360. Work with Your Brain: Unleashing the Power of the DOSE Chemicals (Refreshed Episode)

Welcome to episode 360 of the Brainy Business Understanding the Psychology of why People Buy Today's episode is all about the dose brain chemicals. Ready? Let's get started. You are listening to the Brainy Business Podcast where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now here's your host, Melina Palmer. Hello. Hello everyone. My name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to the Brainy Business Podcast. Today's episode is a deep dive on four happy chemicals in the brain known as the Dose Brain chemicals. This episode originally aired in October of 2020. Definitely a time where we all could have used a little bit more happy brain chemicals, am I right? And the reason I'm refreshing it today is because of my conversation this upcoming Friday with Dr. Ian Robertson, author of How Confidence Works. Now trust me, you don't want to miss this episode, so be sure to subscribe to the Brainy Business podcast right now if you aren't already so much good stuff there. One thing he specifically talks about, both in our conversation and in the book is dopamine and how it ties in with confidence, the anticipation and little rewards and how when you believe you can do something, you get a little boost of dopamine which is the D in our dose brain chemicals. And then when you achieve it, you get a second hit of dopamine in a way that creates a self fulfilling prophecy of success and confidence that can keep building up and up. So I figured this was the perfect time to revisit this episode on the Dose Brain chemicals and pay particular attention to dopamine while you listen. So you have that background going into Friday's episode. Don't forget that there are links for everything, including past episodes, books like How Confidence Works as well as related articles and your freebie worksheet all waiting for you in the show notes for this episode which are found within the app you're listening to and@the brainybusiness.com 360 alright, let's talk about the Dose brain chemicals. As I mentioned already, dose is an acronym for our four chemicals that we're really going to talk about today. Dopamine, which is about anticipation, motivation and goals. Oxytocin, which is for empathy and social bonding. Serotonin ties in with our mood and pride and finally endorphins, which mask pain and are part of that well known runner's high. The first thing I want to dispel is the myth that we are made to be happy all the time we've been led to believe that our natural state is happiness. And if we aren't feeling overly positive and fulfilled, there's something wrong with us. That's just not true. In fact, we're not meant to be perpetually happy. And these chemicals in the brain are not naturally there to make us feel good. Instead, they're there to promote survival. Most of us don't have our survival threatened constantly, and rewards are much easier to come by than they were for our ancestors. And the bad thing is we build up a tolerance as we get more of the chemicals, meaning they don't work as much and we want more, and then we get more. It's kind of a vicious cycle. Just like you need to drink more alcohol progressively over time to get a buzz. Our brains adapt to the amount of feel good chemicals we get. And soon things that would have brought us joy or might have in the past will no longer do the trick. Have you ever cut sugar from your diet? If you're someone who consumes a lot of sugar, and most people these days do, especially in the us, then natural sugars may not taste sweet to you at all. A strawberry could almost be bland and flavorless. If you're drinking lots of soda and eating candy all the time, you've adapted your brain to an unnatural level of sugar, so the natural amount doesn't do it for you anymore. It's boring. Not enough to cause a blip on your brain's satisfaction scale. Sugar, like cocaine and heroin, release unnatural amounts of dopamine, which is one reason they're very addictive for us. And it's not to say that dopamine is all bad. We can get dopamine from anything, including drinking water when we're really thirsty. So it isn't in the drug or the food itself, but it's about the drive to obtain the dopamine. The anticipation of the reward is where we get a dopamine release, not when we consume the item itself. And if you remember, I've talked about rats on the show before and some studies where the rats pressing the lever created the anticipation of releasing the treat, and that the dopamine comes when you're pressing that lever, not when the treat comes. It starts when the light comes on to say, press this lever. Now you get a treat. And when you made it so they didn't get that treat every single time, the anticipation grew and the dopamine release doubled when you cut it in half. So you know half the time when you press the lever 10 times after the light comes on, you get a treat, and then you have to try again and there's no treat. And that meant that you had double the dopamine. So the anticipation is what really makes a difference. And we quickly can get very addicted to seeking those rewards. And that is a collective we as like I've said, most animals are driven by dopamine. Another study that included rats had them receiving a hit to the pleasure center in their brain when