0:00 the average American spends 4 hours and 34 minutes a day on their phone and when we're not we're glued to other screens feeding us cheap dopamine powered by AI algorithms if you've tried to build a healthier relationship with tech you'll know it is way harder to do now I love that awareness about the cheap dopamine epidemic is becoming more popular but to be honest I think there is a lot of misinformation about dopamine detoxes people still think that quitting social media for a week will transform their life but it's not that simple the truth is most open media detoxes fail because people don't have a proper protocol 2 years ago I created a dopamine detox protocol and it's one of our most viewed videos on YouTube but a lot has changed since then and as a full-time Creator and entrepreneur it is only more important to regain control of our mind
0:45 so I've updated my dopamine detox protocol for 2025 it is three phases and yes you must do each one in order to have a successful detox first phase is preparation setting up the rules and the conditions so we're clear on what we're getting oursel into last year my my girlfriend and I decided to use this protocol but the outcome we experienced was completely different and it changed my perspective entirely the first and most important step of preparation is intention it's all about intention for her it was like a challenge like who can go the longest without using Tik Tok right but she had no intention of changing and I'm not a mind reader but I'm almost 99% sure why it wasn't that meaningful for her whereas for me it felt like I was hitting reset on my life and starting fresh my point isn't to say that she was wrong or that I'm better we
1:30 just went into the experience with different goals so really ask yourself take some time maybe even a few days think about it why is it important for you to regain control of your attention and what's going to happen to you if you keep doing what you currently are and the better you can articulate it you know and really visually and viscerally capture that goal the more likely this dopamine detox can lead to Lasting change this protocol can transform your life like it's done for thousands of people before but only if you're open and ready to accept it next let's move on to what gets cut and I want to be clear here when I say cut because I got a ton of messages about this last time we can't remove dopamine from our body because it's not something that we get from the outside world like alcohol or sugar our body produces dopamine in response to experiences in our daily lives I think I heard this from Andrew
2:16 huberman who described it so well he said dopamine is the universal currency for us to do stuff right without it we have no motivation we have no desire and no drive to do anything problem is technology is so deeply interconnected in our lives now that we can't live without a digital reality and as Ai and Technology keeps advancing daily life just causes our brain to produce unnatural amounts of dopamine right we're all living in this hyp stimulated environment and it's changed what normal means normal is overs stimulation so to take normal action we need to be overstimulated right we can't watch Netflix without also scrolling on our phone right we can't pay attention to an online course unless we're also scrolling following on Facebook Marketplace so the four non-negotiable
3:03 categories we're going to cut it's really just meant to bring our environment back down to normal levels right back down to how it used to be the first category is binge Tech this includes all social media platforms video games forums and feeds all streaming services on your TV and on your smartphone and your iPad and news and political channels and yes this also includes YouTube I know that only hurts me as a YouTube Creator but if it helps you take control and improve your life then that's the price I'm willing to pay that being said if you are a Creator or a knowledge worker and you use YouTube to learn or for work then fair enough you get a pass but please please make sure you use extensions or plugins to hide the suggested hide shorts feeds and hide unwanted home feed searches I
3:48 personally use ARC by the browser company which has a feature called boosts where you can zap away all those elements and also it works for any other website too and the best part Arc is free I'll leave a link below if you're interested in checking that out number two is unhealthy sex no pornography no masturbation and no swiping on dating apps research has shown that dopamine spikes from swiping on dating apps is often higher than the act of sex itself which is kind of crazy right and especially with the rise of AI influencers and sex bots and stuff it's becoming harder for our brains to differentiate real connection from like that Primal raw sexual desire and who knows maybe in a few years we're going to be entering real cyberpunk territory with crazy sexual ual fantasies and augmented reality and VR and stuff and
4:33 it's only going to be more important to stay in control of cheap dopamine now if you're in a relationship or you're married that's a completely different story you don't have to be like celibate and a dopamine detox can actually be a great opportunity for you guys to connect and get even closer intimately so I actually recommend that approach number three is toxic consumables this includes alcohol marijuana all recreational drugs or any fake therapeutic drugs and I'm also going to throw high amounts of caffeine as well as processed foods and junk Foods into the mix here especially anything that's excessively salty or sugary or fatty or any combination of those together if you want to regain control of your mind then it has to be done when it's clear and it's unaltered at least for the duration of this dopamine detox and there's overwhelming
5:18 evidence and research to show that these consumables meddle with our body's chemistry you know of Serotonin of endorphins and of course dopamine and diet is no different right if every time you passed by a Starbucks and you have a sudden craving for a vanilla latte with extra sweetener and whipped cream and stuff that is cheap dopamine in action pulling your attention away and number four is thrill seeking Behavior this includes gambling crypto trading any kind of online trading online shopping or even online browsing or any like FY Behavior at all what's interesting about this category is that it's not about the thing itself right like it's not about the shoes you want to buy or it's not about the jackpot it's not about that Peak High moment it's about something called anticipation dop mean if you've ever spent more time trying to find something to watch on Netflix than watching the thing itself or you know
