Motivation Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Fusion Health and Wellness

Supplements Everyone Can Benefit From, Pt. 2

In case you missed it, here’s the first post.

In a perfect world we wouldn’t need to consume supplements – everything would taste like pizza while being super healthy. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Omega 3s – Control inflammation, improve joint function, lower weight, improve heart health, ward off depression and improve the quality of your skin

It’s starting to seem very likely that the root cause of modern day chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, depression, Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis and more, is inflammation.

Inflammation is an important and beneficial process within the human body, helping to heal the body from infection, wounds and other sorts of damage. This is all well and good unless the inflammatory process goes into overdrive, which is all too often the case in today’s world and largely due to overconsumption of Omega-6 fatty acids and consuming too few Omega 3s.

As you can see from the image above, sources of Omega 6 fatty acids, mainly vegetable oils, lead to the production of pro-inflammatory compounds, an excess of which can start to wreak havoc on the body. GLA is an Omega 6 fatty acid that is actually anti-inflammatory (and very beneficial for the skin and hair), but be aware that GLA can be converted first to DGLA and then AA, which is pro-inflammatory, so don’t assume that simply supplementing with foods high in GLA is wholly beneficial. It’s important to note that most restaurants use corn and soy oils for frying and cooking, and that they’re also ubiquitous in processed, packaged food. Further, the majority of meat, eggs and dairy sold in stores and restaurants come from animals fed corn and soy products, so they too are high in Omega 6s. In short, Omega 6 fatty acids are everywhere.

Omega 3 fatty acids, on the other hand, are entirely anti-inflammatory. Some plants such as flax, walnuts, chia seeds, hemp seeds and dark leafy greens are good sources of ALA, which can further be converted into EPA, and then DHA. These all have anti-inflammatory effects.

Meat, dairy and eggs are pro-inflammatory if they are conventionally raised and fed corn and soy based foods – if they’re free-range and grass-fed, they have a much more natural balance of Omega 3s to 6s. Meat, eggs and dairy from grass-fed and pasture-raised animals still contain the inflammatory Omega 6 Arachidonic Acid, but it is balanced out by Omega 3s.

And that’s what’s important – the proper balance between Omega 3s and 6s.

Change in Omega-6/Omega-3 Ratios over Time

Human Population	Ratio	Diet Features
Hunter-gatherers (400,000 to 45,000 years ago)	1:1	Wild plants, animals, and fish
Western cultures at onset of Industrial Revolution (150 years ago)	8.4:1	Greatly increased vegetable oils along with animals raised on cereal grains
Present-day Western cultures (70 years ago)	10.3:1	Increased fats, oils, vegetables, and nuts

Source: Kris-Etherton et al. 2000.

As you can see, our diet consisted of a (likely) 1:1 ratio of Omega 6s to 3s for the majority of our existence. Nowadays most people average 10 times as many pro-inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acids in their diet than anti-inflammatory Omega 3s, with some estimates as high as 15:1. Is it really any wonder why we’re seeing such widespread occurrences of inflammation-related diseases?

Omega 3s also improve cardiovascular health and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as ensuring proper nervous system and brain development in infants. There’s also quite a bit of evidence that Omega 3s improve depression, skin conditions and cognition in general.

In order to get back to a healthy balance of Omega 3s to 6s, simply cut out consumption of vegetable oils – check labels on food products for corn, soy, safflower, peanut, sunflower and grapeseed oils, as well as avoiding margarine, mayonnaise and almost every salad dressing out there. Make your own mayonnaise, and use olive oil as the base for your homemade salad dressings. You’d do well to remember that most restaurants cook with these cheap vegetable oils to cut costs and also use them in salad dressings – the occasional serving of french fries won’t kill ya, but it’s something to keep in mind.

