Welcome to Day 4 of the Dopamine Rebalance Challenge here on Insight Timer.
Each day you'll practice one simple skill to reset your relationship with distraction and reward,
Retraining your brain for focus.
Let's jump in to today's session.
Hello and welcome to the Dopamine Rebalance Challenge here on Insight Timer.
My name's Andy Hobson and today I'm going to teach you a simple breath counting meditation that will help you to steady your dopamine system.
Our dopamine system is highly sensitive to novelty experiences,
Yes,
Like phone scrolling.
It's a quick win for that dopamine hit,
But it steals our precious time and energy and can negatively affect our mental health.
And we live in a world where stimulation is constant,
So our dopamine system becomes trained to expect these frequent shifts,
And so staying on one task feels like it takes a lot of effort,
When it should feel natural.
Counting each breath from 1 to 10 may seem simple,
But neurologically it's doing something very powerful.
When you stay with one count,
Then the next,
Then the next,
You're strengthening the brain circuits that associate reward with sustained effort,
Rather than novelty,
And then over time something subtle changes.
Finishing a count begins to feel quietly satisfying,
Not exciting or dramatic,
Just steady.
And that steady satisfaction is dopamine functioning as it was designed to.
So let's begin.
Get yourself nice and comfortable and close your eyes,
And now narrowing your focus to your breath coming in and out of your nose,
Feeling the cool air coming in and the warm air going out.
And now we're going to count our breaths,
From 1 to 3 to start with,
And then you can have a go on your own.
So as you breathe in,
Counting 1,
And as you breathe out,
Counting 1 again.
As you breathe in,
Counting 2.
Breathing out,
Counting 2.
Breathing in,
Counting 3.
Breathing out,
Counting 3.
Keeping it nice and simple.
And now I invite you to count from 1 to 10 in the same way,
Doing this in your own time.
And if you notice that your mind's wandered off away from counting,
Gently bring your attention back and begin again,
Counting from 1.
And doing this without judgement when you notice that your mind's wandered off,
As it surely will.
So,
Beginning by counting 1 on your in-breath,
And 1 on your out-breath,
All the way to 10,
And then start back again at 1.
And if you notice that your mind's gone for a wander,
Gently bring your attention back and start again at 1.
And now I'm inviting you to open your eyes as we end this meditation.
And as you return to your day,
Remember that you can do this practice any time,
Especially when you notice yourself becoming distracted,
When you're jumping between tasks,
Or you catch yourself reaching for your phone.
In that moment,
Just pause and notice maybe just 3 breaths in the same way that we have just done,
And then continue with whatever it was you were doing.
And over time you'll start to notice a shift as you retrain your dopamine system to find its reward in sustained effort,
Rather than novelty distraction.
Well done,
Have a lovely day,
And good luck for the rest of the challenge.
