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Presently Present with Mama, Papa & Babs! 💜
Recorded: Feb. 12, 2026 Duration: 1:06:21Space Recording
Short Summary
In a recent discussion, participants explored the intricate relationship between dopamine and technology use, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to mental health in the fast-paced crypto environment. The conversation highlighted trends in understanding dopamine's role beyond pleasure, focusing on motivation and the impact of modern life on mental well-being.
Full Transcription
Thank you. You ever just need to do a deep breath, exhale?
Just need to do a deep breath.
Exhale.
I like to exhale with noise.
Do you ever do that, Jomama?
Yeah, I think I do.
Yeah, it's good.
It's release of energy, bro.
Sometimes I scare the cat.
Sometimes I scare Papa.
It's all right.
Oh, now Papa's up on stage.
There's my, there's my, what are you?
My left-hand man.
I'm your left-hand man?
Well, because I was looking at myself on the stage, and if I turn around, then you would be on my left.
Well, considering
I'm left-handed, that would make sense then.
How nice. When we walk,
do we walk with you on my left side or my
right side?
It depends on where we
But,
Jomama, are you right-handed?
Maybe.
It's okay to be right-handed, Jomama. I am too. He's just trying to show off that he's right-handed? Maybe. It's okay to be right-handed,
your mama. I am too. He's just
trying to show off that he's left-handed.
Which, by the way, I still think is really cool.
Babs is here.
Yay.
Today's going to be a good
space, I can tell. Dang it, I was in the middle of writing my quote repost
dang it okay me and crypto stoner talked about this earlier it's like it's like a problem of
mine i don't know but i have to cancel it so give me two seconds i'm gonna go i'm gonna go repost it
you've got it yeah everybody follow bab's. Get us a quote repost out there.
Make a couple comments.
Tag a few friends who want to talk about this amazing space that we're doing today with Babs.
iPhone users, check this out.
I don't know if you all know this, but I just figured this out the other day.
Say, like, you misspelled something and you want to go back to it.
Like, I have a big problem with this, you know, put the put the cursor back you know yeah that word if you hold space bar you can
fucking go back a lot easier it's pretty crazy wait can you tell me that again i'm lost yeah
like say like you you spelt something in the beginning of your paragraph or whatever you
want to go back to the beginning for me i have a hard time moving and dropping where i want it right okay right right right so you hold space bar and then you
have this whole area that you can move around and move it whoa on the iphone yeah yeah oh trip out
and then trip out on this if you flip your phone sideways when you're texting someone, you can write to them like in cursive.
Really?
It's your writing.
Yeah.
Wow.
All right.
I'll be checking those things out.
I always talk about how much I hate iPhones.
So, Papa, I know you remember when I had a changeover.
She was tough for me.
And then there's like another thing that you can do.
You can have like ambient noise.
So, like when you're sleeping you can have like
Some crazy noise going off too
Oh really?
I forgot exactly how to set that up but yeah
That's dope
Have you been joining us on a phone now
Jamama? Are you still on PC?
What do you do?
No still PC
I just wasn't sure
Because I mean you sound good, so.
I was just wondering.
I just left the Campfire Chronicles over with the Noids.
So, how are you doing, Papa Bear?
I'm doing okay.
I'm glad to hear that, you know, we got some good news today,
but I am still seeing that we're probably in the same situation as Ruin Lord.
But yeah, we did get just a heads up for everybody.
But yeah, we did get just a heads up for everybody.
We did get the email saying that they are restoring the...
They're unsuspending us.
Yes, they're unsuspending us.
Sorry about that.
That was an accident.
Yeah, like, okay.
But yeah, it still shows up that way.
I can't join a space.
I can't post or anything like that yet.
So it's kind of in limbo.
I'm sure eventually their system will.
On my news, my Presently Present account is completely gone they said they will not be
restoring it so that is permanently banned don't ever come back here again lady that's what they
said damn well what about the payment right i actually called my bank today and disputed all
the charges because i'm like well you guys are still taking my money it won't even allow me to message them it says i can't do that action it's pot wild so
yesterday i was going to offer my account if you guys need my account you guys can have it
oh joe mama you're so sweet dude we appreciate you yep so at least that other one you know we
should be back kind cups anyways it doesn't matter if we
have an account for them or not kind cups is not going anywhere so all righty well miss babs i
think maybe we want to get started it's up to you we're we're good on time whatever however long you
want to do this however short you want to do it you just let me know no we are good yeah we're
gonna go for like our usual, just about an hour.
I'm super excited about today. Excited about our topic because I think it's such a,
we talk, people talk a ton about it, but I don't know that everybody always really,
and I mean, I didn't know everything either. So this is super helpful for me, but I think we talked a lot about dopamine in this space. But a lot of times, I don't think we quite have kind of the right science kind of behind it. And I think sometimes
when we have the right science, it helps us understand it better and helps us, you know,
deal with kind of some of the some of the effects that that this dopamine can have. So I mean,
like anybody's welcome to come up and
have a conversation about this and stuff like that, but I do have some, have a little bit of
a plan for us today. So, and it's not going to, we're not going to be talking about deleting any
apps or anything like that. But just kind of like, cause dopamine is like, we talk, I mean,
how many of you guys have heard you're going on a dopamine detox. And it's kind of like, we talk, I mean, how many of you guys have heard you're going on a dopamine detox? Um,
and it's kind of like, we don't really always understand what that is. Um, and so sometimes perhaps for some of us, um, what we call anxiety or just distraction might be over overstimulation.