At the same time, increase consumption of Omega 3s coming from cold water fatty fish – mackerel, tuna, salmon, sardines and cod – and from plant sources such as hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts and leafy greens. As I noted in my post for Vegans and Vegetarians, the plant-based Omega 3 ALA has quite the difficult time converting into DHA within the body, which is critical for proper brain development and warding off depression, so don’t rely on just plants for your Omega 3s. You can also choose to supplement (I do) with a quality cod liver or fish oil supplement, but make sure it’s high quality, is cold-temperature extracted and comes with antioxidants to protect the delicate Omega 3s. Barlean’s makes a fish oil “swirl” that is insanely delicious, and there’s also algae-based DHA is that is vegan friendly.

Iodine – Boost metabolism, improve thyroid function, ensure healthy fetal development, boost energy and motivation, detox at the cellular level and improve endocrine functioning

Iodine is definitely in my top 10 if not top 5 nutrients I wouldn’t want to be without.

Let me start by saying no, you are not getting adequate iodine from your table salt. The potassium iodide added to refined table salt does not come close to the amount needed by the human body, but is just barely enough to prevent goiter. Much of the iodine evaporates during storage, and what little is left when you do consume it has to compete for absorption with the chloride in sodium chloride, or table salt.

The Great Goblin from The Hobbit could use some iodine. — The Great Goblin from The Hobbit could use some iodine, look at that goiter..

Further, while we used to get some iodine from our food, there’s very little left in today’s over-farmed, nutrient-depleted soils, and thus in the foods we eat.

Iodine is necessary for the production of thyroid hormones. This is really bad news if you’re trying to lose weight and have ample amounts of energy, as the thyroid is the main gland in the endocrine system responsible for controlling metabolism. No iodine, no thyroid hormones.

Iodine is a type of molecule known as a halogen. Other halogens include fluoride and bromide, both of which interfere with the body’s absorption and utilization of iodine. Bromide is found in most breads and refined grain products, and fluoride is in the majority of the US’s water supply and in most toothpastes. These other halogens fit into the same receptors as iodine would, blocking it from doing it’s job. The good news is that consuming iodine-rich foods is an effective way, and some say only way, to detox excess fluoride and bromide.

According to this article, “Dr. Kenezy Gyula Korhaz states that iodine chelates heavy metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium and aluminum and halogens such as fluoride and bromide, thus decreasing their iodine inhibiting effects, especially of the halogens.” Chelation is the process by which a molecule binds to a toxic substance and draws it out of the body.

Iodine is also pretty damn important for the brain and nervous system. The chapter Soils and Iodine Deficiency from the textbook Essentials of Medical Geology (exciting stuff huh?) states

However, while these two diseases are easily recognizable, perhaps the more insidious problem is that iodine deficiency impairs brain development in children even when there is no obvious physical effect. Many researchers have suggested that a relatively low degree of iodine deficiency during fetal development can result in a significant reduction of IQ in children. Indeed it has been suggested that iodine deficiency is the most common preventable cause of mental retardation.

Clearly iodine is of prime importance, not just to fetuses (feti?) but to the neuronal health of everyone.

Iodine is also critical to proper dopamine production and utilization. I talk about dopamine quite a bit because it’s crucial for proper levels of motivation and experiencing pleasure, two things that at least I personally never want to be short on. As I already stated, iodine is essential for the production of thyroid hormones. If the thyroid isn’t producing enough of these thyroid hormones, the hypothalamus produces thyrotropin-releasing hormone, which in turn releases thyroid-stimulating hormone as well as prolactin. Prolactin is antagonistic to dopamine, and thus low iodine results in low dopamine, leaving you feeling unmotivated and getting very little pleasure out of life, even in the presence of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Interestingly, this is also the reason guys experience a “refractory period” after sex, and why it’s the best time to cuddle – cuz you’re high on prolactin.

The pineal gland is a tiny endocrine gland located at the base of the brain, shaped like a pine cone the size of a grain of rice. It produces melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep, sets circadian rhythms, and is a powerful antioxidant that is anticancer and promotes neurogenesis. In short, the pineal gland, along with melatonin, are pretty important.

