How dipping into dreams destroys your motivation and how to stop it

Why we love dreaming and making plans so much

Probably, every person sometimes loves to dream: to imagine how some desires are fulfilled, to think about a vacation, to mentally see his victory in a competition.

At this moment, you are only imagining the achievement, and not actually accomplishing it. Why, then, having no real basis, thoughts of victories and awards are so pleasant and attractive? It's all about the neurotransmitter dopamine, which keeps us motivated.

Dopamine has long been associated with pleasure, but long-term research is Dopamine Not About Pleasure. John Salamon proved that this hormone is responsible not so much for pleasure as for expectation.

Motivation for action directly depends on the level of dopamine. For example, mice with low dopamine levels always took the shorter route to prey, even if going through some of the trials promised a much greater reward.

In humans, the relationship between dopamine levels and the desire to do something is clearly visible in depression. Reduced dopamine levels prevent people from anticipating the pleasure of future events, so they don't want anything.

Because of low dopamine levels, humans and animals lose the desire to do something for the reward, so dopamine is more responsible for motivation and cost-benefit analysis than for pleasure itself.

John Salamone researcher at the University of Connecticut

Pleasant images and dreams increase the production of dopamine, which brings pleasure to anticipation and pushes us to achieve what we want. Ideally, the scheme should be like this: anticipation → fulfillment → receiving.

But the habit of dreaming and making unrealizable plans excludes the last two points from this scheme. Completing and receiving are replaced by the constant running through the head of pleasant thoughts about non-existent victories. As a result, it becomes enough for the release of dopamine to be enjoyable.

Unfortunately, our body is tuned in such a way that we cannot enjoy the same things for a long time and at the same time maintain the same intensity of sensations. Empty daydreaming, like any other enjoyable action, can turn into addiction.

How addiction is formed

When an addicted person sees a stimulus associated with their addiction, the level of dopamine in the striatum of the brain rises Dopamine in drug abuse and addiction: results of imaging studies and treatment implications. that makes him buy drugs, eat cake, smoke a cigarette.

However, constant stimulation of the reward system with large doses of dopamine forces the brain to adapt to the increased levels of the neurotransmitter.

In addicted people, the number of dopamine D2 receptors decreases and less dopamine is secreted in the striatum. Moreover, a decrease in the number of D2 receptors in the striatum is associated with a decrease in the activity of the orbitofrontal cortex, a region associated with motivation and compulsive behavior, and the cingulate gyrus, which is responsible for behavioral control. This leads to a loss of control over their behavior, which is typical for addicted people.

Thus, consistently high doses of dopamine negatively affect your receptors and the reward system in general. By artificially stimulating yourself with pleasurable daydreams every day, you unjustly get large amounts of dopamine, which negatively affects your ability to enjoy what is happening in reality.

How dream addiction prevents you from reaching your goals

When you enjoy only a dream or a plan, you stop feeling the need to achieve. What is the point of achieving something if you have already received your reward?

The only thing you do is play pleasant thoughts in your head and get your dose of dopamine.

It is harmful even in the concept of "thinking determines being." Indeed, for the hundredth time presenting some unrealistic scenarios and doing nothing to implement them, you are missing out on real opportunities that no longer seem so attractive.

How to get rid of addiction

To return joy from reality and stop living in dreams and fantasies, you need to wean yourself from experiencing non-existent victories.

One of the best ways to learn to see the good in reality is through meditation. Five minutes a day is enough for your perception of reality to sharpen and you begin to notice pleasant little things that previously seemed commonplace.

In addition, meditation teaches you to get out of the tangled labyrinths of your fantasies and concentrate on the present moment - on what is happening now in your head, in your body, around.

Leaving your fantasies, you will see that there is a lot of pleasant things in the world around you, and by stopping mental stimulation, you will save your dopamine receptors and will be able to achieve much more in life.