Um, so let's, let's talk about kind of like the biology of it first um there's no judgment
nothing like that okay does that sound good sounds great to me all right all right so we'll go first
we'll dive into the science of it i know that sounds like kind of crazy for crypto Twitter, but it's kind of important that we kind of get it. So dopamine
is not the quote unquote pleasure chemicals. Like some people think, oh, well, dopamine is what
gives me a hit. I'm going to get a dopamine hit. So dopamine is not that. Dopamine is actually a chemical that's about motivation, anticipation, and drive.
So it's a chemicals, it's a chemical in our brain that says, oh, that looks interesting.
Go get that.
Something good might happen.
Um, so it's like, it spikes before reward.
So it's like something that, that helps us to be motivated to do stuff. Yeah. So this is
a very different, what people don't really kind of get about, but that's what dopamine does in,
in our brain. Dopamine is like the thing that said in our ancestors brain, oh, maybe those red
berries would be great to eat. Let me go see if I can harvest them. So that's kind of what dopamine is about.
So it spikes before we get the reward. So it spikes before you go eat the chocolate,
or it spikes before you go scroll on your TikTok. So like when that notification pops up,
something new appears, dopamine then rises in anticipation. So it gives you the motivation to
go follow through it. So it's not a bad thing at all. It's very useful. It's how we evolved.
So the problem is not dopamine itself. We need dopamine. But the issue is frequency
in the modern day life. So that's what the issue is. Why it causes a problem is
because our modern life in our techie world where notifications are popping up, where
short form content is always around, where there's things that are always bright and shiny.
around, where there's things that are always bright and shiny. So what that does, it gives us
these fast, ongoing, intense spikes when our brain was not built for that many spikes of dopamine.
Because our brain was built more for those slower, inconsistent, oh oh that berry looks good oh that um that girl over there she
looks good maybe i'll go go towards her oh oh that that seems interesting let me go explore that
um so that's what dopamine was built for it wasn't for like oh i'm gonna scroll i'm gonna get another
hit i scroll i get another hit of dopamine oh Oh, this might be it. Oh, this looks interesting. And this and this and this and this.
Like that's kind of what's happened in our modern world.
And so what our brain does is like, holy crap.
When these spikes happen so often, our brain begins to overload.
And that's when the adaption comes in. All right, let me pause there.
Questions? Are you following me, mama bear, papa bear? Anybody else who wants to come up?
Am I making sense?
You're making sense to me. I did not know that. I have always been told that dopamine is
what you get from, you know, these little micro,
like, oh, I did that. Good job. Good job. You know what I mean? So I love that we're looking
at it like this because it's cool. Yeah. Cause that's not dopamine. That's another one. Those
are other ones. Those are other brain chemicals, which maybe we'll just do a little brain chemical
series as we go along on these monthly things. But yeah, so that is not dopamine. Dopamine is the one that anticipates that gives you motivation, which is really
important to remember as we go further. Can you get dopamine from anticipation of something bad
too? Um, do you know what I mean? Probably? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That depending on what it is,
that may be more adrenaline than dopamine. It could be, but it's usually dopamine, as far as what I'm understanding, is it's more
for motivation to go after something versus to flee away from something.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
So I think that that's a different system, though it might trigger, it might be part
of it, but I think it's more, it wouldn't be the, it wouldn't be a pure dopamine kind of thing.
of it, but I think it's more, it wouldn't be a pure dopamine kind of thing.
So let's talk a little bit about like a simple metaphor. If, if that, if that scientific part
isn't kind of working for you right now. So think about like dopamine as like the volume on a
speaker. So let's say you got some music right right? Playing. And so, so dopamine is like,
um, in healthy rhythm, the volume goes up, like you're listening. Oh, the song comes on,
you turn up your speaker, you know, you're driving your car. Oh, there's this, my favorite song. You
jam to it, but then you turn it back down. Right? So that's kind of how it goes. It comes, goes up
and then it goes down and then it goes up and then it goes down. That's the normal rhythm for dopamine.
But what happens is in our society, our dopamine is, we have to imagine like it's cranked up all
the time. And so your ears, your volume, if you're in a loud environment, your ears begin to adapt and your brain kind of starts to lower its sensitivity
to to the volume um so so you like so it becomes less like your brain says okay i have to deal with
this this is the this is the volume all the time now so this is going to be my new normal so the
so your brain says okay my new normal normal is this really super loud environment because
the volume is always up.
And so it lowers that sensitivity.
So when you walk out of that, the normal life then becomes really, really quiet.
It feels flat and underwhelming because the system in your brain is saying, oh, this is not normal. My normal is
much higher than this. So it's kind of about, it's not about eliminating the volume. It's about
learning to set that master volume back down to a normal level, if that makes sense.
back down to a normal level, if that makes sense. So overload is not just having too much dopamine.
It's about what happens when the dopamine spikes too frequently without recovery.
And so what the brain adapts, it does two things happen. First, your dopamine receptors in your
brain, the thing that says, oh, there's the dopamine.
I'm something's happening. Something's going to happen. Let me go towards that. Let me let me be excited about doing this.