Unfortunately, your pineal gland is likely calcified.

The above is an image of the calcified pineal gland, in a two-day old, no less. The overconsumption of fluoride from water, toothpastes and mouthwashes causes it’s accumulation in the pineal gland. This impairs the pineal gland’s ability to set circadian rhythms and convert serotonin into melatonin. It’s even been found that a calcified pineal gland worsens one’s sense of direction. Again, the only way to detoxify the body from halogens such as fluoride is by consuming adequate amounts of iodine. Some Vitamin K2 will also probably help remove calcium deposits from the pineal gland, but this is just a hunch.

There’s one reliably good source of iodine – seaweeds. Hijiki, kelp, kombu, dulse, nori and others are concentrated sources of nutrients, especially iodine. I simply buy these Kelp flakes and shake them onto most of my meals – a quarter teaspoon provides plenty of iodine and you won’t taste a thing. Most wild-caught seafood also has a fair amount of iodine. Increase your consumption of iodine-rich foods slowly, as some can experience detox symptoms pretty quickly.

If you’re looking for fluoride free toothpaste, I use this brand, but you can also likely find different varieties at your local health food store.

Important note for those with thyroid disorders – if you’re going to be consuming iodine-rich foods, talk to your primary care physician first. Iodine will likely help but may interact with your thyroid medication.

By the way, the fluoride in your water and toothpaste is a waste-product of fertilizer companies, and likely doesn’t even protect your teeth from cavities.

“By recovering by-product fluosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water authorities have a low-cost source of fluoride available to them.” (Rebecca Hanmer, EPA, 1983)

Bone Broth – Heal your digestive system, improve your skin and hair, detox your liver, bolster your joints, improve your sleep, reduce inflammation, boost the immune system

More a food than supplement, bone broth is one of the best things you could spend time making and consuming. Bone broth is my very top pick for improving your skin and hair, for improving your digestive system, and improving the quality of your joints. On top of this, it boosts your immune system, detoxes your liver, improves sleep and reduces inflammation. Oh yeah, and it’s pretty damn tasty. All this from just boiling some bones in water.

Think that sounds gross? Remember that in France, no kitchen is considered complete with a pot of “stock”, or bone broth, quietly boiling in the corner. Have you had French cuisine? Delicious.

Bone broth is a “hydrophilic colloid” – a substance that attracts and holds different substances, in our case minerals and digestive juices. Because it attracts digestive juices and enzymes, it bolsters out digestive power, making meals easier to digest. It’s also chock full of minerals phosphorus, silicon, calcium and magnesium, in the exact ratios our bodies need, helping to build up our bone tissue.

Bone broth is also extremely rich in easy to absorb collagen, which has numerous benefits within the body. Most importantly, collagen helps to “seal and heal” the mucosal lining of our intestinal tract, a boon for people with Crohn’s disease, leaky gut syndrome as well as your average Joe. As you already know, a properly functioning gut is the foundation of vibrant health.

Collagen is a main component of connective tissues, such as skin, joints and hair. The reason an 18 year old girl has beautiful skin compared to an 80 year old woman is because the 18 year old still has healthy levels of collagen, which helps give skin lift. Why do Asian and French women have such beautiful skin? Both diets use a lot of bone broths or “stock”, which are the base for many of the sauces in these diets. Less collagen means skin is more prone to wrinkles, sagging and cellulite. Don’t want saggy skin, wrinkles or cellulite? Hope you’re consuming some source of collagen.

Collagen is extremely rich in two amino acids that are sorely lacking from the modern diet : glycine and proline. While proline’s main benefit is enhancing “youthful, non-sagging skin”, glycine is necessary for the production of glutathione, our body’s “master antioxidant”. Glutathione

is a powerful antioxidant
has the ability to regenerate other antioxidants – after an antioxidant gets used, it becomes inert, or worse, an oxidant itself
helps to detoxify the liver and kidneys
reduces “photo-aging” of the skin, and reduces build up of melanin
boosts the immune system
helps prevent cancer
attracts and eliminates toxins from the body

Glycine itself helps to detoxify the liver, improves sleep and anxiety, enhances the secretion of digestive juices, helps heal wounds, and is necessary for the synthesis of DNA and RNA.