they pressed a lever. And it showed that they would keep hitting it again and again and again without stopping for anything. They wouldn't take breaks to eat or drink. They kept pressing until they essentially passed out from exhaustion. On the flip side, other rats had it set up so their pleasure center was turned off, and they didn't get the dopamine release in their brain for anything. And to put it as simply as possible, they essentially lost their will to live. They too wouldn't eat or drink or mate or do anything. But it wasn't because they were preoccupied with a lever. They couldn't motivate themselves to get up and drink water, even when it was close by. If they had food or water placed in their mouths, they would eat or drink. Drink it, but they couldn't get it on their own. Is that crazy or what? Just let that sink in for a moment. Consider the parallels for your own life and for those around you. Our lives these days are a flood of unnatural levels of dopamine, sugar and other junk food, social media feeds, Netflix and other shows to binge, watch video games, notifications on our phones, you it's a smorgasbord of opportunity that makes it so. Things that would have brought our ancestors incredible levels of dopamine, natural fruit later on. Reading a book, a stimulating conversation with a potential mate is all blase and not enough to motivate us to get off the couch. During COVID times when a lot of our predictability and habits have been upended by an unanticipated shift in our normal lives, we may find ourselves slipping back into old or exceeding exceedingly bad habits. More time watching tv, scrolling the Internet, eating junk, or living on social media, it may be hard to find motivation to do work that felt easy when you were going into the office. If this is the case and you want to make a change and kick some of those unnatural dopamine habits, a detox may be in order. And of course, if you have serious concerns about the levels and impact to where it could be symptoms of depression, you need to talk to a mental health professional. Take care of you. If it's more of an annoyance or a Covid 15 you want to get rid of, consider the detox. I've included a link to a video where someone talks about his experience with this if you want to learn more. But the basic premise is cut out all the unnatural dopamine stuff for an entire day. No Internet, no tv, no phone, no music, no junk food, no video games, any. You get the idea. And you may think, but I'd be so bored. What would I do? And that, my friend, is the point. You're supposed to be bored at first it should be limiting you to only the natural stuff that your brain thinks isn't going to be enough dopamine for you. Right now that seems boring because you've been getting such unnatural levels of dopamine hitting your brain over time. Now, instead of those things on this day that you're detoxing, you could go for a walk. You can meditate. You can be alone with your thoughts. You can reflect on your goals and come up with new ones. Write them out by hand in a journal, maybe read a book or have conversations with your family in your home, in person. Not over zoom or phone or chat or anything like that. Embrace the boredom to come through on the other side, where you give your brain that break and ability to reset the dopamine expectations. And if you can't bear to think of giving it all up for a full day, consider a single item, the most difficult one for you, and give it up one day a week for a month. So maybe you decide that you aren't allowed to look at social media at all on Wednesdays, from the time you go to bed on Tuesday night until you wake up on Thursday morning. Try it for a month and see what happens. Or see what happens when you cut it all out for one day a month. What's more interesting and engaging for you? Now that was boring before. You may find yourself getting re energized from your goals and feel compelled to spend even less time on social media on those on days as well. Remember, while some mistakenly say dopamine is about pleasure, that's incorrect. It's about desire, motivation, goal achievement. Yours may be misplaced in areas that aren't serving you well, but you can pretty easily replace it if you cut the unnatural levels out so the natural stuff feels more impactful for your brain. We all decide to tackle activities or not based on the expected level of dopamine that we're going to get from it. That anticipation, just like the rats you aren't as motivated to do the simple stuff, but because it doesn't give as much dopamine as that other stuff. With the unnatural levels that you've been fixated to over time that you now have set as your minimum levels of dopamine that you need maybe to be getting through the day. But all hope is not lost. You can still help train your brain to find rewards and new dopamine pathways, those more natural ones, if you give it the chance to find them again, but by totally cutting off those unnatural things that are making your levels be all out of whack. I've linked to a great article from Psychology Today in the show notes that's called 5 Ways to Boost your natural happy chemicals. I'm going to be paraphrasing from it often throughout this episode in the ways that it applies to those dose chemicals that you're going to be hearing about. For dopamine, they recommend embracing