it at the moment. Dopamine doesn't care. Dopamine is like the little old lady who always buys toilet paper. It doesn't matter if she has 1,000 rolls stacked in the pantry. Her attitude is you can never have too much toilet paper. So it is with dopamine. So it is with dopamine. But instead of toilet paper, dopamine urges you to possess and accumulate anything that might help keep you alive. So the reason that I'm sharing this is just so you could see that this is kind of like an epiphany for me because the difference between, in the way a lot of people go around with the law of attraction and manifestation is they want. They want something in their life because of some, you know, As Abraham Hicks says, anything you want is because of the feeling that it'll give you. The thing is, is that these feelings, these things, you will never feel like you've actually arrived if you stay addicted to the dopamine. Now in this book as well, one thing it talks about is these other chemicals. And that's what we're gonna be talking about today is the bridge between these two realities. And the reason is the molecule of more is you'll never actually be happy 'cause Even now I'm in a great, amazing house in a great, amazing neighborhood. I'm 10 minutes away from my best friend and his family. It's like amazing. There's a thing I can feel, this urging, this new thing that I'm looking for. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it really is never enough. There's a quote in that book too, where it says, if you're living on a tent, if you're living in a tent at a park, you'll eventually wanna live in a house. Then if you're living at a house, you eventually want a bigger house. And if you're at the top top of a castle, you'll want the bigger mountain over there, you know, house that's on top of that. It's just a process. And I think that even in love dynamics, many people, they wanna attract love into their life. And what happens is they may actually find somebody that is very good for them, but then they just feel bored because maybe that person, it's not trauma bonding enough. There's not enough dopamine spikes. It's not enough of a challenge or a game. So it's like, that's why a lot of times in love dynamics, the first 3 months are amazing 'cause you're literally releasing so much damn dopamine that you're just feeling this excitement to newness, but then it becomes habitual. And after 3 months, unless you can go into this other thing I'm gonna talk about, that's a lot of times when problems start to arise, that's after the honeymoon phase. And it's because there's literally been like a dopamine depletion. That's been happening. So like I said though, dopamine isn't bad. Dopamine is simply understanding how we're wired. In a way, let's get a little bit more esoteric too. What if in reality we are infinite spiritual beings living temporary human experiences? And what happened is when we, when at a higher level, say there's these extraterrestrial beings at a higher level that are higher dimensional and they're like coming up with like, And they are us, by the way. That's what I believe. I believe that we are eternal spiritual beings of temporary human experiences that in this 3D physical avatar body, this is in a way like a system that's been set up to where we're all these humans, but there's a certain way that we're wired and there's a certain intention behind that. We want to extend our species. So we've programmed that when we're having sexual dynamics between each other, it feels really good. And if it feels really good, you'll be more primed to do it to then continue the evolution of the species so that we can continue to evolve and have life experience and what we're going through. Now, in a way, what if part of dopamine, in a way it is, it's a survival mechanism that we use and it's a way that we've like programmed our avatars to progress, to experience more. So it's not actually a bad thing, but imagine that experiencing more, there's a limit and an exaggeration that can happen to that where you get totally lost in the process and you become totally addicted. So in a way, the molecule of more or the molecule of dopamine in our bodies is there for a specific purpose. So it's not bad, it's not good. It's just like emotions. Emotions aren't bad. The emotion of fear back in the day, if none of us had fear back in the caveman days, we'd all venture out towards the, towards the mountain lions and shit, and we may not survive. Fear actually has a purpose. So it's not good or bad, it just is. It's just about becoming aware of it. And the same with dopamine, we become aware of it because I would say that a lot of my success in life, to me creating business, like what I have in my life, the ability to have two houses and rent this house or whatever, that has come from dopamine. Those are not bad, but also I don't wanna glorify it. And I don't want you to think that it is the answer because even here now in this spot, I can tell that it's not the answer. But the way that it works in our