Bone broth is replete with joint repair substances as well, namely glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). You may know a few of these by name – glucosamine and chondroitan. These are sold in pill form to help relieve pain in the joints of those with rheumatoid arthritis. Another is hyaluronic acid, a popular ingredient in facial creams and skin care products. Hyaluronic acid is one of the best ways to give skin extra lift and smoothness, as well as to help it retain moisture.

Best of all, bone broth is simple to make. Go to your local co-op or health food store and ask the meat department if they have any soup or marrow bones. You can also throw in knuckle and neck bones, as well as chicken feet (wash ’em first) as they’re extremely rich in gelatin. Buy a few pounds of bones and throw them in the crockpot with some water and a tablespoon or two of vinegar, letting them simmer one day for chicken bones or two days for beef bones. At the last hour you can add onions, carrots and celery to give the broth some extra flavor, and then just strain and enjoy.

It may gel up when you put it in the fridge – this is normal and actually a good sign that a lot of collagen has dissolved into the broth.

You can use bone broth as the base for soups, you can drink it with a little salt and pepper (works great for people who do intermittent fasting), or you can boil some of it down to make a delicious reduction. Have a little before or with meals to aid in digestion.

You can buy collagen from grass fed sources, glucosamine and chondroitan, as well as hyaluronic acid, but why spend all that money? Bone broth will cost you $10 tops, and is mighty tasty.

Tapas and Embracing the Uncomfortable – Keys to Success

There’s no doubt about it, I’ve lived a pretty comfortable life so far. That’s great for a little bit of personal enjoyment, but you know what it isn’t so great for? Moving up in life. Why strive for greatness, risk losing things and do a whole lot of work along the way (in short, get uncomfortable), when I can just comfortably stay where I’m at?

Turns out I needed to embrace the uncomfortable – I needed to roll my sleeves up and dive head first into discomfort. The truth is we’ll never really get anywhere unless we embrace the uncomfortable, unless we actively seek out discomfort.

The Stoics of ancient Greece, the Yogis of ancient (and modern) India and many others along the way welcomed discomfort into their lives, because they knew that if they weren’t experiencing some level of discomfort, they were likely stalling, not making progress in life, and wiring their brains to play it safe.

You aren’t making progress if you aren’t getting uncomfortable.

In fact the Yogis have a word for this very concept – Tapas. Tapas is one of the Niyamas, or Observances, needed in order to transcend the ego, which is the actual goal of Yoga. Tapas is the heat or fire needed to burn away the dross that covers and dulls the mind – examples of Tapas could include meditation, fasting, vows of silence, asceticism or even sexual abstinence. The physical postures, or asanas, are a form of Tapas as well.

When I first got into Yoga I was very drawn to Tapas, and in the course of about a month went from being lazy and hedonic to drastically cutting back on everyday pleasures. I went long periods without using social media, stopped aimlessly browsing the web, starting eating simple, plain food, fasted every Monday, and essentially cut out all “time wasters”. At the same time I read plenty of books on a variety of subjects (no fiction though) and did yoga and meditated daily. And by God if I didn’t notice the biggest increase in clarity of thought, calmness of emotion and a huge boost in productivity.

The reason I bring all this up is to help you realize that in order for you to reach your goals, whether it’s losing weight or making your first million dollars, you have to be willing to put in the time, work and effort and be uncomfortable.

Want to lose weight? You’re likely going to have to give up a few comfort foods, start eating new foods you’re not used to, start exercising with more intensity and regularity, etc. The good news is that not only will you start losing weight, but you’ll start adapting to these new discomforts – at which point you’ll have to adjust your regimen so as not to plateau.

