7 Dopamine Hacks for Motivation and Wellness

Right now if you’re honest with yourself, your self-discipline and willpower kinda sucks. There’s things you need to do – projects to start, weight to lose, substances to reduce – but you just can’t manage it. You interpret this as a failure of character, but to me it just shows your dopamine circuits are out of whack. So here are 7 dopamine hacks to motivate you to kick your addictions and follow your dreams.

I’m a highly motivated and self-disciplined guy. In fact, I’ve been a towering inferno of productivity since the age of 19, and only very recently ‘burnt-out’. This is something my lovers and close friends have long remarked upon – whether it be discipline around food, work, study or addictions. I therefore started to take a certain amount of pride in my magnificently well-endowed willpower until I realized that it’s just the other side of how my dopamine-circuit is wired.

Since ‘willpower’ has been seen in moral terms rather than neurological ones, ‘addiction’ has thus also been seen as a shameful testimony to your basic lack of character and ‘back-bone’.

What is the Dopamine Circuit?

The latest neuro-scientific research in this field has finally caught up and changed our understanding over the last few decades in terms of what’s happening in the brain. It is now evident that a wide range of behaviors, which are repeatedly reinforcing the reward, motivation and memory circuitry are all part of the dopamine circuit.

So in a way it doesn’t matter if you’re addicted to relationships, chocolate, Facebook, praise, work, cigarettes or coffee – you’re addicted to a simple way of releasing dopamine in your brain.

• Dopamine is love.

• Dopamine is lust.

• Dopamine is attention.

• Dopamine is addiction.

• Yet dopamine is also motivation.

• Dopamine is also ‘willpower’.

You’re plenty motivated to go and get that morning coffee right?  But what about the other stuff sweet friend?

7 Dopamine Hacks to Kick Addiction and Follow Your Dreams

#1 Mucunu: By far the most famous herbal dopamine agonist, it provides the building blocks of dopamine and thus assists in Parkinson’s and other dopamine dependent diseases.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15858373/

 #2 Coptis: Berberine increases dopamine levels and thus helps fight PTSD, depression and anxiety.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5840077/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26616870/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18585703/

 #3 Mountain Ginseng: Ginseng protects the brain by up-regulating dopamine circuits and even possesses “an inhibitory action against nicotine-induced dopamine release.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10771206/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16251992/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4503934/

#4 Cannabinoids: “Many behaviors and disease states that have traditionally been conceptualized as ‘Dopamine dependent’ are now understood to arise from interactions between the endocannabinoid system and the dopamine system (…) Research into the dopamine circuit has revealed a crucial regulatory role for the endocannabinoid system.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5608040/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5315552/

 #5 Essential Fatty Acids: Give increased dopamine levels in the brain by a massive 40% together with enhanced dopamine binding capabilities.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9868201/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6288804/

 #6 Oregano Oil: Promotes dopamine production whilst simultaneously inhibiting its deterioration thus providing antidepressant effects.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21205415/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20608992/

 #7 Tribulus: Blocks the breakdown of dopamine via harmine’s MAO activity.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3931200/

Each of these works on different pathways of your ‘motivation & willpower’ dopamine circuits – but the combination is where the magick happens!

This article is reprinted from the author’s page here and is used with permission.

Dr Jimi Wollumbin has spent the last 22 years in clinical practice and has had the opportunity to research some of the most respected traditional medical systems; these include the Chinese, Tibetan, Indian and Persian traditions. He has also been fortunate enough to work in a series of community health and international aid initiatives. For more info see: https://www.doctorjimi.com