#94 - Self awareness
Understanding our mood regulating hormones
I missed sending out a newsletter last week.
It was lying there in the drafts waiting for me to finish but my mood was playing games. The moment I sat on finishing it, thoughts flashed “Kumar, you have more important things to do, this is going to take longer. Keep it aside”.
I knew my brain was playing games. Having read books on psychology I also knew who the culprit was.
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Imagine your brain as an office. Dopamine is that overenthusiastic intern who keeps yelling, “Let’s do something exciting!” while serotonin is the calm, wise manager reminding you to stay balanced and happy.
Dopamine gets you hyped about new goals, makes scrolling social media addictive, and gives you that “just one more episode” energy at 2 AM. Serotonin, on the other hand, is the reason you actually feel content after a good meal, a deep conversation, or a sunny day.
Too much dopamine, and you’re chasing instant gratification like a squirrel on espresso. Too little serotonin, and everything feels like a rainy Monday.
So how do you keep these two in check? That’s where the magic of balance comes in. Let’s dive into how these brain chemicals shape your daily life—and why your happiness might depend on keeping them from waging war in your head!
In this post I have tried to capture my explorations of understanding my body and mind better. May not be directly related to sketchnotes but what happens in that 2% of our body mass.
Serotonin
First I discovered about Serotonin and how it is responsible for all those sweet cravings. It’s a hormone that’s generate as a reward. For delayed gratification. We should try to get more serotonin !
Dopamine
The next one was dopamine. That instant spike of happiness is result of this hormone. It drive impulsive behaviour. Everytime you go to instagram or checking email or order from e-commerce, dopamine is released giving you instant gratification. And that’s bad.
Two main theories have emerged: the "synergy hypothesis," which suggests dopamine handles short-term rewards while serotonin manages long-term benefits, and the "opponency hypothesis," which proposes the two act as opposing forces balancing our decisions, with dopamine urging immediate action while serotonin counsels patience.
Many articles have already been written about these hormones and I won’t go in details. What I did was to sketchnote them so that I get to ponder over this information and keep them in mind whenever my mind yells “Kumar, go get it or just leave it for now”. I know how to handle it and what’s the root cause.
Going to find out more on Endorphin and norepinephrine this week.
Here’s an amazing sketchnote on these hormones
Self Discipline
I think 95% of the world population would be procrastinating and I am one of them. The evidence is infront of you :-) I missed my last newsletter.
So I ventured into finding out how to tackle it. I had written about it earlier too. Linking it to self esteem. And it’s not a co-incidence that the earlier article was written to overcome procrastination.
But this time wanted to practical tips. The book Self Discipline by Kimberly Oslon came to rescue. And I sketchnoted that too.
That’s all I have for today.
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Happy Sketchnoting.
Loved this newsletter. Thank you so much. It was very insightful, and I look forward to next week's one.