I recommend getting uncomfortable every day – train yourself to embrace discomfort.

Maybe you fast on Mondays. Start your morning off with a cold shower. Pick up meditation and meditate 15-30 minutes each day. Do a hundred pushups every Tuesday. I highly recommend fasting from social media for one day once a week, or a few days in a row each month.

Do this toughness training along with the discomfort that comes with aspiring to achieve your goals. This way, when the going gets tough and you need to buckle down for the big storm, you’ll pass with flying colors because you’ve been preparing this whole time.

Train your brain to accept and welcome the uncomfortable, and recognize it as a sign of growth, progress and enhanced resiliency. Neurons that fire together wire together, so make sure your neurons are wired to embrace the uncomfortable.

Leave a comment below and tell me about how you’ve had to embrace the uncomfortable in the past to get where you are now.

Fear and Failure

When was the last time you did something that scared you? It could be anything – confronting someone at work, letting go of something important in your life, skydiving or swimming with sharks.. When was the last time you embraced fear?

Fear obviously serves a very important purpose, namely keeping us alive. If we didn’t have a little bit of appropriate fear, be it of heights, wild animals with huge fangs or even of social faux pas (being ostracized from a tribe often meant death), the human race wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have.

Fear not, the creepy crawlies – just kidding, this thing’s disgusting

But what happens when we succumb to the little fears? The fears that are holding us back in our life, that keep us from reaching ever new heights? These are the fears that must be embraced and overcome if you’re going to truly thrive in this world, and almost all of them can be boiled down to just three things – fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and fear of success.

Fear of the Unknown has obvious implications – just what is in that deep, dark forest? Lions, tigers, maybe bears?

We fear the unknown simply because we don’t know whether it’s dangerous or not. However, most of our fears in the modern world in regards to the “unknown” aren’t life threatening or even any sort of substantial gamble. That new job you’ve been offered? It might be awesome, or maybe it will suck, but it’s not gonna kill you and you’ll likely bounce right back if things don’t work out.

Fear of the unknown stems from being too attached to comfort. The antidote? Get comfortable shaking things up, get comfortable being uncomfortable – actively seek out the unknown every day, or at least a few times a week. Go ahead and start small – strike up a conversation with people you don’t know, explore new hiking trails, try Ethiopian food or a new cuisine that is radically different from what you’re used to. Take bigger bites as time goes on – travel to a new city, a new country, move to a new state, take up a new job doing something radically different, or anything that fully submerges you in the unknown.

Summed up – Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Once you embrace the unknown, it loses it’s power over you.

Fear of failure is probably the most prevalent type of fear in today’s world. Who hasn’t felt that tinge of panic when attempting something you’re not sure will work? I’ve got news for you, it’s time to embrace failure.

The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. – Stephen McCranie

Nothing great ever came from comfort zones! No progress is ever made without some discomfort, so go out there and get uncomfortable! You’ll succeed more than you thought you would, and each time you don’t is an opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

You have to reframe failure as a positive thing, or maybe even erase the word failure from your lexicon. Reframe “failure” as such – each time you attempt something and get a different result than you expected (which most would call failure), you recognize that something simply needs tweaking in your methodology. Become a scientist and think of things as an experiment – they don’t get their feathers ruffled when their experiment gives them a result different than expected, so why should you?

Further, failure is a sign of progress. How many times did you fail before you took your first step? How many times did you fail learning to ride a bike, or hit a baseball, or learning your multiplication tables? My sevens still get me.

“Failure” is simply a sign that you’re getting closer and closer to success.

One of the first tricks you learn on a skateboard is a kickflip, and it took me easily a full year to land my first kickflip. That’s a whole year of trying one trick every day and messing up again and again and again. But if I gave up I never would have found one of my first true passions, had a chance to film in videos, compete in contests or get an all-expense-paid trip to San Diego to compete in an Amateur world finals competition.