6:05 flipping through page 10 of Facebook Marketplace and hitting refresh to see what might be there that is a result of anticipation dopamine the dsm5 which is known as like the Bible of Psychiatry even recognizes impulsive and binge shopping spree as signals that there could be a real underlying dopamine problem it's that imagination your brain has about oh how good is it going to be you know what if what's it going to be like our brain cannot resist it and that's why this stuff needs to go all right and finally how long are we going to dopamine detox for to this day I still haven't been able to find any like real clinical trials or data that analyze dopamine levels before and after a protocol like this and so my recommendation actually comes from our understanding of human physiology and to
6:51 explain why I want to borrow the same analogy I use from Dr k a healthy gamer last time you know credit to the king he deserves it because he just explained it so freaking well and it's just stuck with me since then so imagine you plug your phone into a bunch of little speakers but the volume on your phone is cranked up all the way that's what's happening with cheap dopamine it's just over stimulating our phone and so to compensate what we have to do is turn down the volume of all these little speakers to avoid Distortion this is a natural process that our body does called desensitization but if the input stays high for too long then the speakers themselves start to wear down and some of them struggle to handle it at all and just shut off and over time fewer and fewer speakers actually work this is another natural and actually protective process that her brain uses
7:37 called down regulation and it's meant to prevent things like imbalances or cancers or infections from developing because things are just not acting out of normal and in the case of dopamine here it reduces the number of dopamine receptors around to prevent constant over stimulation so as you can imagine if we suddenly lower the input of the phone by doing a dopamine detox here then the volume overall is going to be really low at first but slowly our brain's going to adjust and turn back the volume of the speakers and activate more speakers again this process is called resensitization and it can happen as quickly as within 7 days but more likely within 2 to 4 weeks now you can just keep detoxing for longer right there's nothing wrong with continuing to keep the input lower but I actually
8:22 don't think it's necessary to maintain a detox for longer than 4 weeks and I'm going to explain why later in the video but for now let's move on to the next phase phase two execution is actually doing the dopamine detox and let me paint a picture for you to set up expectations properly first you're going to experience what I call an emotional unraveling because when we cut out all this stuff something returns that's been locked away our thoughts most people use these heavy dopamine activities to numb their mind to escape from reality you know to cope with life but now that that's gone everything is going to come flooding back you will feel boredom that is a fact but in in addition to boredom you will also feel a lot of other negative emotions you know anxiety about what are you doing with your life fear that AI is going to take over your job
9:08 frustration that your business isn't growing as quickly as you hoped it would and when you experience those emotions your mind is going to beg you for Relief it's going to want anything it can do to distract itself and instinctively what you're going to want to do is reach for your phone so the first step in execution is to turn off all non-essential notifications on your devices on your computer on your tablets and especially on your phone and if you can plan to leave your phone as far away from you as much as possible in fact I would do this for everything that you're cutting out right if it's video games that you struggle with then hide them or give them to someone else for this time if it's Netflix or something uninstall it get rid of it it is so much easier to resist and not do something if it's not an option step two of execution is to tell people important to you they
9:53 conducted plenty of research for AA or Alcoholics Anonymous and for those of you who are unfamiliar with AA it's a 12-step program for recovering alcoholism to prevent relapse the most important of all of them and that is having a sponsor or accountability partner and so if we want to be successful with this detox it is going to be in our best interest to get people we care about and who are on our team involved in the process so tell your friends tell your family or the important people in your life that for the next 7 or 30 days what are you going to be doing and if they want to join you that's even better I remember the first time I did ad do me detox I did it with our community and having a whole group of us you know all focused on the same goal and going through this together it was really empowering and rewarding to
10:40 see everyone's messages as we all reflected together and we're probably going to do it as a community again this time so if you're a rebel Creator you want to build a business online to live a life on your own terms then I'm going to leave a link to join below it's completely free community and there are also tons of resources and courses and tools to get you started educating online all right and finally with execution there are the daily practices just like there were some non-negotiables we're going to cut there are five non-negotiable daily practices that you must do every single day number one touch grass there's been a lot of research about how being in nature being outside is literally healing to you it cures depression and it gets you outside of like the little bubble that you live in go for a walk go for a hike just be outside and when you do don't bring your
11:26 phone or don't try to listen to a podcast or whatever just be there and enjoy that moment number two is 20 minutes of movement this can be anything you want it can be going for a walk stretching rock climbing going to the gym running swimming whatever you want to do just move your freaking body because movement and exercise releases very healthy amounts of dopamine and that's like the basil amount of dopamine that actually keeps you going another part of dopamine detox is retraining our ability to produce dopamine for the right reasons for the reasons that we actually care about and exercise has a billion other health benefits for your brain for your body it makes you look better it makes you feel better and in an age now where everyone's couch potatoing and sitting at desks for longer and staring at screens we don't want to end up like the people in the wal e Society number three is some form