Those receptors become less sensitive. And so that means the dopamine that that it produces less effect in your life.
it produces less effect in your life. Okay. Does that make sense?
Oh shit. It reminds me of a drug.
Exactly. Exactly. Uh-huh. It is because it's a brain chemical. That's it. It is exactly. Yeah.
Sorry, Bob. She always had me. She always had me flabbergasted. That's wild.
It's a brain chemical. It's, it's, that's what, that's what all the other brain,
that's what most drugs kind of try and simulate in your brain. Um, anyway, it's a sec, that's what all the other brain, that's what most drugs kind of try and simulate in your brain.
Anyway, it's a sec, that's another story.
The second thing that happens is you normally have a regular level of dopamine in your background. It's just a steady background just so that you can always be ready for something that
looks exciting.
Right.
So what happens that background level starts to can decrease because there's so much, so much,
it's getting spiked so often. So that background level keeps you engaged and motivated and ready
for normal life. So the sensitivity drops, that background baseline kind of lowers. And that means like it takes more stimulus
to get you motivated and excited for just engaging in life without having those constant hits.
So basically, if you don't have all that dopamine all the time it basically means you
need more simu stimulation to feel that same level of engagement so that dopamine drop can feel like
restlessness boredom edginess low-grade anxiety, or just basically that you feel like something is missing.
So a lot of times for some people, that dopamine overload can be mistaken for like people think
they have anxiety, they have like depression, they have like there could
be something they just never feel satisfied. It could be that their dopamine system within their
brain is just so askew that normal life no longer is engaging and exciting. Because again, remember
the dopamine is what drives you and motivates you to, to,
to engage in life and engage in new things. Is this still making sense?
Yep. I'm with you. It looks like we have candy up here with her hand up.
Yes. Candy go ahead. Ask away.
Does this also include like for me, I'm like a lifelong learner. So does this include like the rush you get from like knowledge? Like, I'm sure you all felt the rush of when you read the Ethereum or Bitcoin white paper. But like that hunger for like, or like you're reading a book, you just can't put down.
Does that account for like those sort of things? It does, but it's not the same. So, so like the,
the, the dopamine that you get from reading since it's much slower and the dopamine from actually
accruing language, accruing like knowledge, not language, accruing knowledge, that kind of fits
in that regular rhythm of up and down and up and down, if that makes sense. That's not to say that
you can't use knowledge as an escape that might be working on one of your other systems, but it's not
probably as much as like, this is more to do
with those really fast spikes that we get when we're immersed daily, hourly in our, in social
media, in short term, short form content, those quick spikes, because our body is used to having that dopamine move up and down.
Does that make sense, Candy?
Yeah. So like studying the latest about AI is one thing, but, you know, scrolling for the next
headline of blockchain or Web3 headline is more dopamine.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly. So when you're engaged in active learning or reading, it becomes, that's actually a way to help you get your dopamine
system re-regulated to a normal kind of quote unquote volume versus like scrolling. If you're
If they like, you're just scrolling to find out what's the next AI hit, like going through
just scrolling to find out what's the next AI hit, like going through TikTok or whatever.
TikTok or whatever.
Yeah.
So two different, two different things.
Yeah.
Great question though.
All right.
So what I want to do first, excited for this.
We'll see.
Like for those of you who really want to do this, just, I'm super excited for it because
it worked really, it was freaking amazing for me.
freaking amazing for me. I can see your smile. I can feel it. So I'm hoping some of you will be
I can see your smile.
I can feel it.
I'm like so excited.
able to just actually take up like this, this little exercise is going to take just maybe five,
six, seven minutes, something like that. If that, if that, maybe even less. But I want you to be
able to feel, you know, how I talked about the dopamine,
how it's got those waves and these spikes. I want you to feel what that dopamine drop
feels like in, in real time. Okay. So I'm going to give you a second. And I want you to, if you,
if you can, if you feel excited to do this, I want you to kind of
participate in this little experiment.
Okay, so I want you to bring to mind something that you would automatically reach for.
Like maybe your phone, the notification goes off, refreshing the feed.
the notification goes off, refreshing the feed. I want you to picture like that moment before you
reach for something. I want you to say maybe, is it a piece of chocolate? Is it your audio book?
Like right before you reach for something, you know what I'm talking about when you say,
when you reach for something like there's like, I just need something. Let me go find this. Let
me go see who's having a space.
Let me go see who's doing something in my Discord.
Let me go check that scroll.
Let me go check this.
Let me, let me, let me, I'm going to reach and let me go check what's in the refrigerator.
Let me go check.
Let me go check.
So right before you picture in your mind right now, something that you automatically reach for.
Got it? your mind right now something that you automatically reach for got it okay now picture that moment right before you reach for it
and notice what's happening in your body is there a slight lean forward is there a pull an urgency
forward? Is there a pull? An urgency? See if you can feel that. Like just imagine what you're
going to reach for. What does it feel like in your body? Okay, that's the dopamine rising.
Like you're going for that. You're going for the phone. You're going for the audio book.
You're going for the piece of chocolate.
That's the anticipation.
That's the dopamine when it's rising.
Now, don't act on it.
Just feel it.
Feel that pull.
Just pause.
What's there in your body?
What's happening next?
Is there a restlessness, an itch?
Maybe a thought pops up that says, OK, what's next?
Where can I go next?