0M1vvDK8qh_1402473201070 — The Man, Elon Musk

Summed up – Reframe failure as evidence that you’re getting closer and closer to success. You’re simply a scientist, and each time you get results different than expected, just tweak your methods.

On the flip side of fear of failure is fear of success. Fear of success is insidious because it’s so hard to spot – we think we want success and think we’re doing all we can to achieve it, when in actuality we’re still stuck in our comfort zones. With success comes change, and so fear of success has an element of fear of the unknown in it as well.

Success may also contradict a deep held belief of yours – that you don’t deserve anything good. How so many of us got this belief in the first place is beyond me, but it’s very common.

Long story short, figure out what you want, plan out how to get it, and take action. Every so often take a step back and ask yourself if you’re really doing everything you can to achieve your goals, and figure out what your weak spots and sticking points are.

Summed up – Believe, deep down, that you deserve the best. Figure out what you want, plan out a course of action, attack, and constantly assess and tweak. As Tai Lopez would say, finding and consulting with mentors doesn’t hurt either.

The bottom line is to train your brain to embrace discomfort, to embrace fear, and to reframe failure as a positive thing. Remember, neurons that fire together wire together – the more you feel that twinge of fear and back down, the stronger those neural connections will be in your brain, and the more likely you’ll back down in the future. Rewire your brain to embrace fear and move through it, and watch as it loses all it’s power.

Now go get uncomfortable.

Keys to the Good Life – The Investor’s Mentality

There are a lot of great things that come out of adopting a healthy lifestyle, and many of those things come quickly. Change up your eating habits and exercise routine, and you start losing weight. Eat clean foods, manage stress and get enough sleep, and your mood and energy levels improve. Do a few fasts and cleanses, and your skin becomes clear and eyes more vibrant.

That’s all well and good and an excellent reason to start paying a bit more attention to your health and wellbeing, but you should also consider the benefits that come further down the road. It’s important to drop the consumers mentality and adopt an investor’s mentality, not just with money but with health as well. A consumer thinks, If I do x, y or z now, then I’ll be happy/rich/lose weight/fill in the blank. Investors have a very different thought process. An investor says to themselves, If I do x, y or z now, then in a few weeks/months/years, my efforts will be multiplied a hundred-fold. A consumer is a slave to instant gratification. An investor is in control of his or her desires, and plants a seed now so that he or she can have a field of rewards later.

If you instill healthy habits now, you can more or less coast on autopilot, making tiny adjustments along the way, adding things as needed, and remain healthy for the rest of your life. If you cut out junk food and focus on eating a whole foods, plant-based diet and make that your normal, think of all the problems that will be avoided down the road.

How much money will you save in hospital bills, doctors visits and insurance?

How much will your quality of life improve and remain elevated due to being fit, strong, happy, healthy, emotionally balanced and self-reliant?

How much will a little self-love go towards improving your relationships with others?

Problems in general and health issues in particular have a nasty habit of snowballing out of control. This is easily prevented by just putting a little bit of effort in now, while you’re ahead. Put a little effort into eating cleaner and expanding your pallet. Find a few forms of exercise you love and that don’t feel like work. A few times a week, go to bed early, by at least 10 pm, and make sure to have a few stress management techniques up your sleeve. These few things alone are powerful enough to keep you thriving well into your 90s and beyond. Even if health issues have already cropped up, it’s never too late to take charge and start to fix things.

I do one-on-one and group health coaching, so if you’re looking for specific solutions to your individual health problems, contact me. Adopt an investor’s mentality, and put time and effort into yourself now – you can thank me later.

Into the Abyss – Sensory Deprivation Tanks and How the Internet is Ruining Your Brain

Yesterday I treated myself to something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time – a session in a Sensory Deprivation Tank. Sometimes called floatation tanks, they’re basically a pod filled with water that has been super saturated with epsom salts – in my case, 1000 pounds of epsom salts in just 10 inches of water. You hop in, turn the light off and shut the lid. Inside it’s pitch black, the water and air is body temperature, and while the pod itself doesn’t make things completely sound proof, the addition of ear plugs do. So you’re literally floating in what feels like nothing, with no sights, no sensations, and no sounds other than your own breath. It’s just you and the infinite abyss of your mind.

