Dopamine menus + journaling prompts

Major flavours of the month feat. my first Vancouver journaling workshop.

Part of getting older is realizing that the surplus of dopamine you enjoyed on Friday night with your yam fries was lent to you from elsewhere. Enter: The Sunday scaries. 

So, how do we avoid a rollercoaster of dopamine levels throughout our week, or from season to season? For example, West Coast winter’s dreaded Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. So much so that I spent some time this week designing a class around the subject. If we know each other from Nicaragua or Sayulita, I may be lucky enough to have hosted you in one of my journaling classes in the last couple of years. If you live in the Vancouver area, you can check out the class I’m referencing here.

As I prepare for my first wave of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in over three years (yikes)

It seems that, other than avoiding things that deplete our dopamine levels (espresso martinis, not enough sleep, work stress etc.) another thing we can do to effectively even ‘er out is catalyze the production of more. Especially on days when we need that little bit extra in exchange for say, loss of sleep due to a tight work deadline, or the aftermath of a late night out dancing with friends (I wish the latter for you). 

A social media trend that has recently caught my attention has been dopamine ‘menus’. If you live under a TikTok rock (God bless you) this is typically a curated list of creators’ simple experiences, routines, places, hobbies etc. that bring them day-to-day joy, aka increasing the dopamine production in their brains. That’s something definitely worth thinking about–or rather writing or chatting about IMO. This brings me to my next point: journaling as a method to increase your dopamine levels. Not only does writing down those little practices result in joy (fact: when you write about what you’re grateful for, or things that bring you joy, your brain releases dopamine and serotonin) but I believe the act of writing them down also reminds you to practice them, off paper. For example, when you wake up and get out of bed, you’ll be more likely to remember that making your bed daily makes you feel good because you included it in a recent journal entry. Or, on your way to work when you notice the sunshine peeking through the trees, you might take a second between texts to look up and appreciate that simple moment you had jotted down; your gratitude for those early summer mornings making its way from paper to the present moment. Inadvertently, the stuff you write down will be what you focus on.

The burrata starring in my dopamine menu lately

If you’ve gotten this far and need a refresher on ‘happy hormones’

Dopamine makes us feel good. This hormone also plays a role in memory and pleasurable reward—as well as motivation. The best part? It reproduces itself the the brain, so all you have to do is spark the positive feedback loop with, say, making your bed and you’re off to the races.

For inspiration (or entertainment), and as a nod towards next month’s workshop, my own dopamine list: 

• My little morning walk—alone or with a friend (often on the phone these days, because long-distance friendships)

• Reaching a state of flow in a run 

• Eating anything with Burrata 

• Surfing (duh) 

• This song by Boy & Bear

• Reading (currently) The Summer of Wonder, by Tiffany Manchester

• Beading jewelry with my Mom 

• Writing this Substack 

• Following a joy-themed journal prompt (from my upcoming book! eek!)

Lastly, I’ve come to discover it’s also inspiring—or sparking creativity in others.

Fast forward through teaching a rogue journaling class for a retreat in the tropics, and then a series of practice runs in my tiny apartment to friends before my weekly series of creative writing, poetry, and journaling classes came to fruition. Journaling took over as the preferred subject, and without a doubt became my biggest joy to teach. As someone who’d never per se, taught, this was definitely an unexpected outcome but one of the greatest gifts from my time in the tropics. Largely due to the support of the community—and my dear friends for being my guinea pigs in exchange for coffee and banana bread (always).