Dope Transitions to Joy

Transition is what we are all initiating, undergoing, coming into, moving through or coming out of. Some transitions seemingly hold less weight or consequence while others are more obvious in how they will affect our lives and the lives around us.

We have recently transitioned into a New Year and a lot of us are considering how we can live a little differently; by adding and/or subtracting habits, by making changes in our relationship with ourselves and others, etc.
Many of these modifications are made with the goal of feeling better within and throughout our lives. 

What does feeling better mean? How long should feeling better last?

Well friends, feeling better, or feeling good isn’t just emotions-based, it’s also chemical.


Hello, Dopamine my old friend …

Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. It's a big part of our unique human ability to think and plan. It helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting.

It is produced in the midbrain and released by the hypothalamus as a neurohormone. Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter. (this is only a glance at the science of dopamine production). Basically, your body makes it, and your nervous system uses it to send messages between nerve cells. That's why it's sometimes called a chemical messenger. Like most other systems in the body, you don’t notice it (or maybe even know about it) until there’s a problem.

Dopamine affects many parts of our behavior and physical functions, such as:

  • Learning

  • Motivation

  • Heart rate

  • Blood vessel function

  • Kidney function

  • Lactation

  • Sleep

  • Mood

  • Attention

  • Control of nausea and vomiting

  • Pain processing

  • Movement

Because Dopamine affects behaviors, some mental health challenges are linked to having too much or too little dopamine in different parts of the brain.

No one knows for sure what causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Some research shows it may be due to a shortage of dopamine. This problem may be due to one’s genes. The ADHD drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) works by boosting dopamine.

Dopamine also plays a role in diseases, such as Parkinson’s and obesity, which the American Medical Association classified as a disease in 2013.

Dopamine enables neurons in your brain to communicate and control movement. In Parkinson’s, one type of neuron steadily degenerates. It doesn’t have a signal to send anymore, so your body makes less dopamine. The chemical imbalance causes physical symptoms. These include tremor, stiffness, slowness of spontaneous movement, poor balance, and poor coordination. Doctors treat these symptoms with medications that raise levels of dopamine.

Obesity’s relationship to dopamine is more nuanced and is affected by popular beliefs. Most of the time, if you take in more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. So why can’t obese people simply eat less and slim down? The answer isn’t that simple. They may face obstacles that others don't. They could have problems with their natural reward systems. This can affect the amount of food they eat before they feel satisfied. Imaging studies suggest that in people with this condition, the body may not release enough dopamine and another feel-good hormone, serotonin.

While dopamine usually plays a secondary role in the body, in certain medical situations it’s literally a lifesaver. Doctors use prescription dopamine (Inotropin) to treat:

**Because many drugs interact with it, it’s important that your doctor knows all the medications you take. Please speak with your Primary Care Physician before starting any supplements, of any kind.**

High Dopamine : here we’re talking about drug misuse and addiction

Some drugs that destabilize our dopamine production are nicotine, opioids, alcohol, amphetamines, and cocaine.
Some of these drugs, such as cocaine, cause an imbalance in dopamine production by creating a big, fast increase of dopamine in your brain. That satisfies your natural reward system in a big way. But repeated drug use also raises the threshold for this kind of pleasure. This means you need to take more to get the same high. Meanwhile, these drugs make your body less able to produce dopamine naturally. This leads to emotional lows when you’re sober.

In my past I chased spiritual and feel-good experiences through drugs, alcohol, fasting, hyper-workouts, etc. 
Those were all great dopamine hits and I don't think they are bad on their own -in moderation- . 

I refer to these big, quick hits of dopamine as happy times; they’re fleeting and circumstantial. These hits require external stimuli.

These days I regularly practice short guided meditations, better nutrition, regular exercise and personal ceremonies which require an intentional, focused and sober mind.
When my body is up for it, I play hand drums. Playing drums is a cardio workout, an aggression reliever and a moving meditation in one sitting - that other people can dance to! It’s a big win-win-win that I enjoy thoroughly and that I miss participating in when my low back isn't up to the task. But, that’s why we are urged to cultivate a variety of hobbies, to keep us sane in all kinds of weather. 

These more regular drips of dopamine I refer to as creators of Joy; they’re longer lasting and more sustaining. Joy is long-haul soul nourishment. Joy usually leads to gratitude and vice-versa.

I'm not sure if researchers that I respect, like Brene Brown, would agree, and we may even see joy and happiness in the reverse.
But I think that cultivating joy regularly can help us experience it more often and develop Joy as a state of being, leading to deeper feelings of contentment and satisfaction.
While joy can show up in intense and unexpected ways, for me happiness seems more unstable and less reliable.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol on occasion, and I certainly won’t be shaming anyone for a little drug use. Those simply aren’t the ways I reach out to the divine currently and my interest in them in my life is less and less as time goes by.

For those struggling with addiction, reach out! You are not alone, so many people have battled with this. You are worth the effort of meaningful connection with yourself and with others. 
If your support network is unavailable or lacking, please consider calling SAMHSA National Helpline. They offer confidential free help, from public health agencies, to find substance use treatment and information. 1-800-662-4357

So What does feeling better mean? How long should feeling better last?