My floatation tank at Regenerate

Why would anyone voluntarily do this? Not only is it quite relaxing, it helps decrease inflammation, reduce stress, lowers blood pressure and may help one recover from strenuous workouts or other stressors. It also helps top off your body’s magnesium stores, as Epsom salts are simply magnesium sulfate. This is important as magnesium is critical for over 300 reactions in your body and the majority of Americans are deficient in this crucial mineral.

But that’s not why I’ve been wanting to try one.

I’ve been big into meditation for a while now and am always looking for ways to further explore my mind. Once you begin any meditation program or just take some time to investigate your mind, you’ll come to realize what a strange, ephemeral beast it really is. It’s hard to control; it’s constantly hungry for new stimuli; it’s able to be aware of and observe itself; and strangest of all, it seems to disappear if truly examined.

Here’s a little exercise for you – observe your thoughts as they come and go, and the accompanying feelings, emotions and sensations. Notice how your mind sometimes has pictures that accompanies thoughts, and sometimes doesn’t. Notice what the sensation of boredom feels like, or the desire to go do something else. Now go back to observing your thoughts, and as you observe them, ask yourself, Who is it that is observing these thoughts? Are “you” your thoughts, memories, desires and habits, aka the content of your mind, or are you that silent observer that watches these thoughts and feelings come and go?

So anyway, it’s been posited that while in a sensory deprivation tank, your mind, deprived of it’s usual bombardment of signals, starts to open up a bit, with thoughts and images flowing up from your subconscious. This can be very therapeutic, enlightening, frightening or some combination therein. You may remember things from the far past that you’d forgotten, or perhaps insights into a problem you’ve been trying to solve may suddenly flash into your mind. I personally didn’t notice much more than a profound relaxation and a sense of exhilaration as my body floated in what seemed like zero gravity, but I suspect that after a few longer sessions I may have more success in the psychonautics department.

But this session in the tank made me think; how many of us can handle an hour plus of pure black, silence and even a complete lack of physical sensations? In today’s world, my guess is very few, and we have technology and society to thank for that. In the West we’re literally trained to live a fast-paced lifestyle, to constantly seek out immediate stimulation, and we’re told that what we already have isn’t good enough. Just look at the ads on tv – your car could be better, your body isn’t up to par with this model’s body, and you’d attract more “babes” by drinking Bud Light. Instead of living a relaxed life, content with what we have, it’s being drilled into us that we never have enough.

Social media, the internet in general and even texting on cell phones further amplify our discontent. Take Facebook for example. Unchecked usage literally rewires your brain, causing a shorter attention span, decreased self worth and the desire for constant, immediate updates.

See, we’re biologically built to seek out rewards, and in the past these rewards were wholesome, they mattered, they meant the difference between life and death, and they were much fewer and more spread out. Quality over quantity can best sum up the difference in rewards in the past versus current times. When you achieved a goal, whether its eating food when hungry, or having sex with an attractive partner, or getting some physical activity, or experiencing something novel, or basically doing anything that ensures your survival and the survival of the human race, your brain releases the neurotransmitter dopamine in order to reinforce that behavior. Dopamine is a molecule that plays key roles in goal-oriented behavior, pleasure, focus, mood and energy levels. Next time you’re hungry and take a nice big bite of some tasty dish, pay attention to how satisfying it feels – that’s dopamine at work. That pleasurable feeling you get from coffee or chocolate? Dopamine.

The problem is that the internet and social media in particular are hacking into this system of reward and using it to their advantage. These things are intentionally designed to be addictive, to keep you coming back multiple times throughout the day. When you see that little red number for the notifications of all the likes you’ve gotten on your new status, you get a nice little hit of dopamine, which encourages you to keep updating your page and checking back to see how many likes you’ve gotten. Why is your brain rewarding you for this? Because to be a social outcast in the past meant to be ostracized from the tribe. A tribe can defend itself out on the African safari. A single person? Not likely.

