Dopamine: Meaning, Motivation, and Pleasure
Dopamine: Meaning, Motivation, and Pleasure
March 27 at 7:00 pm EDT and March 31 at Noon EDT
There is a lot of talk about dopamine these days – most of it negative, and most of it lacking important context. We hear a lot about how the dopamine release connected with everything from social media to junk food to alcohol is driving indulgent and addictive behavior. The missing part of the story is the purpose dopamine serves in our nervous system: generating motivation, meaning, and pleasure. What if our problem is not that we like dopamine too much, but that we are experiencing a deficit of meaning, and reorienting rather than diminishing our dopamine response is the answer? We will talk about herbs like Bacopa, Damiana, and Lobelia that work with our dopaminergic system in different ways, and strategies for pairing these herbs with simple rituals and practices to bring more meaning to our lives.
Registration for this class is now closed.