In an era of overstimulation & instant gratification, the brain doesn’t always know best

 Our lives, in essence, are the sum of the decisions we make, the friends we choose to keep, the food we eat, and the small habits that we hold for ourselves on a daily basis. 

Yet, in our fast-paced, technological world, where we are both as connected yet as divided as ever, it often feels as if society’s course has taken an unusual turn. In the pursuit of ease and pleasure, we seek fast meals, on-demand entertainment, and the cheap dopamine thrills from our smartphones. It’s become a hedonistic society where convenience is king.

So what is it about the 21st century that is weighing down our health so much? Well, plenty.

We now live in an era of overstimulation and instant gratification 

At work, our brains are constantly engaged, be it by work emails, WhatsApp and Slack messages, Zoom calls, and meetings. When we get home, we are accosted by ‘constantly-on devices’, social media, streaming services, smart speakers, televisions, and more. We are always connected. Our brain has no reprieve.

Some researchers believe that all these ‘cheap dopamine hits’ we get from our pinging notifications lead to reduced sensitivity to dopamine over time, which “makes it harder to find pleasure in everyday activities and causes a lack of motivation,” i.e. depression.

These dopamine spikes can also activate our brains' fight-or-flight response, leaving us in a constant state of high alert. Back in the day, when humans used to get chased by lions and bears, this kind of response helped us stay alive so we could pass our genes to our offspring. But just like our in-built desire that makes us crave sugar and fat, this kind of approach does not serve us well in the modern age.

Our time and attention are among our greatest assets, yet we waste them away watching drama-filled reality TV shows like Love Island on Netflix, or doomsday scrolling on Reddit. Our self-worth is influenced by the curated lives we see on Instagram. We mold digital doppelgängers of ourselves, retouching our selfies on FaceTune, and then we get matching surgical alterations to conform to this unnatural, filtered ideal. Rather than setting foot in a gym, some are resorting to extreme measures like Ozempic to shed “a few pounds”. Society spends millions of dollars on these band-aid ‘solutions’ that offer temporary remedies to our weight and body image problems. In a world that’s obsessed with quick fixes and superficial enhancements, it’s become easy to lose sight of what truly matters.

It’s a heavy capitalist society where we’ve become perfectly engineered to want more - consume more. 

A quick, little dopamine hit here, a quick dopamine hit there. But we’re never fully satisfied. Because how could the above truly do so?

I believe that in a world of distractions, we need to be mindful of how we interact with our tech, algorithms and our environment. Amid this chaos, we must pause to reflect and direct our time toward what genuinely matters versus what gives us instant gratification. 

The chemicals that govern our behavior

While you may have heard of the ‘happy hormone’ serotonin, which helps regulate anxiety, happiness, and mood, what most people don’t realize is that around 95% of your serotonin is made in your gut. There is a complex network of neurons and neurotransmitters located in the lining of our gastrointestinal tract, including our stomachs, and small and large intestines. Scientists call this the ‘gut brain’ and it plays a pivotal role in regulating our physiological and mental processes, including learning, memory, and mood. It communicates with our brain, influencing our actions and reactions. Hence, what we eat profoundly affects not only our performance at work but also our emotions and how we perceive situations. I guess this adds a new depth of meaning to the term “trusting your gut”. Not only this, but our gut microbiome is one of the most important levers of health given its connectivity to almost every biological function and organ system in our bodies.

Once I’d learned about the importance of my gut health (and I also realized that I was heavily addicted to the ‘busyness’ and craziness of entrepreneurship, reality TV, and my iPhone), I decided to commit to being better when it came to both my diet and my life. Because what use would it be if I was pushing hard, five to seven days, to grow successful businesses, when my physical and mental performance, my relationships, and my overall happiness were being held back? 

I keep telling myself, and now I’m here to tell others like me, that we can’t pour from an empty cup. We need to hack our life and the environment around us so that we get a full diet of natural ‘happiness’ chemicals. In addition to dopamine and serotonin, we need oxytocin (the ‘love hormone’ that we get through socializing with friends, petting animals, and helping others), and endorphins (the ‘painkiller,’ created through laughter and listening to music). 

Because let’s face it: in today’s environment, our brains and body don’t always know what’s best for us. 

We will never reach our full potential unless we push back against the allure of these instant ‘kicks’, by making a conscious effort to seek healthier, authentic sources of dopamine. Whether it's through exercising at the gym, savoring a wholesome meal we cooked from scratch, immersing ourselves in nature, delving into a good book, or starting that business idea that’s been gathering dust in our heads, we all possess the power to make meaningful choices in how we allocate our daily attention. 