a new goal, which is something you may find easier after you do a detox and get rid of some of those unnatural stimulants. As the article says, dopamine motivates us to seek things whether it's a degree or a parking spot near the door of the donut shop, which made me laugh. It makes us persistent toward all sorts of things like hitting a new level in a video game, finding a way to feed our families, making a big sale or landing a new client. Embracing a new goal and taking small steps toward it each day will reward you with dopamine each time. You've heard me say it before and of course there is a link in the show Notes to the Master your mindset mini course so you can narrow and prioritize your goals as you take those little continual steps. You're going to create new neural pathways and build a goal oriented dopamine habit that will make it easier and easier to achieve your goals. It's pretty cool, right? And to learn even more about habits. I am so excited that in a couple of weeks Wendy Wood, who is a huge expert like the expert on habits, is going to be joining me on the show. So look out for that in November. So dopamine is going to help you with goals and motivation and is very closely linked with those habits, as you know. Next is oxytocin, which has to do with empathy and social bonds. Dr. Paul Zak, founding director of the center for Neuroeconomic Studies and found that the neurochemical of oxytocin is at the center of storytelling. He and his team discovered that oxytocin signals to the brain that it's safe to approach someone, that they can be trusted. The release of oxytocin triggers empathy and motivates us to be more cooperative, like reactions that come from reciprocity. As they went on to discover, oxytocin is released in character driven stories, even on video. A key for using this is to gain the conscious attention of the viewer and holding it with a sort of tension. A good story is engaging, it pulls you in. You want to know what's happening next and really relate to the person that's telling the story or engaging with them throughout that process. It's the same concept whether we're looking at blockbuster movies or you're using videos smartly in your business. For Colu, which is a company I shared with you in episode 113, instead of having their city send out a simple press release encouraging people to visit the stores on Jerusalem Boulevard that were struggling, they included personal stories and imagery as they were announcing an incentive that they were offering those fantastic stories. Simple stories in many ways triggered oxytocin, forming an important bond with the store owners and encouraging people to visit even after the incentives went away. To leverage the power of oxytocin, the Psychology Today article recommends you consciously build trust. Being a herding species, we need to have rewards and chemicals that are driven by closeness to others and oxytocin is it. When we get that hit of oxytocin, when sticking with the herd and strengthening the bonds we have for others, it's because it keeps us safe and protected. Remember, all these chemicals developed as part of our survival. Dopamine makes us want to go out and get food, procreate and achieve. Oxytocin helps us not to wander off too far so we forget about our children or accidentally walk into a lion's den. Conversely, when we've had our trust betrayed, there are unhappy chemicals released that may cause us to shut down and not want to open ourselves up again. We get those bad chemicals because trusting unworthy people has a negative impact on our survival and we need bad chemicals to keep us in line, just like the good ones do. We may respond particularly harshly to the betrayal, especially if it hopefully doesn't happen very often. But know that opening yourself up to trust is key to survival and critical for the oxytocin your brain craves. If you've been shut off emotionally for a while, start small. Set an expectation that's realistic and agreed to with the other party. When both meet that expectation, you get the oxytocin and can move on to the next trust building opportunity. This could be an agreement with your significant other or a partner in business, or making a commitment to walk each day with a friend or chat on the phone once a week. And you can work on building trust in yourself as well by setting and keeping commitments. And as a note, while that's helpful, connecting to others is a key part in oxytocin. So make sure they're part of the equation. And whatever you do, don't make the commitments too big too fast. Remember, the point is to set and meet the commitment each time to build trust. If you try to do this with stretch goals where you failed in the past, and if you're honest with yourself, you know you're going to have a really hard time sticking to or your accountability buddy will. That is not the right commitment for this plan. Make it easy and build to bigger stuff. This is about rebuilding those neural pathways and they're built on success, not lofty intentions. So next, let's talk about serotonin, which is about confidence, social status and belief in your own abilities. While we might like to think we aren't dependent on others and that we don't need the respect or approval of them, it's just not true. We're wired for it because again, being respected by the others in