Take Back Your Life with a Digital Dopamine Detox Week
It’s time to give instant gratification the middle finger
Let’s face it — the modern digital world has become a battleground for our eyeballs.
Never before have we seen digital media companies employ such aggressive strategies to draw people’s attention away from their relationships, work, health, and sadly themselves.
Ask yourself, “Am I living in an unconscious and reactive way?”
Upon the first minute of waking, do you reach for your smartphone and get sucked into the digital world of other people’s information and agendas?
When working at your desk, do you find yourself aimlessly browsing the internet or constantly checking your inbox for emails?
When spending time with friends or family, do you resort to checking your phone the second you feel bored or unable to find words to say?
You’re not alone — this is how most of us navigate our digital lives; by constantly seeking short-term dopamine hits to relieve any kind of discomfort or dissatisfaction.
For many of us, outsourcing our attention away through digital distractions has become the default mode of coping with our inner discomfort and dissatisfaction.
If this is you, ask yourself, “Who is in charge of my life: me or my need for junk dopamine hits?”
The Culture of Junk Dopamine Compulsion
People’s relationships with the digital world have become an addiction — and because most people live in this way, it’s rarely, if ever, even considered an addiction.
Without thinking about it, how many of us are giving away our attention and energy in the pursuit of short-term gratification — aka junk dopamine, while sacrificing our long-term goals and aspirations in the process?
Unaware of the consequences, our society has been creating a culture of junk dopamine compulsion. Yes, you get to have entertainment, comfort, and distraction readily available 24/7, but oftentimes it comes at the cost of our health, relationships, higher aspirations, goals, and dreams.
Be honest with yourself: Is that a fair trade?
In 1971, psychologist Herbert A. Simon wisely asserted, “The wealth of information means a dearth of something else … a poverty of attention.”
If you don’t start taking back what’s rightfully yours — aka your attention, time, and energy — you’ll find yourself turning into a digital zombie, someone who is scattered-brained, less present, restless, easily agitated, and driven by their baser impulses.
Resorting to instant gratification should not be your default mode of being. Rather, by cultivating a healthier relationship with your digital devices, you can indulge in it consciously, not compulsively — and it can become something that brings joy to your life, not something that covers up an underlying emptiness.
This is all good to know, but the question remains: How do you go about getting started on that?
Get Clear on Your Junk Dopamine
First, it will serve you to get clear on what forms of junk dopamine you are addicted to. Here are some examples that can guide you in identifying what they could be:
· Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc.)
· Email & Messaging Apps
· News
· Gaming
· Aimless Browsing (e.g., Youtube rabbit holes)
· Comfort Food (sugar, snacks, coffee, alcohol, fast food)
· Pornography
· Entertainment (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.)
Be brutally honest with yourself and take stock in which forms of junk dopamine you are giving yourself away to.
Remember, there is no shame in identifying what these are — it’s more about getting clear on what’s distracting you from your higher goals and preventing you from becoming the person you know you can be.
One way to discover what these are for you is by asking yourself,
“What is one thing that I know if I discarded from my life would bring me closer to becoming the next level version of myself?”
How would I show up differently each day in my health, relationships, and work if I let go of some or all of these things?
By burning off the deadwood — stripping away one by one the things in your life that do not serve your higher-order aims, you are taking steps to reclaim your power and getting back on track towards becoming your best self.
Your Digital Dopamine Detox Week
After identifying your junk dopamine, it’s time for your digital dopamine detox week — a period of time where you deliberately remove and avoid all forms of junk dopamine to cultivate presence, self-control, and focused work.
It’s an attempt to reset your relationship with instant gratification, so you shift from favoring short-term pleasure to long-term goals, from junk dopamine to healthy dopamine.
In other words, you are training your brain to seek satisfaction through making progress on your aspirations and not through distractions.
What does a Digital Dopamine Detox look like?
This will look different for each individual, but here are some ideas to help you get started:
· Refrain from using your phone or devices the first and last hour of each day
· Limit checking your email to once or twice a day at a designated time
· Take a complete break from social media — delete the apps off your phone (you can always download them again after this detox week)
· When working, turn off all notifications from your devices
· Block any time-wasting websites on your browser, so you can’t use them when you are bored or procrastinating
· Turn off your phone when engaging with family or friends
These are commitments to reclaiming your attention, your power, back.
What can you expect during this dopamine detox week?
Throughout this detox week, your brain will rebel — no doubt about it. Don’t let that discourage you.
Each time this happens, give yourself a second to pause and take 5–6 deep breaths.
Become aware of how tempting the distraction feels. Feel it in your body at the visceral level.
Slowing down your impulses in this way allows you to get familiar with the urge and see things more clearly.
Once it loses its grip over you, return to your activity or whatever you were doing.
If it feels too powerful, it helps to write about it, go for a walk, or talk to a friend or family member.
Remember, it’s a long-term game — even if you don’t succeed in resisting the distraction this one time, you are serving your highest self each time you bring awareness to these compulsions.
So, as you give this a try, don’t be too hard on yourself — re-wiring your brain is no easy feat, but a challenge definitely worth pursuing.
What do you get out of a dopamine detox week?
By removing the fast-food options from your dopaminergic urges, you train yourself to cease seeking quick fixes through trivial activities. And with every source of junk dopamine you surrender, the more your motivation and energy levels begin to rise.
Removing each distraction cultivates a greater capacity for focus, vitality, and aliveness — and you begin harnessing your attention to the things that truly matter in your life: your health, your relationships, your higher aims, and bringing your potential to fruition.
Let these be your only sources of dopamine.
Conclusion
It’s time you give instant gratification the middle finger.
The modern world has made it nearly impossible to navigate successfully without digital devices. We have come to depend on them for almost all our needs — and in the process, we have outsourced our attention, energy, and time to things that, in the end, carry little value or meaning.
Though you may not be able to go without your devices entirely, you can go without allowing them to hijack your brain with chronic overstimulation and compulsive distractions.
So, learn to be ruthless to the sources of junk dopamine and take back your life.
Do it by guarding your attention with vigilance. Because if you don’t, you become vulnerable to these dopamine-laced distractions that destroy your motivation, fragment your focus, and make you lose sight of the things that really matter in life.
It’s vital that we improve our relationship with not only our digital devices but ourselves— and a digital detox week is a great way to start addressing that.
