As the title of this section suggests, your dopamine levels (or mental energy to make it simpler) is just like having money, except the payday every day once you finish sleeping.
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So you wake up, you got a good night sleep, and it's payday, you have 100% of your daily brain money to spend throughout the day. If you follow the Pomodoro workflow to the letter for 2 whole Working sessions, you should be able to work as described above, with a total of 8 Working Cycles, that are 25 minutes long each.
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In the end, you responsibly spent your money gradually throughout the day, because you didn't seek pleasure, you only worked and whenever you needed to rest you correctly did the mental reset to make sure you could do the next work cycle without overworking yourself.
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To seek pleasure, is to spend your money irresponsibly
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Now it's the next day, you got a good night sleep and started to work, after a while you reset, then you work again, but this time you take a wrong turn and you feel like you need to escape the discomfort.
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This time you didn't correct yourself to switch back to the "I need to reset" mindset, you've entered the addiction cycle, essentially you're giving in to the pursuit of pleasure.
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The problem is that when you are seeking pleasure, when you do get that spike in dopamine (meaning you are feeling alot of pleasure in one go), it's as if you are burning alot of money in one go. After you've felt that big amount of pleasure, that mental money you had before is gone, you now have to go through the day with less mental energy.
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In other words, by seeking pleasure you just spent your money irresponsibly, and now it's going to be much harder and discouraging to keep working the rest of the day, unlike how it would have been if you didn't indulge in addiction.
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How to invest the money and reap the benefits ?
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Now it's the next day again, you got a good night sleep, you have 100% of your brain energy to use for the day. But there's an evolutionary trick that you can do to get even more money, at a cost. The trick is to do cold exposure, for example to take a cold shower right after waking up:
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Essentially you can see this as investing your brain money, rather than burning it away. This damn cold shower definitely does not feel good, hence it temporarily lowers your dopamine levels, as if you were spending it, but rather you are investing it, because you're going to reap the benefits of a 250% dopamine boost which will last for at least 2 hours (source).
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This means, that if you're willing to bear with that extra discomfort of the cold shower right after waking up, you're going to be able to start your day with more than twice more mental energy than you normally would, this means that you're going to be able to get alot more done during the day than you normally would if you hadn't taken the cold shower.
To give you a little introduction on this routine, first note down that this is intentionally designed to be uncomfortable. I am aware that not everyone will want to wake up at 6 o clock in the morning on a sunday and take a cold shower at 7 o clock. But the reason i am doing this ties back to the discipline i am building and refining every day, see Opus Nihil.
We, as humans are different from animals because we are able to choose to go beyond our instincts, while animals are unable to. It is our ability to choose, and to use tools that is making us the peak of evolution on this planet. But the less you are exerting your ability to choose, and to use your body and mind as your own tools, the less you are human. We are "Human beings" only when we know how to be, if you don't know how to be, then you're just a "human creature", no different from the rest of the animal kingdom.
This routine, although it may seem to be very simplistic, has 2 key elements in it. You will wake up early every day, even on the weekends, and you will take an uncomfortably cold shower shortly after waking up. Nobody in their right mind wants to do that right ?
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The reason behind it is that the first thing you must do in the morning is exert your ability to choose, no matter what the body or mind wants, we are not talking about building habits in the conventional sense, we are talking about dissolving habits. Normally you would want to wake up later, you would want to turn up the heat. But doing so means that you are giving up control, That is why we are bringing back control, to dissolve your habits.
There is one thing you need to remember before you start. The first step is the hardest, but the next one is easier, and the next one even easier. Don't underestimate your body and mind's ability to adapt. Personally the hardest part for me was to wake up that early in the weekend, but now, 2 months in, there's nothing hard about it anymore, it is simply part of waking up now.
@@ -131,17 +132,17 @@ It is ME who must accept it.
In that situation of stress, see if you can breathe slowly, and through your nose only. If you want to dig deep into yourself, mentally (and slowly, following the breath), repeat the Nihilism mantras:
The Three Nihilism Mantras:
-Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
-Inhalation: I am nothing,
-Exhalation: I am noone
+Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
+Inhalation: I want nothing,
+Exhalation: I need nothing
Scio Nihil: to dissolve your beliefs
Inhalation: I know nothing,
Exhalation: I know nothing else
-Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
-Inhalation: I want nothing,
-Exhalation: I need nothing
+Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
+Inhalation: I am nothing,
+Exhalation: I am noone
You can repeat them a few times, then once you're done, it should be around 6h45, leaving you 15 minutes to get dressed and leave to go to work.
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It is composed of 3 Mantras, each are designed to dissolve a facet of your own current way of thinking and your current way of percieving things.