the herd increases our chances for survival. We like to take on our peers and challenge to show off for our friends and even for strangers. You know those movies where someone who was the class clown continues to do anything for a laugh as an adult and then all their friends tell them to grow up already because it's embarrassing or putting them on a bad path as they try to constantly one up themselves. This is because the neural pathways formed to get serotonin are perhaps misrouted. This person saw the laughter and fun as a youth as respect and their way into the bigger group. Again, safety in the herd. And they just kept doing it because their brain believes this is the best and most efficient way to get serotonin. Finding a new path may be in order, but no matter what, embracing the need serotonin is trying to fill that respect is very important. It's okay and necessary for us all to enjoy and bask in the glow of praise from others. We're wired to seek it out and should embrace that without becoming raging narcissists. Of course, all of these come in moderation. Going back to the episode on the focusing illusion. Whatever you pay attention to and look for is going to seem really important and stand out for you. This also combines with confirmation bias so you see what you expect to see and this can work for or against you in many ways, including that much needed serotonin. If you're expecting that no one respects you and that everyone is seeing all the bad things you've done and focusing on the misses, you're going to be depriving yourself of the serotonin your brain needs and essentially feeling like garbage for no good reason. I really like that the Psychology Today article said people are probably respecting you behind your back right now. I love the kind of play on words where we think people are talking about us behind our back, but it could be a really good thing. People are saying nice things about you too, and you can focus on those. There are lots of people out there who are admiring you and the great things you do. Focus on them and ignore the others even if you don't know who they are. It'll make a big difference. Also, focus on believing in your own value and celebrate your wins alone and with others. As a reminder, the episodes on celebrating your wins and habits and hurting and confirmation bias and the focusing illusion and so many others are linked for you in the show notes, which as a reminder are atthebrainybusiness.com 123 and if you haven't already downloaded your freebie worksheet, now is a good time to grab it from there so you can be following along with your own notes and know that it isn't being cocky or lame to care about what other people think and wanting to be respected. We all need that and deserve it to get our serotonin. Our friend Aretha Franklin had it right. Serotonin is spelled R E S P E C T. All right, our last chemical to talk about today is endorphins. This can be known as runner's high by many, but it's about more than that. And the most important thing to know about endorphins is that they're caused by pain. Yes, you heard it right. You need to experience pain to get the endorphins. Runners only get the high feeling when they push past their existing limits and hit the point of distress. The endorphins then kick in and there's a brief euphoria to mask the pain we feel great for a bit, but you can see how chasing that high can become dangerous, just like the other chemicals. We can become dependent easily and need more and more to keep getting the hits we crave for our ancestors. You really only got endorphins when running away from a predator or to seek out help when you've been injured and you're not going to have to feel the pain in those moments when you're needing to get to safety to survive. But it all stops and maybe you, you pass out from the effort that you've expended once the threat goes away. It's only supposed to come up in emergencies, and we don't want to try to boost this particular chemical too much when we have others that can make us happy as well. Pushing our limits a bit to reach new goals and run faster, do more push ups or however that translates to your business and career can be useful, but it shouldn't be a main focus to be one. Upping yourself and essentially putting yourself in harm's way to feel that rush. That being said, there are some safe ways to get an endorphin kick that don't require you to physically injure yourself, and they are really quite easy. Laughing and stretching, you may be thinking, why the heck does that work? Let's use laughter as an example. A great, great belly laugh where you're almost uncontrollable, shakes your body in unusual ways and can cause a little stress. That's going to give you some endorphins. If you think about kids and how much they love to be tickled, it's actually a stress response where they're sort of feeling trapped almost. They can't stop themselves from laughing. But I know for our kids, while they're being tickled, they will say stop, stop. No. And. And then once it's over, they want you to tickle them again. Right? And this is because it's giving them endorphins and a fake little giggle isn't enough to trigger them. You really need to go out and have some fun. You can enjoy your family, watch a comedy special on Netflix, listen to a silly podcast, whatever it is, try