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A good morning can brighten your whole day. It can make tasks easier and allow for a calmer schedule. But how does one ensure that their mornings are positive?
Dopamine, a neurotransmitter, can play a big role when it comes to starting your day right, CNBC reports. Here are ways understanding dopamine can help you begin your mornings on the right note, and set the tone for the rest of the day.
How Dopamine Can Create a Healthy Morning
While dopamine is associated with feeling good, it does far more. It’s also responsible for things like motivation, reinforcement, and learning, and is key in helping humans create rituals and habits. In addition, levels of the neurotransmitter are not always meant to be high. They are meant to fluctuate.
“We don’t want to always have really high dopamine levels, but we do want to have a healthy dopamine system,” Mia Soviero, a neuroscience researcher at NYU Langone Health and The Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University, tells CNBC. “You just want to build these good patterns in dopamine, where dopamine is able to be released the way it’s supposed to,” she adds.
One way to manage dopamine levels during the morning and benefit your life is through a low-dopamine routine, according to Stylist. This involves avoiding things that give people an immediate big dopamine hit as soon as they wake up — such as checking Instagram, TikTok, or WhatsApp. The reason for this is that as soon as the brain gets that first surge of dopamine, it will be chasing that high all day, leading to an inability to concentrate and stress.
Morning Walks and Sunlight
So, what are some of the things a person can do to trigger just enough dopamine in their brain for a good morning? Suggestions include taking a walk, meditating, or even doing something useful and simple, like loading the dishwasher or managing recycling.
Soviero recommends getting sunlight, doing a puzzle like Sudoku, or reaching out to a friend, CNBC reports. All of these are rituals you can institute for a healthy dopamine system in the mornings.
Starting off your morning with intentional, slow rituals is important and can make a big difference when it comes to your well-being. Maintaining healthy dopamine levels when you wake up will help you have a good day every day.
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