reality, Bashar also talks about this, is that we will always move in the direction of what we believe will bring us pleasure. And we will always move away from what we believe will bring us pain. Pain and pleasure and dopamine are linked. Dopamine's like the reward, the anticipation. It's like we, it's a hormone in the body that makes us crave more and maybe even crave the familiar, even if the familiar is toxic. But the best thing about this is what we define as this is completely up to us. I used to find my dopamine fix when I worked that 9 to 5 job selling women's shoes and the food that I was eating. I would go to lunch every day at this place called Table 10 in the Venetian Hotel. And this place is owned by Emeril Lagasse. It was delicious. It was like 20 to 30 bucks a day I would spend on food. And I wasn't making crazy amounts of money. Just on lunch, I'd spend that. And that was a lot of money for me back then. And I was like, It was, but I was so, there was a rush that I got from eating this like delicious food, not the healthiest, of course, probably a lot of sugar in it and stuff too, but it was fricking delicious. But I'd get it there and then I would go home and I'd watch YouTube videos and I, on my lunch break, I'd get a dopamine rush because I had vloggers that I would watch on my lunch break. And that's where I was putting all my energy. And that's where I'd get my dopamine fix. but then eventually I started making YouTube videos and then I started to get rewarded. So at first I probably associated pain with making videos because I'd care what people thought. It seemed like a lot of effort, but then I started to associate a lot of pleasure with that of making videos because I started having a vision anticipation, a dopamine spike towards me not working a 9 to 5 job and me doing what I love full-time. And I lived at my dad's house. Many of you know the story. February 2017, I started making daily videos on YouTube. I was working 40 hours a week and making videos like 20, 30 hours a week. I was very busy, but I became addicted to the growth. Once I saw a video that started to go viral, after about 3 weeks, I had a video that started to pop and I was like, it was such an adrenaline rush. I remember feeling like, oh, this can work. I started to believe in myself even more. And I started to feel like what I had to say had value. And I started to even double down on it even more. And I started making more videos and getting more ideas. And I started seeing more of the, the comments come in from people saying it changed their life or it gave them some benefit or whatever. And then I would, it would fuel me. And then for 2 or 3 years, I continued to make videos on YouTube every single day, even though after 6 months I went full-time. Because once I hit 100,000 YouTube subscribers in August of 2017, it wasn't enough. I thought it was. I woke up one day, realized I had a video, another video going viral, and that put me to 100,000 overnight. I went from 97,000 to 100,000 literally overnight. I was planning out what I was gonna do for 100,000. I'm gonna do this Q&A and all this cool stuff, but I was very focused on the numbers. But once I hit 100,000, that day I went to the gym thinking like this huge ego thing where like, I'm like, once I hit a certain number milestone, I'm gonna have all these people coming up to me like, Aaron, I know you from YouTube. Aaron, I know you, I know you, I know you. And then what happened is I, I go out and it's like, ah, feels about the same. Well, you know what? Just haven't hit it yet. 100,000 is good, but what about 250,000? That's a quarter of a million. That's a much bigger number. And then I got there and then it was 500,000 and it was 700,000. And it's like, oh, now I'm closer to a million. Then it was a million. It just never ends. Even now it's like 1.1 million subscribers. And, but now I really genuinely have detached from caring about, I don't even check the numbers. I'm kind of aware of certain things. I'm aware that certain videos will get more views than other or whatever, but I'm not focused on it like I used to because the dopamine addiction just never ends. But I'm not saying this is even bad. I was watching a 2-hour long Q&A interview with MrBeast last night because he's inspiring and he's like, he is completely killing it on YouTube. And he like studies the algorithm. He does all the shit I used to do back in the day, study all patterns, algorithm, thumbnails, marketing, all this stuff to make YouTube grow. But for me to continue to just exponentialize on YouTube, it requires me to really live in the YouTube world and just study it and focus it on all the time. Whereas now I wanna, I'm doing live events and I'm doing other things that are separate from just YouTube. And I'm finding that to be the really the best at something, you do in a way have to become all in on it. MrBeast will be the number one YouTuber. Right now he's the number one growing YouTuber. He's got like 70 million followers. PewDiePie has 100 million followers or