“Dopamine menu”. On TikTok, Gen Z is passionate about simple pleasures that stimulate the pleasure hormone

You’ve probably gotten pretty good at vitamin C or D as the harsh winter weather approaches… But are you thinking about dopamine? Thank heavens the health gurus of 2023 do it for you. The new trend of the “dopamine menu” aims to stimulate the production of the well-known pleasure molecule in everyone by fueling our everyday life with “real” joys. “Dopamine is a neurotransmitter at the source of motivation,” recalls sophrologist Clemens Pace Lavallee, founder and author of the Bienrelax network. Find your inner strength (Ed. Odile Jacob). “By activating the pleasure zone of the brain, this hormone, a cousin of adrenaline and serotonin, produces a sense of satisfaction and reward that causes you to reproduce what caused the state.”

The Ambiguity of Networks

This is typically the type of hastily digested scientific information that is a hit with Gen Z. Recently, in particular, on TikTok, we only talk about the #dopaminemenu (4 million views for certain excited videos), as if true pleasure brings back the heart of life that has forgotten the recipe. These same social networks that praise #dopamenus will actually be unscrupulous sellers of bad dopamine, a source of addiction. Indeed, getting likes begets, it’s a proven fact, shots of narcissism that drive you to scroll over and over again, blank-eyed and closed-faced.

Stimulating cocktail

The Dopamine Menu (sometimes called a Dopamine Detox) will help you get rid of these illusory gratifications that are enough to ruin your self-esteem (Oh, only 2 likes for this successful selfie this time, what’s going on? ?”) The principle is , to prepare a to-do list of sequences of physical or emotional happiness, to incorporate into daily life, to infuse joy and vital energy. There is really nothing new under the sun of positive psychology and, among others, the “three kiefs a day” theorized by Florence Servan- by Schreiber in the bestseller of the same name. Yes, for volunteering… And not for the practice of trying to “break” the brain with carefully dosed stimulation, rather than teaching the chronically grumpy to see life only as glasses half full. How exactly do we move toward The Newfound Happiness Pot The dopamine menu is so named because it combines ingredients that can promote regular production of the precious molecule. First there are hors d’oeuvres, activities that boost morale in less than ten minutes.

Walking with your favorite playlist in your ears; buy a turmeric golden latte; dancing like a madman in his living room; perfume your pillow; chatting with a nice grandma on the bus; Making funny faces with your daughter… Then there are the main dishes: activities, hobbies that we really enjoy, this krav maga class, this writing workshop, a ritual lunch with a friend, dinner alone with your beloved. , take a ride in the neighborhood park, take the kids to the museum or to the swimmers, treat yourself to a facial… Then come the “snacks,” all these things you can do at the same time. a somewhat boring task: listening to a podcast while folding laundry, enjoying fifteen minutes of exercise sitting on an exercise ball while doing slides, drinking a fine ginger infusion while checking emails…

Finally, we still allow ourselves a little “dessert” from time to time: Instagram, Netflix, Twitter, online shopping. Nothing too “sick” as it is time limited. All these dopamine moments are obviously very personal. carefully peeling a plump pear before making a face while tasting it is not necessarily a cup of tea for those who prefer to play foosball with their friends outdoors. Why list the delights of your dopamine menu in advance without leaving much room for improvisation? Mainly to prevent failures. eg, exhausted, collapsing in front of a screen as soon as you leave another screen. Just as batch cooking (where fresh, healthy foods are prepped on Sundays to be picked up for the rest of the week) will stop young, stressed-out urbanites from ordering a burger or pizza from Uber Eats every night. …

Finding balance

Have we become so incapable of automatically finding our little everyday joys in real life? Is this dopamine menu another vintage attempt to find peaches, bananas, potatoes and all the food metaphors seemingly by accident…? For Clémence Peix Lavallée, this form of mental dietetics is “still a very interesting approach. Of course, there is no such thing as good or bad dopamine, as this popular specialty menu seems to imply… But how you stimulate it really matters.” The dopamine produced by social networks stimulates the narrative self, that part of us, completely hypertrophied today, that depicts the individual in relation to the social norm, the group.

On the other hand, the dopamine breaks of the “menu” with their walks, dance sessions, cuddling sessions, their relationships with the body, with reality re-engage the corporeal Self. This other important part of our psyche defines our relationship to the world as a living, physical, embodied being; the child, for example, only lives through it. Today, he is very much threatened by the cult of image, sedentary lifestyle and isolation at home. An Instagram mom who posts multiple photos of her child, thus putting her narrative self to work, often does so to the detriment of her carnal self, caring for her child physically and with her undivided attention. Remote work, with these virtual meetings, also poses a real problem… And in this sense, yes, the dopamine menu is the beginning of the answer.