Finding Balance: Detoxing from Dopamine and Discovering Purpose

"and it looks at how dopamine which is this neurotransmitter that allows one neuron to communicate with another it's particularly associated with our reward system and so we love it we can't get enough of it it's very connected with pleasure but uh that we're getting so addicted to it that we're becoming a nation of dopamine addicts and it may be through video games or social media or could be through sex could be through porn could be through alcohol could be through work we just constantly want to feel pleasure" [00:32:38]

"but God has created us so that um we automatically seek homeostasis we seek balance and so if we try to artificially introduce pleasure reward dopamine into our system what happens is our brain automatically automatically regulates it something like a thermostat if you have it set to a certain temperature and then you open up where there's real cold air coming and the fern is going to go on and we have this problem where we constantly want to have pleasure we don't want to be bored but increasingly we are filling our lives with substances or activities to try to boost artificially our sense of pleasure" [01:10:70]

"and what happens then is that we lose our ability to enjoy the present moment and Find meaning and life in it in fact one definition of addiction is it is an increasingly restricted capacity to draw pleasure part of what Anna recommends and you might think about this if you find yourself getting overly attached to social media or video games or the wrong expression of sexuality or porn or opioids some substance or alcohol uh take 30 days away from it she says what happens is it takes about 30 days for the brain to reset itself when it comes to dopamine levels so we get back to a balanced level" [01:09:109]

"the first two weeks will be awful they will be a nightmare but if you stick with it she said about the third week the Sun comes out and by the end of the fourth week God has just made us in such a remarkable way that we begin to experience life in a healthy capacity once more now here's the particular phrase I wanted to tell you about she was talking about how particularly young people have been impacted often negatively by dopamine Nation and they want to have they're trained to think that they ought to be having a fabulous emotional experiences of reward and pleasure constantly" [02:29:151]

"and the idea behind this is that there's some magic job some magic work some magic vocation out there and if you could find it it would be the golden key that would unlock the door to a life of romanticized consistent High motivation and you'd be this charismatic person experiencing deep interest and motivation and uh emotional positivity all the time when you're working life actually doesn't work that way a lot of life is the willingness to experience moments of boredom and tedium at work that's part of why they call it work" [03:20:201]

"look around you and find something that needs to be done and do it don't spend the rest of your life wondering what's that passion out there that I ought to be finding so I can experience and ceaseless life of endless moments of bliss look around what happens is this puts you in touch with your actual surroundings the actual world that you inhabit because God has yet to bless anybody except in the place where they actually are" [04:09:249]

"she says we can actually learn from people in recovery she says recovering addicts are often the prophets of our modern day world Kent dunnington writes about the same thing in his book addiction and virtue and through hard-won humility they teach us to Simply seek to be useful she says look around you for something that needs to be done that nobody else is doing and do it and there is extraordinary meaning and possibility available to you" [04:40:283]

"and he spent his life looking around for something that needed to be done that nobody else was doing to the extent that on the night before he died when he gathered his friends together for what would be called The Last Supper there's no indication that this was pre-planned or premeditated he looked around the room and something needed to be done and that was dirty stinky feet needed to be washed and nobody else was doing it so he did it" [05:27:329]

"and then he said now what I've done here I've done to set an example for you and the idea is not restricted to foot washing in our day foot washing would be rather an odd thing to do for the most part part it is uh to have a servant spirit looking to cooperate together with God in the work of his kingdom finding something that needs to be done in your day and do it on second thought today don't try to discover your passion look around your actual World your actual situation" [05:55:355]

"often when we think about entering into a saving relationship with God for many of us if we go up in a certain kind of church what we think of is getting the heaven job done and believing whatever you're supposed to believe so that you get to have a job done no no no no no Dallas writes Abraham believed God and it was wrecking to him as righteousness we are told this is Genesis 15 6 classic verse what did Abraham believe that led God to declare or reckon him righteous" [06:42:412]

"Abraham trusted God he did what God called him to do he did what needed to be done in that moment in the face of such faith God declared Abraham to be righteous does that mean he declared he would go to heaven when he died not precisely that but certainly that Abraham's sins and failures would not cut him off from God in the present moment and in their ongoing relationship in life together but would he go to heaven would he die of course what else would God do with such a person they were friends" [07:47:487]

"as we are to be friends of Jesus by immersing ourselves in his work what needs to be done what's nobody else doing I can do it no friend of God will be in hell Jesus even assured us that whoever as one of his apprentices gives a little one just a cup of water to drink shall not lose his reward certainly forgiveness and Reconciliation are essential to any relationship whether it's been offense and also between us and God we cannot pass into a new life from above without forgiveness" [09:07:543]