something, and MrBeast will surpass him because his goal is to— and now I want you to understand this about MrBeast too. He's this— it's funny to see his journey because MrBeast is like this nerdy guy from back like 5 years ago. He made thousands of videos before he started becoming like famous and doing really well. And it's interesting, he has a video where he talks about how you know, advice to my 5-year, in 5-year me or something like that. And it was like, it'd be so cool to have like, you know, like 100,000 followers and all this stuff. And he's like talking to himself as if he's talking to himself in 5 years or something like that. And guess what? Like 5 years later, he's got like 10 million, 20 million, 100 million. Like it's crazy how much this guy has grown from just learning it and putting out the content, right? But what I can tell is his goal is to become the number one biggest YouTuber. Now here's something that's gonna happen if he isn't too aware of this dopamine spike he'll get, 'cause he will become the number one YouTuber. Now, and he'll make the biggest videos. He does that now. Every video he makes has over 10 million views. He makes these crazy videos. Every dollar he makes on his channel, he reinvests into his channel. So every month he's probably making $2 million, $3 million a month. Every dollar goes back into his channel 'cause he really doesn't care about money. He cares about the growth of his YouTube channel. And he's a real genuine dude too. I think he really wants to just give away money. He likes philanthropy and stuff like that. And he's just addicted to YouTube. Now the thing is, is once he gets to that of the, you know, surpassing PewDiePie, unless he gets a new goal, he'll continue to remain, or he will have like a wake-up call where, that big dopamine rush will happen. But here's the interesting thing that he says too. He just wants to make the best videos possible. Now, one is like a result. A result is a very concrete thing. Once he surpasses PewDiePie, which is like over 100 million followers, then he'll have reached his goal. But also with that, he wants to make the best videos possible. And to do that, he has his own system set up. He's got a huge team with him now. And he's, you know, just always trying to get better. Now that is more of an action versus the result. And that may be his saving grace. But because he is all in on YouTube, everyone he hires is all just nerded out on YouTube, that is like something that helps his vision grow. And it's something that I can even see myself from back when I was really focused on YouTube back in the day, I can see how I was so addicted to just, learning new things and all of that stuff, and it can be used in a positive way. So he's associating massive pleasure with anything that grows his YouTube channel. He's associating massive pleasure with anything that helps him learn more about how to grow on YouTube, and he's really perfected it. And he's pretty open in that interview. He's like teaching some of those things, and I found it very fascinating because a lot of it's marketing and stuff like that, but It's interesting to see how that works. Now, even me, for example, just now, just this last 4 days, I have rewired myself where before I was kind of eating whatever I want. I go through these phases. I don't let myself get too out of shape necessarily, but I realized as of a couple days ago, I was eating certain foods and I woke up and I could just tell I'm starting to get a little bit of a gut in my stomach. It's nothing bad. It's, you know, some of my friends are like, People see what I'm talking about, they probably think it was ridiculous, but I can tell I'm starting to get a little bit of a gut. So I immediately decide that I'm going to go in a calorie deficit, which is just my belief system, it's my permission slip that that's how I'm going to get back to where I feel a little bit tighter in my stomach and more of abs or whatever. It's just, it's what I do to feel, it's, I feel good when I'm at that level of leanness, I guess you could say. So now I'm switching up and I'm eating less food. I'm actually counting my calories again. And I'm being very aware of what I put in my body. Now, before I would associate more pleasure and I get more dopamine from eating foods, just kind of eat what I want. There's these chips I eat that are just fricking addictive and are so good and they're somewhat healthy, so it's easy to justify, but I feel pleasure when I eat them. And then when you eat certain sugar and we will, many of us will be addicted to different sugar and stuff like that, but I can see how that becomes just a snowball to where then it becomes normal, but after 2 or 3 days of this, 2 or 3 days of this, this like deficit, I'm starting to get used to it. But not only that, I wake up in the morning, I feel tighter, feels better. That's the payoff I'm getting. Now I'm associating pleasure with feeling leaner. I'm associating pleasure with like going to bed, even though it's, I'm going to bed a little