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Self
Is “Dopamine Fasting” the Cure For What’s Wrong With Us?
It used to be that our lives could be sort of unstimulating, and what we needed and craved was excitement.
Now with our phones and Internet-enabled devices, we are over-stimulated and need to escape excitement. The constant bombardment of flashing images and digitized stimuli are releasing too much dopamine all throughout the day, leaving us depleted, anxious, and sad. We need time away to recharge.
The newest Silicon Valley trend is called “dopamine fasting.” It’s like a more extreme but regimented form of “taking a break from social media.”
The protocol is simple:
No social media, phone, TV, computer, technology, or excitement during a designated time period. Be alone and do nothing.
The original regimen was set for 24 hours, which can be pretty extreme. Many others are now trying smaller segments of time in order to get some of the benefits or get acclimated before taking on the full 24 hours.
No need to delete apps or throw away your TV. Just turn everything off and/or remove yourself from the technological environment.
