Welcome into the Happy Chemicals series where I'll be teaching you how to tap into the natural hormones we release when we feel good and having a way that you can tap into them naturally.
I'm a scholar,
Licensed therapist,
Meditation teacher and today we're going to be focusing on dopamine.
This is an active meditation that feels more like a ritual where you're going to be supported by me in a mindful way.
So dopamine is the hormone that is associated with reward.
So it's the feeling we get once we've completed a task,
The feeling we get celebrating little wins,
Could also be big wins as well.
We can get it from achievable goals,
Trying something new,
Listening to music,
Eating good food.
With dopamine we of course want to be gentle with any over-reliance here because like with anything it can have its downside.
Now that might be if we over rely on things that give us basically a dopamine hit like looking at our phone and seeing likes on our social media and food and being overproductive.
If any of that brings stuff up for you it doesn't mean you can't still do this practice but I would also say team this with something that's going to be supportive.
So if you know you actually are quite overproductive could you still do this and see how you can do it in a gentle way of getting dopamine going but also maybe team it with a meditation in here on releasing any need for over productivity.
So when you're ready let's get started and this is going to be quite an active practice so it's going to be more of a ritual whilst also being mindful.
I would suggest you do this promptly in the comfort of your own home so that you've got space to do this.
Let's start though by finding a comfy position and coming inwards to check in with ourself.
So just start by taking a deep breath coming inwards maybe even placing a hand over your heart and just really connecting with your inner world.
We're going to take a deep breath in through the nose when you're ready releasing any tension as you exhale out through the mouth another deep breath filling up the chest filling up the lungs filling up the belly and you get to the top of the breath releasing everything out again through your mouth letting go of any tension.
So we're going to set an intention together today and we're going to set an intention to recognize our ability to get things done and achieve things that we set ourselves out to.
You have absolutely got the ability to achieve your goals and you absolutely have the ability to get things done that you need to but I want you to set that intention see if you can start to see this without pressure without telling yourself you're not good enough without telling yourself that you have to be productive but simply this feeling that I can I can do things I can get things done I can try new things see if you can just tap into this feeling more of a sense of confidence than a sense of pressure you are so so capable this is going to help you get out of any procrastination or freeze mode if you struggle with this so together almost as a group with my support and the support of anyone listening to this with you we're going to complete a task now or rather a ritual to help you to see how capable you are so what we're going to do is we're going to set a four minute timer which will be the music still playing in your ears or on your phone if you walk away from your phone for a moment as listening to this and I'll still be here with you but what you're going to do is you're going to decide to do a task that you have been putting off for a while or if not something you've been putting off just simply something that could do with getting done I would suggest that's just a simple physical task and nothing too complicated it could be something like cleaning your bathroom sink it could be something like putting away a pen or paper that you've been meaning to find a drawer for something that is simple and easy and very much doable washing up a cup it could be absolutely anything what we're going to do together almost as a group here is we're going to set a four minute timer and I'll be with you still you're going to complete that task that's going to get dopamine going and then we'll come back to each other so when you're ready the music's going to play for four minutes decide what you want to do trusting yourself in that get assertive get decisive and get going come back to me in a few moments okay how are you feeling I'm guessing by now you've done that task that you set yourself out to do you've completed whatever it was however big or small and I want you to just check back in with how this feels so maybe sit down again close your eyes go in once instead of now tapping into I can you're now going to tap into I did so this sense of I did that I achieved that I got that done I'm so capable how does that feel seeing if you can celebrate this small win for yourself this is great to help with things like procrastination this is great to help you to see that we can get dopamine going in the smallest of ways this is also great to just let yourself see your mini small achievements so when you're feeling stuck and when your energy is feeling low could you come back to this and do this with me when you know you need a boost and you know you almost need someone there with you supporting you as you do this come back to this or any of the other three happy chemical meditations in this series to see what it's like to get these chemicals going in your body remember not to overdo the dopamine and come to meditation if you're needing something to also settle that I'll see you again in another meditation