bit hungry, I'm going to bed and it's like, I'm able to, in a way, feel that there is a payoff there. And there's almost a dopamine spike you'll get from that like new way of rewiring yourself. Now what they've shown even with rats is you can put a rat or a mouse on a hamster wheel or a hamster, I think it's a, I don't know what it is, but anyways, those, when they start becoming addicted to the hamster wheel, some of them will literally run themselves to death. Some of them will run themselves so much that their, you know how it's a little hamster wheel? Their tails will curve up. Like they get out, their tails are curved up because they've been running so damn much. There are people that I see at the gym that are addicted to the gym. They get a dopamine spike when they go to the gym. Now, this isn't a bad thing. It is a bad thing when it becomes you can't control it or it starts using you. But the awareness is the middle ground here. And I'm gonna share with you the cure here in a second as well, the other hormones that we need to be focused on and how we can do that. But you could be releasing that dopamine by playing video games, by jerking off, by toxic relationships. You could be released, you're gonna release it somehow. But if you start to realize that whatever you associate with pleasure, you move towards, and whatever you associate with pain, you move away from, you can start to more so look at what are you primed by? What are you driven by? It can be a good thing to be driven. When you start going to the gym, like let's say you start going to the gym, you've never been to the gym before, you start going to the gym, at first it's gonna kind of suck. You're gonna feel from going to the gym like sore and you're like, oh, this is kind of negative. But then you're gonna start going, you're starting to get an endorphin rush, an adrenaline rush. You're gonna start to get dopamine, start to feel good. And then you're gonna wanna go more and more. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. But if you start overdoing it to where you have to always be working out and it's like your abs, like, I could see body dysmorphia and stuff happens when the extreme of it gets there. But there's nothing wrong with having goals. There's nothing wrong with having a vision. There's nothing wrong with using dopamine in a way that actually fuels you versus being used by it. The key here is to choose it, to choose what your dopamine is and to not be ran by it. Like the phones, I think is probably one of the most addictive things. And if you were to also go on like a dopamine detox and detox some of these things in your life, you will then have the clarity, you will then have the motivation and the inspiration to put it towards your dreams. You know what's funny is when I start dialing in on my own diet, I notice that that affects different areas of my life. I get more clear on my business. I'm literally, I was telling Victor yesterday, my buddy, I'm trimming the fat on my body. By trimming the fat on my body, I'm like into calorie deficit, I'm doing a little bit more cardio and I've gone through many phases of this. I enjoy it, actually it makes me appreciate food more. And I'm also trimming the fat in my business. In my business, I've got like 10 products, I've got all this stuff going on and I'm actually simplifying things now. And it's a metaphor, but my discipline becomes stronger when I do this too. And it's easier, like I got my cold plunge set up now, I'm gonna be doing cold plunge. I'm getting up, going in the sun right when I wake up. I'm just doing things with more awareness than I would normally do when I kind of get lost in a snowball effect of like eating more unhealthy food and just like wanting to watch, looking forward mainly to watching Vikings at the end of the night or something. That changes everything. When you stop putting your energy in the stuff that doesn't really fuel your dream, you'll then have the energy to put it into other things. That's why saying no and like detoxing off of these things might be a good thing and to actually put it in your passion. What are you passionate about? Now, here is the other side. So in the book, "The Molecule of More," it talks about dopamine, which is like the more molecule, but then there's this other one called HNN molecules. So HNN are the neurotransmitters we call the here and now molecules or the HNN. H&Ns. Most people have heard of the H&Ns. They include serotonin, oxytocin, which is the bonding molecule, endorphins, your brain's versions of morphine, and a class of chemicals called endocannabinoids, which is your brain's version of marijuana. So that might be, I think when people become really addicted to marijuana, it's like you're getting a little bit of both. That's why there is a dopamine rush that you get, but there's also, the cannabinoids in the brain thing where you're like, really, you're just okay with the here and now. I don't really need to take action. Everything's good. And there's, that can actually be a good