That sensation, that unease, that's the drop.
Now just stay with it. Stay with that unease. Just 20 seconds.
Just be here.
Be with the unease.
Let it be.
Feel it.
Feel it.
No fixing.
No reaching.
Now take one slow breath in.
And all the way out.
Feel your body in your chair, wherever you are.
Notice that urge is shifting already.
ready so that's the whole wave of the dopamine what you just felt was the was the anticipation
then the dip then the craving to escape the dip and and you've survived.
That wave peaks and it passes.
Most of the time we interrupt that passing of the wave because we grab for more input.
But if we can sit through it, it begins to recalibrate.
I don't know if anybody has any thoughts But if we can sit through it, it begins to recalibrate.
I don't know if anybody has any thoughts about that little experiment or how that felt for you.
Or if you were able to do that, talk to me.
I did it.
I was trying to avoid it.
I was like, shit, let me go look on the timeline real quick.
I actually felt something.
I don't know how to explain it other than on my chest area. I get this area that I have to sometimes massage whenever I feel
angst, that anxiety. And man, it was all the way through my back. But so just so you know,
that happened. It's interesting because what it's reminding me of is, do you know when you've done that amazing, I don't even know what we call it, just amazingness where you help
us to listen to the silence between the words, that's what I equate this to.
So I'm kind of excited for it.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And so mama bear, so that's it.
Were you able to sit?
Did you, were you able to resist the temptation to go to the timeline?
I was. That's why I said I was really pushing hard.
But not the full time babs. But even if it was just a little microsecond, that's, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. And then did you feel a little bit of a release? I did. The most release was after my breathing.
But I was trying to do that, you know, the entire time.
I think it was because I was showing myself I was in the present moment and that it wasn't killing me.
That always seems to be the biggest challenge for me.
Yeah, exactly. And just how quickly we go.
And there's nothing wrong with it. This is just how we've been trained to like in this society. So this is what I want to kind of demystify it. Like we're like our brain is trained to wanting to go find, oh, what's on the timeline? What's this? What's this? What's that? What's the next hit? And it just keeps that dopamine system all screwy um and if we can just pause and give it 20 seconds
it can help to adapt to regulate it but moonbeam i see your hand up
no it immediately i needed this i was like wait a minute where is everybody i need a break because
i have not seen anybody in like a couple weeks because i've been working my booty off. I was like, no, wait. Okay, Cherky, wait.
No, he's in mama bear's face.
Let's go in there.
And I'm so glad I did because I came right in when you were doing that.
And I felt the release right off of my head.
You know, like I felt the no need to grab any device
and do anything right now to think about me.
Like, thank you. Thank you. I needed that. Nice, thank you thank you I needed that nice nice nice I needed
that yeah and it was also interesting like for me I could actually when I when I taught when I
was doing this earlier I could feel the leaning in we want to talk about do you feel yourself
leaning in towards like grabbing the phone yeah I. I was going to say, I kind of felt like a magnet
feeling. It wasn't necessarily like me falling forward, but it was a magnet that I could feel
like really heavy. Right. And what's so interesting about that. So what that is, is we can learn
our brain is so amazing. We can use that little sense, that little feeling like, Ooh, this is,
this is just my, this is just the dopamine system pulling me. Oh, I can survive the dip.
Oh, that's all that is. It's like, it's just these little neurochemicals doing its little thing.
So I don't have to, I don't have to give into it, you know? So I love that sense when I was doing it earlier, it's like, oh, okay,
this gives me power and agency and ability to say, okay, that is all that is. It's just,
it's just the neurochemicals working in my brain and I can work with that. If I can learn to just
listen, oh, there's that little pull. There's. And even after I'd done this experiment with myself earlier today, I was like, oh, OK, I felt that pole.
I'm like, oh, there that is. OK, so we can just watch it. If we can just be aware as we go through the day.
Yeah. So I think that that's I think that's so cool. I love that experiment.
that experiment. So let's take it with us and just be aware of our dips. So questions. I have to say
So let's take it with us and just be aware of our dips.
that's not easy though, Babs. Yeah, Babs, I have to say that's not easy. It's like I have three
devices. Yeah. And coming in here really helped because I always have the lean. Like, okay, I'm
going to take a break. Okay, no. All right. I'm going to sit and I'm going to work on the store
or I'm going to sit and I'm going to work on the website or I'm going to do this or I'm going to sit and I'm going to work on the store. Or I'm going to sit and I'm going to work on the website. Or I'm going to do this.
Or I'm going to come up with a code.
So I always try to take the break.
But my magnet is too strong sometimes.
And I'm trying to take time out for myself.
But I don't really care.
It's not that I don't care about myself.
I do.
But I have so much stuff to do.
I don't know.
I guess I have an upgraded.
Like my heartbeat, I have an extra heartbeat
They called me spasm full. I'm always like this like always I'm always talking fast because I have extra heartbeat
So I have to if I slow down my heart rate goes fast
So I have to stay up to my pace and a lot of people aren't here and I don't want them to have to be here
But it's because this is,
I guess it's a disability to have an extra heartbeat,
but I get really excited and I feel like I have so much to do,
but coming in here and listening to you,
I actually can feel like I'm actually allowed to not do,
you know what I mean?
Allowed.
You are absolutely allowed to not do.