The Three Nihilism Mantras:
-Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
-Inhalation: I am nothing,
-Exhalation: I am noone
+Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
+Inhalation: I want nothing,
+Exhalation: I need nothing
Scio Nihil: to dissolve your beliefs
Inhalation: I know nothing,
Exhalation: I know nothing else
-Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
-Inhalation: I want nothing,
-Exhalation: I need nothing
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+Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
+Inhalation: I am nothing,
+Exhalation: I am noone
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None of those sentences may make sense at first, but in their own way these are all deeply rooted in reality (i have rewritten them more than 50 times over the course of the last 10 years, with daily use). There is a way to percieve each mantra, in a way that makes sense, to give it additional weight as a fundamental reality that shouldn't be forgotten, upon mentally uttering them.
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2) slow down and deepen your breath
3) mentally, go over the 3 nihilism mantras for 5 minutes at least:
-Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
-Inhalation: I am nothing,
-Exhalation: I am noone
+Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
+Inhalation: I want nothing,
+Exhalation: I need nothing
Scio Nihil: to dissolve your beliefs
Inhalation: I know nothing,
Exhalation: I know nothing else
-Opus Nihil: to dissolve your compulsions
-Inhalation: I want nothing,
-Exhalation: I need nothing
+Sum Nihil: to dissolve your identities
+Inhalation: I am nothing,
+Exhalation: I am noone
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In my opinion, this is the most efficient break you can take. As you are intentionally winding down your brain activity, on top of mentally dissolving what you were previously working on, and shifting your focus on something else (here, the slowing and deepening of breath and thoughts). If you do it right (meaning, if you managed to dig deep enough), the moment you open your eyes again, you should rediscover what you were working on, as if it was the first time, with a completely fresh view on it.
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How do i do it ?
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To make it simple (and not require an actual timer), just look at the digital clock on your computer:
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There is no Escape
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Now, you need to be extra-careful whenever you are finishing a work cycle, because this is when the discomfort is at it's peak, and that's where you are most likely to indulge in addiction:
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This is going to require attention, and training but it will get easier over time, you need to get over this habit of "wanting to escape the discomfort". Wanting to escape is weakness, it is giving up, it is failure, it is abandoning your duty. The "escape" can be many things, such as substance abuse (nicotine is most common), or simply social media, or viewing adult content, this is where you are suceptible to fall back into pleasure seeking, and right before you start to indulge in addictions, that is where you need to make sure you do not enter the addiction cycle.
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You need to remind yourself, that there is no escape, there is no plan B, the only way out of this, is through. One way or another, you're going to finish the work, but to do that, you need to take a break, or in other words you first need to reset the mind.
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Whenever you are finishing a work cycle, if you're still returning to "i want to escape", you need to consciously shift your thinking to "there is no escape", to "i need to reset"
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With enough training, once you have accepted that there is no way out, your thinking pattern should go working Working, to "I need to reset", performing your mental reset, and then going back to Work. That way you are cutting out all possibility of addiction, especially when you are comfronting yourself with discomfort.
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How do i know i need to take a break ?
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Either you are self-aware enough to know when you are feeling overworked, and you'd do the reset instinctiviely, or if you're not self-aware enough i recommend to just look at the nearest clock:
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Whenever it strikes "minute 55" or "minute 25" it is time to take a break.
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Whenever it strikes "minute 55" or "minute 25" it is time to take a 5 minute break.
The first 3 breaks will last 5 minutes, and if it is your fourth break, it will last 35 minutes.
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-8h55 : 35 minute long break
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During the long break i also recommend doing the nihilism meditation, in order to dig deep into yourself, to recover on a deeper level. Another way of doing it is to go out for a walk, as the reasoning is the same, you are intentionally changing the context, changing what you are doing, and lowering the mental effort as much as possible, so that your brain may integrate what you were doing, and recover from it.
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During the each break recommend doing the nihilism meditation, in order to dig deep into yourself, and to recover on a deeper level. Another way of doing it is to go out for a walk, as the reasoning is the same, you are intentionally changing the context, changing what you are doing, and lowering the mental effort as much as possible, so that your brain may integrate what you were doing, and recover from it.
And then you can repeat the working cycle once again after the 35 minute break is over:
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One day, Aristotle was walking on the beach. A glorious sunset was happening, but he had no time for such petty daily events. He was thinking seriously about some great problem of existence, because for Aristotle, existence is a problem, and he believes he is going to solve it. Thinking seriously, he was walking up and down the beach. There was another man on the beach who was doing something very intensely – so intensely that even Aristotle could not ignore him.
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