I decided to try a dopamine fast. Going from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on a Sunday with no YouTube, no television, no social media, no Instagram, no games, basically anything that has a dopaminergic trigger in it. I was playing a computer game or right before I decided to start the process, I was kind of nervous it seemed like it was going to be a big deal once I started, but once I did I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
But first I just sat on my bed and decided to meditate, and then I decided to sew a hole in one of my pairs of pants that I had been neglecting to do for months. Well I had the sewing kit out I also fixed the pocket in my jacket.
Instead of feeling like I didn't have time to do these things, I thought of them is something I could do while passing the time.
I just finished installing a new hook in the bathroom, breaking down boxes and putting them in the recycling bin, taking out the garbage and a few other physical tasks. Before I wrote this I was just sitting in the bed, resting. Like a cat, just doing nothing. You don't have to always be doing something you can just sit there and rest until you're ready for the next thing.
It's now a few days past my dopamine fast. I was flipping through Instagram reels when my phone ran out of batteries. This seemed like an opportune time to break the spell of electronic seduction, and get back to abstinence of dopamine triggering activities.
I laid in bed and read snow crash. Time passes slower when you're not going from YouTube video to YouTube video or checking for updates on some app. I remember the feeling I have now being very common when I was a kid. I would lay on my bed and either read or just think, sometimes I would stretch my quads. Eventually I would come up with a good activity to do like draw or go outside.
A lot of times I just realized I'm tired and I don't need to be doing anything. I feel like often I confuse boredom with being tired and replace scrolling on stuff on my phone for real rest. Sometimes you just need to lay down and relax without doing anything.
I want more of my life to be like this. I think I will try to implement a schedule like no social media of any kind, YouTube, etc until after 9:00 p.m.