Absolutely. Yeah. do you know what I mean allowed you are absolutely allowed to not do absolutely um yeah and if you hear you can hear my voice and you can take that with you um and yeah and I think it's like I was
we were in earlier today where many of us were in crypto stoners space earlier and he was talking
about this this very thing about like giving ourselves like um he gives himself an hour in between things.
I was like, ooh, I like that idea.
I don't give myself an hour,
but I give myself some time between things.
But so I think that that's a beautiful, beautiful thing
because you can actually be more productive
within the other time.
But I don't want to get myself too sidetracked.
So one question people might have is
how long does it take our baseline to reset?
We can reset that baseline.
We can turn that master volume down like I was talking about earlier.
Let's imagine it like there's a volume that's all lit up.
We can learn to turn the master volume down.
And the short answer to that is there isn't one universal timeline.
For everybody, it's different.
Depends on how much overstimulated, how often they get those spikes.
But a lot of people will even, after a few days, notice improvements if they really work on changing.
We're going to go over a couple ways to work on some of this.
So don't worry.
I'm going to give you some tips. But some people find it within a few days. Usually most people,
if they become intent on working with this kind of this anticipation, these spikes and all these
things, you can actually come within a couple weeks feel much better. And you can again, begin to enjoy and not need,
not feel like your, your life is kind of slow and dull. And it's just like, like, like I'm
saying, it's like people who are coming off of drugs because you basically are coming off of a
drug. Your receptors need to kind of get normalized back to enjoying life without so many dopamine hits from the screens or
from that short form content or from whatever.
And this is not to say that I want to be careful about this because some people's work requires
them to be on the screens.
And it's not necessarily the screen because I necessarily the screen. Cause I think of like
Papa Bear who's coding all day. It's not that because he probably within his work and Papa Bear,
you can talk to me about this, but within your work, you probably have some spikes,
but you also have just times where you're just coding and you're just looking and it's not like
you're like, it's not like these quick, I don't know if you can hear me snapping these quick hits
of like, Oh, attention here, attention there, attention there, attention there, attention there.
You're actually focused in and your attention is kind of over a period of time.
So I want to make sure that we hear that also.
So it's not the screens aren't the issue.
So does that make sense?
Yeah, no, totally.
I know, totally. Although, you know, there is a little bit of the hits of dopamine when, you know, you're running a build and, oh, it succeeded. All right, good. You know, like, oh, you know, but yeah.
that's not the dopamine that's probably more like there's either your epinephrine oxytocin
serotonin that's that's that's the whole system kind of working so the dopamine is kind of the
thing that that goes spikes before that this is oh it's when you get the creativity oh maybe i'm
gonna try this one maybe that will fix the bug. And then you move towards it. So that's actually the dopamine. So it's kind of so crazy, but yeah. Yeah. So, so it can take,
it can take some time. So it takes like, like, so I think like when you were talking about
bubble bear, it's like, there's there's periods where it's not like that, but then it's like, oh,
I got an idea. This might work. And that's, that's like oh i got an idea this might work and that's
that's when you go so yeah yes and so people who've been like like heavy gamers um and i don't
know how it works for somebody who's a real gamer like i think that that would be really hard um
because that can take some some weeks uh for deeper recalibration if i would be so interested
to talk to crypto stoner at some, maybe we'll do this another time.
But so I know he's busy with other stuff.
Like for somebody who's a professional gamer,
how they recalibrate that system
would be very interesting
because it would take time,
especially if you're way into it.
So yeah.
Yeah. And just like it took time to
adapt to the higher volume, it's going to take time for your brain to adapt to the lower volume. So you have to be okay with that discomfort for a little bit, you know? Questions, Mama Bear,
before we go into into or anybody else?
I see.
Oh, Mama Bear, go ahead.
Oh, I was just telling.
I was just nudging to Papa, even though he's not sitting next to me.
See, did you hear what Babs just said?
It's hard to even get used to the lower dopamine, too.
I think that's something I struggle with because I can deal with like fires or, you know, not literal, but like really crazy things, but the little things are so
difficult for me. So I just need to work on being more comfortable with those lower frequency. I
don't even know what you call it, but. Yeah, because, because if you're always at a height,
and so like what we're talking about, it's like your brain is used to having a baseline that's super stimulated, right? Which, which eventually causes its own
problems, but like to lower it down to a lower frequency, you have to go through the discomfort
of recognizing, oh, I don't feel so good. Why do I feel so, so down? why do I feel so so down why do I feel so bored why do I feel so
because your your your system is not yet regulated to like enjoying um life at life's pace versus
um always having those high high high spikes all the time yeah so it takes time yeah and I don't
I see moonbeams hand up do you see moonbeams hand up i don't
okay oh no no it should be down and we're talking about frequencies though i did have a question
i actually got a frequency measure on my on my phone because i heard that there's low frequencies
that we hear that we can't hear like that are under like a certain, like when you go under 10
or whatever. And I was noticing when I was watching the frequency thing, I felt better knowing
where the frequency was. Does that make any sense or is that weird?
No, nothing's, well, I don't think much is weird, but no, I think frequencies are super important.
I mean, the whole world is built up of vibrations. We're all energy moving, which is vibrations. So I think the more that we're aware of the different vibrations that are around us and different people can feel different vibrations better than other people. So I think that's important. If that's helpful for you and you feel better with it, go for it. Yeah.