to get those big laughs and incorporate them into your life. And just think, you could double up the value by having your laughs watching the funny show while you get some great deep stretches in, maybe even after a workout for triple value. And speaking of exercise, one study from Duke University found that regular exercise, 30 minutes three times a week, was enough to boost mood as well or better than prescription medications. For those who were severely depressed, the effects of exercise lasted longer and could be maintained naturally over those medications that people were taking. The researchers said they don't know for sure if it was the endorphins being released or something else, but does it really matter? Getting out and exercising is known to boost mood, and there are likely some brain chemicals involved. Maybe keeping a commitment to yourself, or the anticipation of beating a previous time, or the respect you expect to get from others, or yourself from hitting a goal. It could be any or all of those chemicals in action, and exercise of all kinds can be a great way to get them all flowing for some great brainy benefits and one last chemical note before we wrap up today. This one is a bad chemical that's released as a warning when we feel our survival is threatened. Cortisol. Unfortunately, this doesn't limit itself to only kicking in when we're being chased by a bear. Even tiny threats or fears can trigger it, like being afraid of what people are going to think when you give that presentation. If you aren't getting enough of the happy dose chemicals, you're likely to feel this one even more and want to mask that bad feeling. Which is when you may feel compelled to reach for the sugary snacks or or play a game on your phone, but fight that urge. Just like we may need a dopamine detox, which can also help with Being okay with cortisol it's important to allow yourself to feel the cortisol and know what your body is trying to tell you. If you constantly mask that bad chemical with the good stuff, your body is going to feel the need to pump out more and more cortisol until you notice it and do something about it. Which if you continue avoid and pile dose chemicals on top of, it's just going to get worse and worse. With all the changes we've been faced with during COVID the fear of the unknown and with election cycles coming up, all that sort of stuff, we may be feeling like we need to stress, eat or binge watch Netflix even more than usual to mask that cortisol, but know that it's not really serving you well and can actually just make everything worse over time. So you may be asking, how can you overcome it and stop the cycle? It can be as simple as accepting the bad feeling you get when the happy chemical surge is done. Once the runner's high is over, your dopamine stops because you're no longer anticipating how a movie's going to end. Be okay with the not so great feeling that comes over you and don't try to pump yourself back up up with substitute highs, bringing it back to the beginning of the episode. We aren't meant to feel fantastic all the time. The chemicals in our brains and bodies, the good and the bad, are there to help us survive and experiencing them in a more natural way can help us to thrive as well. So what got your brain buzzing as you learned about the dose brain chemicals today? For me, I really love being able to think about what makes these particular chemicals tick and think about how that works into the overarching experience someone is having. With a brand as an example, it's easy to say that something makes people happy or makes them want to come back, but what does that really mean? Where do you start for that if you want to recreate it or implement that somewhere else? On the other hand, understanding that we want to increase dopamine. So let's look for opportunities to build anticipation in our experience. Perhaps with a contest or something else that includes surprise and delight. That is something we can work with. It's so much more tangible and actionable than where we may naturally be inclined to start. Of course it goes beyond dopamine. In my book the Truth About Pricing, I have some examples about how each of these four brain chemicals could tie into a brand's experience, like endorphins for the thrill seeking brands and serotonin for the status building brands. There is of course a link to get your own copy of the Truth About Pricing as well as to check out other related books like How Confidence Works, which I mentioned. At the top of the episode is the feature of this Friday's conversation and why this one got a refresh today. Those are in the show notes for the episode waiting for you and there you'll also find related past episodes, articles, your freebie worksheet and a full time stamped summary of the episode and more. It's all waiting for you in the app you're listening to and atthe brainy business.com 360 and just like that, episode 360 on the dose Brain Chemicals is done. Join me Friday for a brand new episode with Dr. Ian Robertson to discuss discuss his book How Confidence Works. It's going to be a lot of fun. You don't want to miss it. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me and remember to be thoughtful. Thank you for listening to the Brainy Business Podcast. Molina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.