lesson too. It's like learning to be more present to the moment, you know? So that's what I'm saying. Cannabis even isn't bad. It's not good, it's not bad. It's neutral. Depends on how you use it. I don't personally smoke cannabis. I used to back in the day, maybe every now and then. I've taken a hit every now and then for very special occasions. But other than that, I don't drink. I don't smoke. I, like, when you're really passionate about what you do and you get your dopamine from like your passion, it's a different thing. It's a totally different game. So as opposed to the pleasure of anticipation via dopamine, these chemicals give us pleasure from sensation and emotion. In fact, one of the endocannabinoid molecules is called anandamide. After a Sanskrit word that means joy, bliss, and delight. So according to anthropologist Helen Fisher, early or passionate love lasts only 12 to 18 months. After that, for a couple to remain attached to one another, they need to develop a different sort of love called compassionate love. Compassionate love is mediated by the H and Ns because it involves experiences that are happening right meow, right meow. You're with the one you love, so enjoy it. So this is the main difference that I wanna share with you and maybe mainly the whole point of this episode. When you're doing things because of what it'll get you, because of the end result, if you're making YouTube videos so that you can have 100,000 YouTube subscribers or hundreds of millions of views or whatever, that's results-based and that is dopamine-focused. It will help you get further, it can help you, Wanting can still help, but a lot of times wanting, you're then lacking. And then by the time you get there, you realize it's not enough. You need more because you become addicted to the dopamine. Now, when you do things because it's who you are, when you do things because it's what you enjoy and you can be present with where you are and happy with where you are, that's the H and N chemicals. Bring the awareness into your body. It's like the difference that you can have You can have passionate love, but you can also have compassionate love. Haha, a little funny play on words there. But the difference is one could be more stimulating, more energizing in an initial way, but one is more of like an appreciation. One is, it's a different energy. And one, you're more in the moment, and one's more to get somewhere. It's to get to the end result. You know, in general, what I'm learning to do is to be more present, to enjoy and realize that I can release more of these serotonin, oxytocin, and these different neurotransmitters in the body by being present and realizing where I'm at right now is perfect. I'm in this house right now, it's great. And by bringing the energy more into the present moment and doing things and enjoying it, it changes everything. If I made this podcast episode right now and I'm like, I just wanna get it over with, can I just get to the end? You would feel that rushed energy. However, if I'm more so enjoying the moment right now, then guess what? You're gonna feel like you can also enjoy this moment and you're gonna wanna continue to listen. So this is a whole part of the teaching that I've taught a lot is the difference between doing things for the end result and doing things for the sake of doing them or being them. It makes all the difference in the world. But one of the biggest things you can do here in today's episode I wanna share with you is find your middle way. And the way you find your middle way to this is you find out what you have currently been addicted to as far as dopamine. What are your current dopamine outlets? Is it the food that you're eating? Is it sugar? Is it caffeine? Is it being addicted to your job? Addicted to the drama at your job? Addicted to working out? Addicted to video games? Addicted to laying around and doing nothing? These are all things that we may get dopamine with, our reward or anticipation molecule. But what you can begin to do is to wire it in the direction you want by first taking away some of the things that you know are not beneficial for you. Foods that may not serve you, things you may be doing that you could just tell are not beneficial for you long-term. If you were to look at your life, you know, what you do on a daily basis compounds over time. For me, I'm becoming aware of the food that I'm eating, the sugar, and as well, you can become really, really rigid with all this, but there's a middle way. Like I said, you can still enjoy life. This isn't a dark doom gloom thing on dopamine where it's, I'm not saying dopamine is bad. I'm saying use it in your favor because right now the media, right now the way systems are set up is it keeps you buying more, more, more, more. It keeps you not feeling enough. And if you don't feel worthy and you feel like you always need more, then guess what? You're gonna continue to search for it. You're gonna continue to buy new products and you're gonna continue to consume content. That gets you and