Yeah, you're awesome. Yeah. Thank you. I love this space. You guys are cool.
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Tricky, thank you. I love this space. You guys are cool.
Tricky, did you have something you want to say?
It's Tricky Booter from
the Five Space Donkey.
Retweet the room!
That's what I wanted to say.
Retweet the room.
That is awesome.
I've missed that for a couple weeks.
I haven't heard that for a couple weeks.
I think I was having like, what is it?
Like when you haven't had a cigarette or whatever?
Withdrawal.
Withdrawal.
Yeah.
Tricky withdrawal.
But yeah, I had to come in with a dual account.
I've been trying to clean up my account.
So if I accidentally unfollow you, because it's likely, you know, just say hi.
I'll get you back.
No problem.
Nice. Cool. All right. We're going to move on to practical ways to reduce or to kind of re-regulate that dopamine.
So there's something that we can actually do about it. We don't do it perfectly. We don't
have to do it dramatically. We don't say, okay, we're cutting out all screens. I know some people
who go off on these dopamine detoxes, it could work.
I'm sure it does, but it's, it's a rough way to do it, but it's also often not sustainable
for people, especially us who are kind of in this, in this world that are, that is very,
you know, screen heavy.
So we're just going to talk about like five different ways.
So creating tiny gaps. I like this one
because, you know, like just tiny, tiny gaps in your day where you're just not having
screens or that kind of input. So like no phone for the first 20 minutes of waking up that that
would be lovely if people can do that I use actually my phone to
do a couple breathing so that that doesn't work for me I use some breathing but I try not to go
I use the I use my Wim Hof and then my inside timer in the morning so I try like really consciously
not going on any of my other apps not looking at any of my notifications not not going after any
of those things so that I can just be stuck not stuck but stay with those
those those things that don't kind of ping me up um maybe even just putting the phone away in
another room for 10 minutes sometime during the day you know maybe taking a pause before you open
your next tab on your computer um so these short reductions allow those, those, those receptors to kind of begin to
normalize.
They don't feel like they're, they have to always be pinging.
Okay.
Um, you're, you're not quitting the wave.
You're not quitting.
You're not turning the volume all the way down to zero.
You're just turning it back down to a kind of a little, a little normal volume.
Um, multitasking is like also gives a lot of spikes. So do a single task for 15
minutes. I think CryptoStone is saying he does his for 20 for two hours. Like, oh my. Okay. So
I think that that's very variable as far as how often, how long you do your tasks for, but set a timer, just one task, you know, no switching.
And this works because it sustained attention
like we were talking about,
like I think Candy was asking about the reading,
sustained attention stabilizes,
like if you're studying, if you're reading something,
so that's sustained attention stabilizes the dopamine instead of spiking it because this is okay. Okay. This is
normal. This is normal. This is normal. There's nothing excited. I don't have to do anything else.
I don't have to, my attention doesn't have to go someplace else. I don't have to look at the next
shiny object. Um, and so stability is kind of built by kind of like, uh, that kind of single focus. Number three, delay the reach. Instead,
when you feel that pull to scroll, that pull to go to the refrigerator, the pull to grab that
cigarette, the pull to grab whatever that is, that's pulling your attention and you're leaning towards it to kind of
get that kind of um you know to to go and do that thing um don't eliminate don't don't eliminate
it just delay it work your way up to 60 seconds if you can um and what this works, it's your retraining that craving loop that goes on in your brain.
And it teaches the brain, oh, it doesn't have to spike every time I see something or every time I
think of something. It doesn't have to go full on. It doesn't have to give that dopamine. The
dopamine gets you ready for action, gets you ready to move. So it doesn't, it tells it, oh, I don't have to.
Every time I think about, you know, I was looking at what's happening on the timeline.
Oh, I don't have to do that.
So my dopamine doesn't have to go up.
So just delay it.
And maybe by the time it's delayed, you don't do it.
Maybe you do it and it's okay, but just delay it.
Begin like 10 seconds delaying it or 30 seconds.
Work your way up small baby steps.
So that's that. Any questions on those first three before I go on? Nope. I like it. Okay.
All right. Number four, replace fast reward with slow rewards.
So if you're going to, instead of scrolling,
if you say, I just want to sit down and do nothing and scroll,
maybe do something else instead.
Go for a short walk.
That's also, I mean, it doesn't seem like that's going to be more work,
but it helps the brain think, oh, okay, I don't need that.
I don't need to go and get that, get that anticipatory spike in my, in my brain.
Um, if you get a notification, instead of looking at your notifications, listen to some music, read a book, um, they go for a dance, turn on some music, dance for a few minutes, walk around, look
outside, pet your dog.
Um, so these kind of natural rewards, um, make, make not only your dopamine, but your
other brain chemicals rise slower and fall slower.
Um, and so they don't crash. You don't get as much crashes.
And when you have a natural reward. So think about the things, you know, that you love to do.
Pet the dog, play with the dog, look outside, get your, you know, something, something to help
that. And the last one, protect your sleep. Now, this is really hard, but protect your sleep and get light in the
morning. Um, morning sunlight helps to regulate so many of your different chemicals in your body.
