Hello There,

If you are a kid from the '90s or early 2Ks you might have got this feeling of not being as happy as you were in your childhood.

Why so?

The memories of your childhood were always associated with the real world and now it revolves around the virtual world.

We had a time when we have not had any access to the internet, social media, digital entertainments like Netflix or even a mobile phone but, we were happy. We were grateful for what we had. But now, it is almost impossible for us to think about a day without at least one of these.We consume consume and consume every day and still being frustrated, unhappy and feeling bored at the end of the day when we get out of the virtual world.

What happened to us? Why don't we feel as happy and encouraged as before?

When you are binge-watching your favourite tv show, your brain is producing more and more dopamine and your body experiences a drug-like high. And our brain tends to get addicted to any activity that causes a dopamine rush.

What is dopamine?

Dopamine is a bio chemical induced in our brain which is used as a neurotransmitter. It is responsible for the communication between nerves in our body and producing feeling of pleasure in human brain.

Once you set your dopamine peak point or dopamine threshold high, your brain always seeks to achieve the same in every activity you are engaged in. So eventually you feel unhappy and dissatisfied in essential activities like studying, reading or going out since your brain is not reaching up to the dopamine threshold by doing these as it did when you clicked for the next episode on Netflix or when you got that notification from Facebook or Instagram.

So, how to be happy is a question followed by another question that is how to reset your dopamine thresholds back to normal. 

There are some proven ways by which we can do a dopamine detox. Try doing the following steps for at least one week for seeing the results.

1. Take a break from all the social media apps.
2. Keep all the digital entertainments at bay.
3. Exercise at least 5 days a week
4. Stay away from junk food.
5. Eat more vegetables and fruits.
6. Do not intake alcohol.
7. Indulge in activities like reading and meditation which improves mindfulness.
8. Try exploring new hobbies which make you more creative like writing,  dancing and a lot more.

Practising the above will help us bringing back threshold levels of dopamine which in turn makes us happy by opening up our eyes towards all the things we had taken for granted before.

Hope you enjoyed the write-up.

Thanks for your time😊