keeps you in that anticipation state. But if you start to wire yourself in a way, you can actually do it to where you create the life of your dreams, not by getting lost in it, but when you are really passionate about what you do, you will release dopamine, but you will also release the here and now chemicals because you can enjoy the process along the way. It's not about the YouTube subscribers, it's not about the millions of dollars or whatever, hundreds, you know, you going full-time or whatever it is, It's about also enjoying this moment right now. So it's a mixture of both, but it's awareness is the razor's edge here. And what is right now, you can rewire anything in your life by becoming aware of the payoff. If you're eating unhealthy food, it's you are looking for the short-term pleasure for then the long-term pain. It's like unhealthy food, it's like, I feel great for like 20 minutes, but then I feel like shit and I feel lazy. And a lot of our body, by the way, and our energy has to do with the food we're putting in our body. Put whole foods into your body. Put natural, simple foods into your body with less ingredients. Like less, if you look at the ingredient things, it got 600 things in it, it's probably not the best thing. But if it's like carrots, peas, asparagus, it's like simple, is probably much better for you 'cause your body knows how to digest that. And a healthy gut helps, you know, this affects every area of our life, I believe. But these are the steps you can use. Become aware and go on a dopamine detox and start to let go of things that you know are really, you're releasing dopamine with. You will naturally have more energy to pour towards your passion and to start to make it your passion to do what you're passionate about. Make it your passion to be passionate, to read books that you're passionate about. And you'll figure it out as you start to make the search for your passion in a way 'Cause if you're searching for it, then it means you don't have it. The answers are all inside of you. But, 'cause I know if I say just follow your passion, you'll say, well, what's my passion? Become passionate about finding out what that is. And as you do, you will then see that you can then fuel you living your dream life. You'll then see that as you have that kind of energy, it affects so many different layers for yourself, but do things and really focus on Being passionate and having the goals, not getting lost with them. It's still good to have the goals, still good to anticipate, but realize how often are you doing it? And can you also be happy with the here and now? Here and now. Be present inside of your body. I've been going into nature. I've been just taking a deep breath and just relaxing. I realize I have this, I put this pressure on myself. I gotta make 3 videos a week, a podcast, I gotta do all this shit every week. What if I just chilled out and realized that when I did it, when I'm, if I like just focused on me being more passionate and in the moment, that naturally I'll come up with the right video ideas. Naturally it won't feel like it's so hard to do. So that's what you can do is become aware of both of those things. Now the podcast, by the way, I'm doing every Tuesday, there's a new podcast episode. It was every Tuesday, Thursday. I'll consider going back to 2 days a week, but right now I'm kind of minimalizing things. I'm simplifying things. Let me know if you like it better at one time a week or two times a week. And if you let me know by screenshotting this episode on Spotify or iTunes and then sharing it on Instagram stories and then tagging me @Aaron_Doughty44, let me know what you thought of this episode. Let me know also what you're gonna be doing for your dopamine detox. And maybe you could post it to your Instagram story and let people know that the dopamine detox challenge is, what are you gonna be letting go of for the next like 30 days or 21 days? And you challenge your friends to do it as well. You challenge other people to listen to the episodes that they become aware of these things. But dopamine's not bad. It's just about becoming aware of how you're using it in your life. And when you start to take it away from other areas of your life, it'll be easy for you to apply towards your passion and then find that middle way where you're able to be aware of it, be present in the here and now as well, and do it because it's who you are, not because of what'll get you. Instead of doing things for an end result, you do it because of it is a means in itself that will change everything in your life. So with that being said, I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you guys haven't subscribed to the Aaron Doughty Podcast yet, you can do that on Spotify and iTunes by clicking the link below if you're watching this on the second YouTube channel. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, I do post this on the second YouTube channel as well. Sometimes I'll post the videos there. Other than that, as always, peace, much love, and namaste.