So the question, then, is how do we alter our environments and our minds to lead better, healthier lives? Let’s investigate….

Small sustainable habits Granny would have suggested 

I believe it all starts with small, sustainable habits that over time, improve and become our standard way of living. Like the body, the brain is a tool, and its well-being is dependent on how we treat it, and how well we exercise it. Yes, just like we go to the gym to lose weight and build muscle, there are ways to exercise the brain and build mental discipline. 

If you’ve been following my content, you’ll know I’m big on biohacking and longevity, and I have been experimenting with my lifestyle and interviewing experts for my documentary. Unfortunately, there is not yet a magic pill we can pop. Many of which say we need to pay attention to the basics, the advice our grandmothers would have told us.

The importance of sleep 

If you fall into the artificial molds of morning lark or night owl, you have to understand that these are purely fictional misconceptions. Remember that our brains don’t always know what’s best for us, and it is in our hands to hack our circadian rhythms to step out of these buckets we put ourselves in. Most data shows these individuals have worse health than those who rise with the sun, for example. Kristen Homes, Vice President of Performance Science at wearables company WHOOP, recently touched on this in a very interesting episode of Diary of a CEO.

She talks about the importance of getting 7-8 hours of sleep and going to bed at the same time every night. She also discusses the concept of sleep deficit, and how getting some sleep in is like keeping sleep sayings at the bank—one good night doesn’t just make up for 6 bad nights of sleep scarcity.

Establish a strict sleeping schedule with rituals that allow your brain to enter the right states for sleeping and being awake. I like to have no screen time 30 minutes before sleep, and when I first wake up, I pull open the curtains and look out the window. After all, light is the strongest synchronizing agent for the circadian system that keeps most biological and psychological rhythms internally synchronized, as per a 2019 paper. And when we disrupt it with blue light exposure, we put our bodies into chaos, which brings about all kinds of detrimental effects, including weight gain, and poor decision making.

Eat great food

On episode 34 of my podcast HYPERSCALE, Sebastijan Orlić, the CEO of health consulting company Quality of Life and consultant for Glycanage, discussed gut health. He told me to picture the microbe found in my gut like a forest. If you keep feeding the forest only one particular food type, then you will only feed certain types of trees. To therefore maintain a healthy and balanced microbiome, you need to eat over 30 different kinds of food a week—a variation of fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, and more. 

For many years now, I’ve been on a no sugar diet. One of the issues with this substance is that it releases dopamine in the brain, which only pushes it to make your body crave more for another hit of that sweet, sweet ‘feel good’ hormone. Remember that sugar has been deemed by some scientists as more addictive than cocaine. It’s a matter of discipline to wean yourself off – I find it easier to just not have it in my house. And these days, when I have sugar I don’t enjoy it as it tastes too sweet.

Exercise both the body AND the brain 

Aside from physical exercise, which is quite self-explanatory, I love to explore ways to train my brain.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with biofeedback brain training. I underwent this training at Evolve Brain Training, a specialized clinic in Dubai. In a nutshell, it’s like a gym for your brain. I watch a YouTube or Netflix video with electrodes monitoring my brain activity. When my brain does something good (like concentrating), it’s rewarded with a big, clear picture on the TV screen. When my brain does something less desirable, the video decreases in size, gets fuzzy and the sound diminishes, which helps the brain self-regulate and adjust itself for better performance.

For many years, I suffered from chronic fatigue without even realizing! Of course, I knew I was tired, but isn’t every business person? Not only can biofeedback help with energy levels, people also receive training for decision making, anxiety, depression, focus, creativity, and lots more. 

Repurpose boredom - Do nothing

How come our best ideas come to us when we’re on a jog, or when we’re in the shower? When we deprive our minds of stimulation, we are enter our most creative states.

This is why some people began a wellness practice known as ‘dopamine fasting’ which went viral back in 2019. After all, our brains were never meant to be processing so much dopamine, especially when we don’t have to ‘work’ for it, and especially not for over a dozen hours a day. 

I love doing nothing. I have a busy schedule with travel, work and my projects, but I like to schedule time away from my phone to sit on the couch or floor and do nothing, or go for a walk, even if it’s just for 10 or 20 mins a day. Outside under the trees or down by the river (when I’m in NYC) is often where I come up with my most creative ideas such as deciding to spend 48 Hours non-stop in the metaverse and to film an indie doco about my experience. 

—

Let’s remember, being intentional about our time and making sure we do the things that give us real dopamine and make us truly happy takes mindful work and effort, and it starts with setting up our environment. Expressing self-love isn’t always a spa day, it’s holding yourself to a higher standard. Let’s consciously steer our lives rather than let life just happen to us.