12:11 of social activity connect with a living breathing human being that can mean calling up someone on the phone right maybe it's your partner or hanging out with your kids or hitting up your friends you haven't talked to in a while or call your parents I don't know about you guys but my parents love it when I call them because I don't do that as often as I used to I also think structured social events are great like if you can combine some of these together like number one and two go on a hike with friends or go to the gym with friends or do it outside or you know get groceries and cook dinner together or something it really makes it wholesome as well number four is reflection this can be journaling this can be meditation this can be writing or just thinking and sitting in silence it's going to be really important for you to just find some time to be alone with your thoughts and to be present notice how you're
12:57 feeling and reflect on it and it doesn't have to be that long either you can even spend just 5 to 10 minutes in Silence with your thoughts and finally number five you're going to spend at least 1 hour of deep work on a personal project the biggest problem with cheap dopamine is that it removes one of the most important aspects of dopamine that our brain is biologically wired for which is effort achievement putting in hard work and effort to build something that creates a steady and Powerful release of dopamine we used to have to work for it right we used have to put an effort and Achieve something to feel successful and fulfilled but the instant gratification that's available at our fingertips it confuses our brain about what is good or what is not worth pursuing and so that's why I think of all five of these steps
13:43 this one is probably the most important because it's retraining your body and your brain that pursuing your goals something for yourself is going to lead you to the most fulfillment and that I believe is absolutely true in a society where everyone is telling us what to do when we're getting fed information and use from algorithms being told what to believe being told what to see the ability to think for yourself to create things on your own that is truly what is going to give you perspective and Clarity and help you progress in the future of work and if you don't have a personal project you don't have a Hobbies then pick one what kind of skill that you've been wanting to learn how to play an instrument start a YouTube channel I think YouTube is one of the best assets you can build especially going into the future of work now where
14:28 cre is going to take over you're going to have a lot more time in this detox I guarantee you and so put that to use and start working on yourself and building something to release good dopamine and that's it those are the five things that you have to do every single day as you complete dopamine detox but the protocol doesn't end here and this is where a lot of people stop in their detoxes which is a huge mistake because what happens next during the restoration phase is where the real change and transformation begins restoration is the phase where we begin to reintroduce things into our life but only after careful consideration I had this Moment of clarity after my first open detox I was enjoying dinner with my girlfriend we were laughing we were joking we were having you know real conversation and she said something that was kind of offhand and I've never told her this but
15:15 it really struck a nerve with me she was like wow I can't remember the last time that we hung out like this and it made me feel kind of sad like how many meals have I had with her that we can't remember same thing with friends or family you know we're all together but everyone's just on their phone or watching a TV show while eating and not really being present and it just made me wonder if after all of this sacrifice of doing this dopamine detox I just went straight back to scrolling social media or playing video games before bed then what was the point right there's this Japanese art called kugi where when Pottery breaks the artists don't try to hide the cracks instead they filled them up with gold and they try to create something that's even more valuable and More Beautiful using all the mistakes and flaws that were there and that is
16:02 exactly how I want my relationship with technology to be I don't want to go back to normal normal wasn't really working for me normal was keeping me stuck it was preventing me from building my business or growing my YouTube channel or helping my students better and so the first step in restoring our Digital Life with intention is to number one ask the hard questions what are the things that you value right what type of person do you want to be what does that person value how does that person spend their time and what does that person spend their time doing and as you ask yourself those questions you should think about it does this stuff that you cut out you know the social media scrolling the TV shows the video games the shopping all that crap what purpose does it really serve you and does it align with what
16:48 you want and once you've done that the next step is to redesign our environment according to those values if you want to change your behavior start by changing what's around you I stopped buying junk food I stopped going to the club because hangovers and drinking didn't seem like they aligned with my values anymore if there's anything I want you to take away from restoration it's to integrate into your life that much intention and thought before restoring something to before dopamine detox isn't about challenging yourself or proving something to yourself it's about lasting change it's about taking control of cheap dopamine and instant gratification because the future with AI and Technology it only going to get worse I can't even imagine what sort of brainwashing attention hijacking toys
17:35 that people are going to cook up in the future but as long as you are in control it shouldn't be something you're worried about and I think the ones who are in control actually have a huge competitive Advantage because they just become tools for us to get further ahead like I mentioned earlier if you want to join us in rebuilding your relationship with dopamine with your life and becoming a rebel Creator I'll leave a link in the description below for you to join us I truly hope to see you there good luck 2025 is going to be huge let's win