Um, and it definitely helps to regulate your baseline dopamine. It helps to regulate your
baseline melatonin, which was one of the chemicals that helps that tells your body, oh, it's time for sleep. So if you can in the morning, get outside, even if it's freaking
cloudy, look outside, take a five, five minute, two minute, one minute sky gaze. You know what
I'm saying? Just get outside as much as you can. If the sun is out, that's even better. But,
you know, and the other thing is try and get your,
try and get on a sleep schedule. There's really sleep restores your receptor,
those brain receptors, it restores those, that sensitivity to those. And that's just the biology.
One, one, one quote that I really love is, uh, you cannot out hack poor sleep.
You just can't out hack poor sleep. I've been trying for many years,
but I finally decided that I really have made a priority in my life to try and get good sleep.
Um, and it's, it's helps a whole lot of things. Um, so, so those are the tips that I have.
And just remember that reducing this overload, um, in your brain, um, and returning down
that volume, that master volume, it isn't about removing, um, pleasure or enjoying life.
It's about lowering the baseline intensity that your brain is thinking about so
that simple things can feel rewarding again. Because if you need the volume to be at 90,
it's very hard to just simply enjoy the, you know, the smile on a kid's face or the puppy dog
or something simple because you're so wanting something.
So your brain, not you, your brain is craving and is like set the base so high.
Yeah.
So yeah, I'm over here.
Yeah.
I was just wondering.
So I love the delay thing.
I think that's going to be really helpful for me with a lot of things.
me with a lot of things. But one thing I was wondering is, I like to schedule times to be
pissed off, or to be reactive. And usually when I get to it, I'm like, whatever, I don't even
remember what the hell I was pissed about or what the hell I was, you know what I mean? But it gives
me that permission to do that just later. Later on, mama, you can freak the fuck out, right? So I'm wondering
if I could do the same type of thing, or is that more of an avoidance and not feeling it? What are
your thoughts on that? I want to know what you're doing. You can schedule that, that you can schedule
being upset because I want that. Like, can I schedule when I'm fussy at my computer? I need
that. I need that. I think Moonbeam, what she was saying, mama, you can correct me, but I schedule when I'm fussy at my computer? I need that. I need that.
I think Moonbeam, what she was saying, Mom Berry, you can correct me.
But I think she, you can't schedule the feeling of being upset, but you can schedule when you're going to act on it.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I can't even do that.
I get fussy. And I'm like, okay, poo.
Okay, now.
And I like cut everything off.
And I feel like I'm discerning everybody in my life when I cut my stuff off.
Like when I, like if I'm doing a website and it crashes and I can't put my graphics on the air, I have to stop because it's not taking it.
But I feel like I'm doomed.
I'm doomed.
I'm failing.
You know what I mean?
I can't schedule that doom. Like I'll start crying mama bear. I literally, I'll doomed I'm doomed I'm failing you know what I mean I can't schedule that doom
like I'll start crying mama bear I literally I'll be bawling my eyes out I'm like oh my god
you know and and it really does make me feel like I am not good enough so if maybe if I do schedule
and I don't get upset like right then if I can say to myself okay that's not a me problem that's
an electronic problem because I feel like it's running that's not a me problem that's an electronic problem
because I feel like it's running on me like I feel like it's shutting down because oh I'm on a roll
okay oh crapola you know there you go I know is that is it me or is it does anybody else go through
that with energy so I definitely have had periods of my life where that was kind of more my norm.
And I think over time, and if you're intentional about it, you can actually kind of work with
that to change it because it's like respect, learning to respect yourself and to be kind
to yourself and to say, okay, I'm feeling this doom and gloom, but right now I'm going to say,
I'll get back to you.
I'll talk to myself kindly and say, okay, I hear that.
I feel this.
But right now I'm in the middle of X, Y, and Z.
So I promised myself I'll give myself time to deal with that later.
And then I do come back and deal with it later and feel the feelings and deal with everything
like that, because then I can still continue to do whatever it is I need to do. And another piece that
sometimes like the, I love the fact that you could say, oh, it's the technology, not me. And maybe
sometimes it's a little bit of both, but we learn to say, oh, it's okay. I can make a mistake. It's
okay if I make a mistake or it's okay if I don't know, it's okay for me to learn because I'm just,
I'm just a human being learning, learning human being learning on this path of being human. So yeah, being kinder and gentler to ourselves, I think,
is super important because I think we can be our own worst critics, if that makes sense.
That is so true. That is really so true. Like, you can criticize yourself almost like, like, I have this new phone and it literally just happened.
And I have a text now number, which is probably a predominant.
People have the same number at one point.
And I have this group of people saying F you, all this.
They don't even know who I am.
So it's like a number that was with the number prior.
And I'm like, oh, my God.
You know, it's like, can I I it's like I can't handle it or
not and not handle it it's just I'm like whatever I but it it makes me feel like it's on my back
like it makes me look bad because it's a nice stupid number but it's just a text now number
it wasn't I don't even know these people like when people try to follow you on x and
they send you all these crazy dms like crazy I don't know if you've ever been through it but I've
even shut down an account I'm just now getting back up to my followers I had like 5,000 when I
started out and I had to shut it down and act like I got banned because I had some really really
weird o's following me and I'm I'm like coming to the point. It's okay to not trust everybody.
Because I'm the worst of that.
Like I love everybody.
Blah, blah, blah.
And I'm learning.
Which is the hardest part.
That I can't love everybody.
And that hurts.
So I'm like.
