GRADUATING FROM DOPAMINE- My journey to minimalism

I live out of 2 bags and in a small room. I don’t own any possessions other than a minimal set of clothes (no furniture, cutlery, etc). I have never consumed alcohol, and taste caffeine or desserts rarely. My choices in life have intrigued quite a few friends, especially since I started my adult life with materialistic ambitions like any other B-school graduate.

This article is a humble attempt at sharing my understanding of the human brain, and how it led me to minimalism.

We are puppets. The puppet-master is our gene. The strings the puppet-master holds are our hormones. Our life is the puppet show.        

The only thing that the gene cares about is its own survival. Its purpose is to continue indefinitely, from one generation to the next. You are its container. To the gene, you are no different than the COVID virus.

Look around and see the genes which are successful today: humans, lions, mosquitoes, grass, COVID, etc. The genetic code for each of them has evolved over thousands of years and continues to evolve. You will notice that some are more successful than others. (1) the lion may become extinct with increased poaching (2) Mosquitoes are very successful and they have survived since the age of dinosaurs with very little evolution to their genetic code. (3) COVID genetic code is doing its best to mutate and evolve into new variants like delta so that it can survive better. (4) Grass is a very tough gene. You can see grass growing through concrete and even cracking it, despite the best effort of maintenance teams to curb its spread.

The human genetic code is possibly the most successful of the lot. Look around and see what we have achieved. We have modified our natural habitat such that we can survive in any condition- something no other species could. We built air coolers to live in the desert. We built heating systems to live in cold countries. We built cities. We developed the internet.

This was possible because the human genetic code evolved in such a way that it developed an incredible brain. We have the largest brain in proportion to body size of any living creature.

The human brain is the weapon of our genetic code. Dopamine is the gunpowder inside that weapon.        

Dopamine is the molecule which drives you and me. It makes you want a bigger salary. It wants you to date and mate. It maximizes the chance of your genetic code surviving.

The key phrase is ‘maximizing the chance’. Dopamine wants to ensure that your genetic code has a better chance of propagating and surviving today compared to yesterday. It wants to keep increasing that probability. Therefore, it never understands the word ‘enough’. It will always drive you for more.

This ‘more’ translates to everything: more knowledge, more wealth, better house, more popularity, better car, larger TV, etc.

The way dopamine makes you chase ‘more’ unendingly is an incredible mechanism. Your joy from your salary hike will be short lived. Very soon, you will find yourself chasing the next hike. This happens across all facets of life: career, possessions, social media, and even love.

When what you ‘hope for’ becomes ‘what you have’, dopamine recedes.        

So, you will constantly be chasing the next new shiny thing. That is the puppet show of our life.

The brain has another amazing molecule- cortisol. You may have heard of it as the ‘stress or anxiety’ hormone. If the brain recognizes any threat to your safety, well-being, or gene survival, it releases cortisol. The hormone gives you super-human strength and focus to solve the crisis.

Example: you have a deadline at work. Something must be submitted tomorrow. You wasted time this whole evening. But at 10pm, your heart rate rises. You can suddenly ignore all distractions. Your focus is 20x of normal, and you complete the work. This is because your brain has visualized potential embarrassment the next day. You may have predicted tough feedback from your manager. That could imply slower progression of salary, which reduces the probability of your gene survival. Your brain has analyzed this and serves you with cortisol immediately, so that you can complete the task at hand.

You were possibly spending time on social media till 10pm, enjoying the dopamine hits. It was your brain telling you to keep scrolling through. But somewhere in that journey, your brain evaluated that you better get off the dopamine high and focus on work. It served you with cortisol immediately.

Dopamine and Cortisol are the perfect dance partners.        

Dopamine makes you want more and more. You then have to summon cortisol to help you complete what you really want to achieve. Once you achieve that, you get a bigger kick of dopamine and the puppet-show continues.

This begs the question: is there no way out of the puppet-show? Yes, there is. In fact, the brain is developing and disrupting itself continuously.

The most basic brain section we have is the ‘reptilian brain’. It controls our automatic responses. You duck when someone tries to punch you. This part of the brain developed when we were still reptiles.

Our evolution into mammals was marked by the development of the ‘limbic brain’. All our motivations, desires, decisions, and fears are housed here. Dopamine and cortisol control us here. This part of the brain uses knowledge coded in our genes and experience from our own lives, to govern our decisions. Example: you will feel anxious (cortisol) if you are considering to go against the expectation of your friends and family. Our mammalian limbic brain is wired to make us conform. Our ancestors who were courageous to leave the tribe and venture out alone possibly got eaten by some animals. Those who stayed within the tribe and followed the rules survived. Their genes propagated and here we are- genetically wired to conform.

