📚 A&B #154

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• Just read books and apply them.

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📚 Book Summary:

This week's book is “Dopamine Nation” by Dr. Anna Lembke.

This book dives into the dangers of a high-dopamine lifestyle (easy and constant access to drugs, alcohol, social media, porn, gaming, food, etc.). It’s an insightful book on addiction and how to better manage your dopamine.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

📖

1) Spend More Time Being Bored

As kids, we all complained to our parents that we were bored at one time or another. But being bored isn’t a bad thing.

These days most of us have lost the ability to tolerate even minor forms of discomfort (like being bored) and immediately seek to distract ourselves, usually by pulling out our phone.

We spend most of our waking hours plugged into some kind of device (phone, laptop, tablet): scrolling social media, reading emails, listening to podcasts or music, or watching videos on YouTube or TikTok.

But here’s the thing, being bored is a gift. It’s not something we should run from.

It’s a way to become familiar with ourselves and listen to our inner voice. Avoiding yourself all the time is exhausting and may even contribute to anxiety and depression, writes Dr. Lembke.

Being bored gives you space to access new ideas and feelings, and better connect to yourself, others, and the world.

Being bored can be terrifying at first since it forces us to come face-to-face with bigger questions of meaning and purpose, but it’s also an opportunity for discovery. It gives us time to form new thoughts instead of being distracted by entertainment or endlessly reacting to stimuli around us.

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2) Put Barriers Between You & Your Drug

There’s a famous story in Homer’s Odyssey where Odysseus and his crew must sail through a part of the sea that has Sirens (half-women, half-bird creatures whose enchanted song lured sailors to their death).

To prepare for this, Odysseus orders his crew to put beeswax in their ears and tie him to the mast so that he couldn’t break loose (because he wished to hear their song).

Once Odysseus hears the Sirens, he yells and begs his crew to untie him, but because they have beeswax in their ears, they can’t hear him. In the end, Odysseus and his crew make it safely through.

This famous Greek myth serves as a great example of how to reduce addiction. It’s best to remove the temptation or place (or have others place) barriers between you and your drug of choice.

Here are a few examples the author shares:

• If you’re addicted to video games, unplug the console and put it in your closet or garage.

• If you’re addicted to shopping, cancel your credit cards and only use cash.

• If you’re addicted to drinking, call hotels beforehand and ask them to remove the minibar.

• If you’re addicted to taking too many pills, have your wife give you the prescribed amount and tell her to put the rest in a locked drawer where only she has the key.

• If you’re addicted to your phone, get a kSafe and lock your phone in there for a few hours.

The more barriers you place between you and your drug of choice, the less likely you’re to be tempted and act on your impulses.

📖

3) Combat Addiction With Exercise

We all know exercise is good for us and there are a ton of studies about the benefits of it.

Exercise increases many of the neurotransmitters involved in positive mood regulation such as dopamine and serotonin, it contributes to the birth of new neurons, and now studies show that it can reduce the likelihood of using and getting addicted to drugs.

High levels of physical activity in junior high, high school, and early adulthood predict lower levels of drug use. Exercise has also been shown to help those already addicted to stop or cut back.

Humans evolved to travel tens of kilometers daily to find food, water, and shelter. But today, people spend half of their waking hours sitting, 50% more than 50 years ago.

Dr. Lemke writes that even going for a 30-minute walk in your neighborhood can make a huge difference. She goes on to say that:

“The evidence is indisputable: Exercise has a more profound and sustained positive effect on mood, anxiety, cognition, energy, and sleep than any pill I can prescribe.”

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Don’t reach for your phone the next time you’re bored:

• The next time you get that itch to grab your phone, stop yourself and just reflect on what you’re trying to distract yourself from and why.

2) Think of ways you can put barriers between you and your drug of choice:

• A few tips for my fellow phone addicts:

  • Move all your social media apps to the last page on your phone

  • Set a screentime-limit on all of the apps

  • Get a kSafe to lock your phone in there

  • Get a Wifi timer to turn off the internet

  • Put your phone on greyscale mode

3) A few quotes from the book worth reflecting on:

• “The paradox is that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure for it's own sake, leads to anhedonia. Which is the inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind.”

• “The reason we’re all so miserable may be because we’re working so hard to avoid being miserable.”

• “We’re all running from pain. Some of us take pills. Some of us couch surf while binge-watching Netflix. Some of us read romance novels.”

• “We’ll do almost anything to distract ourselves from ourselves. Yet all this trying to insulate ourselves from pain seems only to have made our pain worse.”

• “The paradox is that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, leads to anhedonia, which is the inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind.”

• “What’s pleasurable for one person may not be for another. Each person has their “drug of choice.”

• “Without pleasure we wouldn’t eat, drink, or reproduce. Without pain we wouldn’t protect ourselves from injury and death.”

Plus go for a 30-minute walk today.

📖 Reading Lesson:

10 Easy Ways to Find Books Great Books That Won't Waste Your Time.

💎 Weekly Gem:

How to get SO rich you question the meaning of making money

Alex Hormozi is back with another banger. This video is 51 minutes long but it’s packed with so many gems it had me wishing it was even longer.

Thank you for your support, I'll see you next Sunday!

Read on,

Alex W.