To me, feeling better sounds like living in the future, a prediction, “I’ll feel better when…xyz happens”. While it’s great to plan for future happiness, it might be easier to get there if we learn to practice joy now.

The choice is up to each of us whether or not we spend time regularly to nourish the self in this grounded reality.
When we choose to devote some time to our overall health, what we gain from any spiritual or feel-good experience stays with us easier, better, more steadfast and internally wired. Internally wired? Yes. Like the way our muscles develop a movement-sense memory, with regular practice of sustainable, balancing, feel-good moves our brains can access those feelings easier.

Staying balanced (by which I mean participating in activities in which dopamine drips most of the time vs extreme highs or lows) allows those rare, more intense hits of happiness to be even more impactful on our overall sense of joy.

Oooh, maybe joy is the secret 7th mammalian sense!?!

Some things that can help us stay balanced & help keep our dopamine levels stabilized:

  • Connection: Having a few genuine friends that you stay in touch with regularly. These are those friendships where you hold safe space for each other in and around those conversations. Around those conversations means that you both understand what needs to remain confidential about your conversations. I’ll probably devote a future blog to creating and maintaining boundaries. Oof.

  • Hobbies!

    Walking doesn’t cost money and it can be a wonderful moving meditation. (notice I didn’t say it was free, implying without consequence; because for some people it isn’t)
    Practicing Art doesn’t have to be expensive or very time consuming. Also, Art isn’t about being good at Art, it’s about the experience of creating. You can start with a piece of paper & a pen to write or draw or both. You could get a bundle of string and creatively craft a hanging piece or a bracelet.
    There are so many free videos on crafting and creating on YouTube, from cutting t-shirts into interesting designs to building your own canoe to baking & cooking, etc. Explore!
    Practicing Music is, I’m pretty sure, our oldest form of communication. You needn’t pay for an instrument to access it. Music is sound and the exploration of sound. Your voice, 2 spoons clacking, hands patting on an overturned cooking pot, feet tapping the floor. This is another medium where the making of music isn’t about being “good” at it but rather, can you dig it? Are you groovin’ with others if they’re present?

  • Noticing the world around you is another practice we can cultivate to help keep us balanced. How the light looks and feels when you wake up, the temperature of water and the way it feels on your hands, how many colors are in the room you’re in, what trees and other plant life might be on a regular route you take - what is their color and how does their color and texrure change in different weather or seasons? How does your breath feel as you inhale and where does your body move to make space for it? This is the essence of being present. Noticing.

  • Reading can take us immediately out of our own perceptions, entering a new world of thoughts and ideas. How magical is that?! When we expose ourselves to ideas outside of what we already know and think, we offer our perception a chance to stretch, which means we are able to see more, sense more, dream more. Through reading we open ourselves to more possibilities.

  • Resting sometimes requires permission, from ourselves and our world. Downtime allows the brain to make new connections and better decisions (NYT), quote that to your boss next time you need a mental health day. Make a point to carve out time for quiet and contemplation - how much can you not do? As I mentioned earlier, I use short guided meditations regularly. That’s how much I’ve learned not to do, I won’t even lead my own meditation!
    Many of us spend time constantly pinged and reacting to short-term stimuli, from phones, texts, tv’s, even ads on buses or looks on the faces of strangers. Some people would describe this level of stimulation as their edge. Welp, guess that depends on what success looks like to you.
    To veteran financial journalist William Green in an interview with the New York Times, rest is a reflection of the “ruthless pragmatism” that made his (subjects) successful in the first place — in the eternal hunt for an edge, they found their rest ethic. It’s almost a countercultural move. “I don’t think you have deep thought without structuring your life this way.”
    In short, we need time to recuperate from all that adrenaline pumping madness.
    While resting without screens is a wonderful goal, for now get rest however you can!
    2 free meditation apps are Mindspace and Insight Timer.


So, we can all strive for feeling better, feeling good. We can all also remember that we are imperfect beings, some of us fighting impossible odds, and doing our best. Our best will fluctuate every day.

Living inJoy is a journey of small everyday efforts.


Joy doesn’t need a freakin parade, or fireworks. It is a state of being cultivated over time with genuine effort. This is what I mean when I sometimes refer to living in ceremony. This is the quest of living in right-relationship with ourselves, which helps us live in right-relationship with other people, the planet, the universe and whatever you might call god. 

So, where y’at? What can you do to transition into joy from where you are? Can you envision how sharing your joy might create more, for you and everyone else?

Live Full!

Emily Ball LMT RMT

Disclaimer: the blog Big Magic, Fun Wisdom, Healing Touch by Emily Ball is meant to be uplifting, educational and fun, and is in no way intended to replace any medical advice from your primary care physician, acupuncturist, physical therapist, psychotherapist, psychologist, counselor or any other qualified medical specialist in whose care you are under. If you’ve read this blog and have questions, contact me.

© 2022 Emily Ball, All Rights Reserved


Citations: 

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-dopamine

(NYT) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/29/business/dealbook/quality-work-breaks.html


Instead of waiting for something to change or happen, I would love to help you develop your value-based intention, to find your drive, and to reorient your sense of right relationship while taking action in your life; encouraging you to live your life on purpose each day.