Our evolution into homo-sapiens was marked by the development of the neo-cortex. It is the rationale part of the brain which understands language, can do math and most importantly- imagine the future. No other species on the planet has a neo-cortex. No member of any other species can imagine a future different to what its genes, environment and parents have destined for itself. Only we can do that.

(I am incredibly excited about the next layer of brain we could develop and what that can do. Will it help us conquer the only dimension that we are yet to- 'time'? I don't know. Sorry. I have digressed.)

The neo-cortex has a section called the ‘dorso lateral prefrontal cortex’. This is the ‘clutch’ in the brain (similar to the 'clutch' in a car that lets you shift between gears). It is the clutch which can delay the decisions from the limbic brain. When you see ice cream, your limbic brain wants you to have it immediately. The limbic brain knows that you will get a dopamine hit the moment you taste sugar. Getting more dopamine means you are doing the right thing for gene survival. The ‘clutch’ lasts for just 500 milliseconds. That is all the time you have, to step in, and try to take control.

The limbic brain is your auto-pilot. The neo-cortex is your ‘manual drive’ option.        

Some of us are lucky. We use the clutch at the right moment and make significant changes to our lives versus what society, parents, friends, peers, or social media expects of us. We can use the ‘clutch’ to suspend the limbic brain’s autopilot and take manual control with our rationale neo-cortex. This can allow us to imagine a future that is different compared to what is destined by our genes, society and parenting. Once that imagination is strong, we take manual control and drive a new habit. Example: left to our limbic system, none of us would ever hit the gym. It goes against the motivational triad of the limbic system: it gives you pain and doesn't conserve energy. However, we have imagined a toned body and the potential satisfaction that could give us. So we are willing to put ourselves through the short-term pain and hit the gym.

We cannot escape our primitive wiring. But we can hack them.        

There is a lot of content out there which villainizes dopamine. This is not one of them. Dopamine is essential even for mundane tasks such as picking up a glass of water and drinking it. Without dopamine, we can't even do that and will perish (as proved by the mice experiments). Depression is characterized by very low dopamine levels. So it is a highly complex molecule. I am focusing on a specific part of it: 'the pursuit of more'.

I am posting this article. Every like, comment and share could give me a dopamine hit. It is natural. My brain is rewarding me for becoming a bit more popular. More popularity means a better chance of gene survival.

But I can change the narrative. I can tell myself that I made someone’s life a little better by sharing this awareness and knowledge through this article. I could 'graduate' from dopamine to serotonin (the molecule of ‘service’). Dopamine is about ' the good for me', while serotonin is about 'the good for the collective'.

I wish to do the same in job and career. I wish to graduate my mindset from salary hikes and promotions (dopamine) to ‘helping others succeed’ (serotonin) and ‘deeper connections’ (oxytocin). This is not a reduction in career ambition, but a shift in the 'source' of ambition that could lead to greater well-being, happiness and fulfilment.

I applied the same to my personal life, which led me to minimalism.

When we voluntarily reduce dopamine-inducing stimuli, dopamine receptors in our brain decrease. This further reduces our craving for dopamine (the feel-good ‘euphoria’) and gives room for serotonin and oxytocin. It sets up a positive loop of 'less', 'service', 'gratitude', and 'true connections'.

On the other hand, if we are living a life that is high on dopamine (sugar, alcohol, material possessions, caffeine, social media, etc.), the dopamine receptors in our brain are much more. This makes us craving higher for dopamine. This is a spiral of 'more'.

Hence, my passionate pursuit of 'less'.

Disclaimers: None of the content in this article is original. It is my interpretation of the incredible work by Tim Urban (Wait but why), Simon Sinek, Daniel Lieberman (The Molecule of More), Tanmay Bhatt, Alberto Moriana, and many more. The world of neuroscience is vast. Our molecules do a lot more than the simplified version I have chosen to illustrate here. So do keep that in mind as you digest this content.

I haven’t mastered my neural chemistry. I have just started the journey in understanding myself. People choose different ways (spirituality, religion, meditation). I have chosen neuroscience as it works best for me. I don’t know what lies ahead. I don’t know if this understanding and awareness is going to serve me well. I don’t claim that it is 100% accurate (science keeps evolving). I don't know if minimalism is the best approach. But I know one thing for sure: my life can't be a puppet-show.