Facebook is further compounded by the novelty factor – if you keep scrolling long enough down your Facebook feed, you’ll eventually find something interesting and novel. BAM! more dopamine.

But perhaps most addictive of all is that Facebook is ego-based and takes advantage of intermittent reward. It’s well known that the best way to train lab animals is not to give them a reward each time they do something correctly, but to give them rewards only some of the time, at random. This keeps them guessing and in suspense, and more eager for that next hit of dopamine.

Facebook makes good use of intermittent reward. When you make a status, you’re never exactly sure how many people are going to like it, or who out of your friends will like it (will your crush like it??) And when you open your Facebook app, you’re never sure what kind of notifications, if any, you’ll have. Did someone friend request you? Did someone post something funny on your page, or did nothing happen involving you at all? Poor you..

Over time this behavior reshapes the brain, due to neuroplasticity.

Neurons that fire together, wire together

Neuroplasticity is the term for how the brain will reshape itself according to the stimulus it receives. So the more often you get angry when someone insults you, and the more often those certain neurons fire together in the brain when this occurs, the more likely it is to happen in the future because you’ve already laid down the neural network for this to occur. So when you’re opening your Facebook app 10, 20, 30 or more times a day, you’re actually rewiring your brain to crave this constant immediate reward, which makes it a bitch to stick to longer tasks that don’t have these immediate rewards. Unfortunately those tasks are usually the ones that matter, whether it’s paying attention to your kids, getting your school work done, or finishing that big project that’s due at work next week.

One more doozy from all of this – overusing social media actually damages the brain. See, the brain, like the rest of the body, is always trying to maintain homeostasis, it’s always trying to keep thing in a state of balance. So if the brain starts getting bigger releases of dopamine more frequently, it will compensate by desensitizing the receptors that are getting the extra dopamine – this makes them less sensitive so they don’t burn out. However, if elevated dopamine levels are sustained, eventually the brain starts destroying some of those receptors to compensate for the extra dopamine. This is the basis for drug addiction.

The red square of dopamine

Let me give you an example. Remember the first time you had a cup of coffee? Caffeine has quite a few effects in the body but a major one is a nice big hit of dopamine. It likely lifted your mood, enhanced your focus, improved your sense of well being, and you may have gotten giddy and excited about things, possibly even euphoric.

I remember my first cup vividly – I was in the 10th grade and my teacher prepared us some cheap Folgers coffee. I had one 5 oz cup of very weak coffee. It was the last class of the day, and I left school laughing maniacally on the bus, and then promptly crashed a few hours later. Now what happens when you drink coffee? You may feel like a zombie prior and feel just “normal” afterwards, but certainly not euphoric or giddy. This is because your brain has adjusted to the extra dopamine by becoming less sensitive to it.

So whether this desensitization occurs through caffeine, other drugs or things like social media, it leaves you with a brain that is less sensitive to dopamine, the main neurotransmitter involved in pleasure, reward, and goal oriented behavior.

This doesn’t mean you should delete your Facebook account, it just means to practice some moderation. If you’re going to use social media, try to limit it to just checking once in the morning and once in the evening, avoid the mindless scrolling, and turn off the notifications from your phone so you’re not getting those constant pings and buzzes. Try a going a few days or a week without it – I promise you’ll be able to function just fine. If, while on your sabbatical, you find yourself constantly checking your phone, or wanting to, to see if you have any updates, you may need to be a bit more strict with your usage.

Remember, there’s a reverse side to everything. Some things leave you less sensitive to dopamine, which makes you less motivated and lead to experiencing less pleasure. But there are also ways to improve your sensitivity to dopamine, and thus increase your drive, motivation and the pleasure you’ll get out of life. If you’d like to know more, contact me.