It's like my frequencies are so messed up.
From where I used to be at peace.
And oh Moonbeam or Sherry is my normal name.
You get along with everybody.
Everybody likes you.
You're always happy.
And I'm like no I have those days.
You know.
And but I feel like everybody thinks I'm so happy that they want me to have those days sometimes.
And I'm like no I have them already.
But I have the stupid people on my phone that I don't even know who they are.
And I can't make them stop.
So I'm like I don't know which way to go with it.
You know what I mean?
It's like.
Why?
It's like how much more can a person take of reality?
Does that make any sense?
Like.
How much more can a person take?
Sometimes.
It's like.
Because we.
We go back into our little vibe of like.
I just can't take anymore.
You know.
I want to handle this at another time.
And when I.
Come at time. I can tell you I can't handle it again because it's not worth my time yeah something is that okay like is that like not give it
not to give it any energy no because it's nothing you can control. It's nothing that you've done wrong.
Yet they're just texting and block them if you can and then just move on with your day.
I'm like, oh, there it goes to somebody else.
And it's also like I look at life sometimes that everything is here to help me grow and to help me evolve as a being.
And so every time I get that little ping it's another opportunity to love
myself and another time to just say oh there goes that again and if I have if my emotions do
something else I go oh that's what I'm feeling there goes that trick elbow and not caring so
much about it and just saying oh that's just that you're so cool no I don't know about you're just
so cool you're just so laid back it's like I would love to have a class with you like every day but
you could have a class every day because I would need this every day. I would want to come in and say, oh, blah,
blah, blah, and just say it like, and let it out. You're so cool. Yeah. There are definitely,
you can do this for yourself though. That's the point. These are, these are all things that we
can do for ourselves and we're here to encourage each other and care for each other. But there's
also things that we can just do for ourselves. So do you find that it's not easy though like to do it for ourselves it's not like it's
not i would rather be around people because sometimes it's just not that easy it's like
easier to know that there are other people that go through the same stresses of the day like
100 100 yeah it's we need each other we definitely need each other for sure
um okay guys we're gonna um do are we're gonna close with our little meditation time
um this one's called i'm gonna call this one lowering the volume so just remember when we're
talking earlier about kind of like that dopamine is kind of like that volume. And sometimes we have it turned way up.
So our baseline is so high.
And so this little meditation, my heart, my intention is that maybe we can just take a few minutes to let our systems settle and lower the volume for a few minutes.
Mama Bear, do you have something?
Oh, yeah, we got to go through whatever else we need to go through.
Go, Mama Bear, before we start the meditation. Yes. I actually don't.
I couldn't find anybody else's spaces. I apologize. I tried to look and I tried like three times and
I thought, you know what, that's good. So I'm sure everybody will find their next place to land.
Yes. Or maybe they won't. That's true. Maybe they won't. Maybe they'll just go and enjoy their evening, put their feet in the grass.
Exactly. Exactly.
All right, Papa Bear. So I'm going to do my thing.
And then Papa Bear will close us. Yes?
Papa Bear? Yes? I see a heart. Okay.
I see a heart. All right. I'm going to start see a heart. Okay. I see a heart.
All right.
I'm going to start with a bell and then we'll see where this goes.
All right, here we go.
Okay. So we're just going to take a few minutes to let our system settle.
to let our system settle.
I invite you to find a comfortable spot.
Allow your body to relax.
You can sit down or lay down.
Just let your attention come to your body.
Just begin to feel the weight of your body in your chair or the floor, wherever you're at.
No judgments.
Just feel the pull of gravity on your body.
Feel the support beneath you.
Maybe your chair or you can feel the floor.
Just feeling that. Let your shoulders soften.
Let's take one slow inhale.
And then a nice longer exhale.
Allow the exhale to fall all the way out.
Now imagine your nervous system like a speaker.
It's been playing all day long.
And it's loud.
It's been full.
And the input is constant.
And your volume of that speaker.
It could be a round dial.
It could be push buttons.
Just picture that volume
you don't need to turn it off
just let your hand rest on the volume dial
And just gently lower it one notch.
And take another slow breath.
Fully out.
And turn the volume down one more notch.
Just turn it towards a natural, balanced level for you. In your shoulders, your jaw, your abdomen.
Let the body feel its own weight.
Let gravity do its work.
Gently feel your feet.
back of your legs.
Back of your legs.
Feel your spine supported.
Let your system reset its own rhythm.
its own rhythm. Another inhale and soft exhale. Let your internal volume soften.
Thoughts can move in the background.
Sounds can exist.
Life continues.
But the intensity eases.
And just notice the difference between the noise and the stillness between the urgency and the aliveness.
Feel your breath moving.
Feel the quiet steadiness beneath everything.
Take one more breath in and out. Just let that volume rest at that natural, balanced level. Maybe putting your hands on your chest as you feel your body once again.
And take a breath bit of movement back to your body, hands and feet, feeling a different level of calm
a different baseline for the rest of your night
or evening or day
and when you're ready gently
opening your eyes back
in this moment.
Namaste. Thank you, Babs.
Thank you, everyone, for showing up.
We'll be back tomorrow, 4 p.m. Papa Standard Time, which is 7 o'clock Eastern.
Until then, do something kind for yourself.
Take a moment, stay present.
As always, move with intention.
We'll see you tomorrow. .
