r/ZenHabits

I'm a science nerd, and skim research headlines for articles of interest. A few months ago I read a neuroscience one that's helped my motivation, so I thought I'd share.

Apparently, scientists no longer think that Dopamine is used as a reward for accomplishing something. Instead, the brain uses Dopamine for evaluating whether an action is worth doing. People with high levels of dopamine quickly evaluate the pros and cons of doing an activity with little effort. They are active people and easily get things done. People with low dopamine levels become so exhausted trying to evaluate whether something is worth doing, that they usually just don't do the thing- they're wiped out just by evaluating! Fortunately, you can naturally increase Dopamine levels in your brain with aerobic exercise 3x a week.

This was all a big revelation to me, so I've been trying to get that aerobic exercise in as a starting point. It seems to be working, helping me make more effortless decisions, and therefore accomplishing more. Sorry I didn't save the research article to share with you!

When I feel accomplished about achieving something, I feel a fulfilment and a high that makes me so consumed of myself. I feel hyper-happy and feel invincible.

In this state of being, I am careless to everyone close to me. I do not care about their feelings. I go into a dont care attitude feeling I am done caring for their trivial emotions or problems.

Can you help me understand what this behaviour is and how I can be better?

I want to share something incredibly simple that has had a surprisingly powerful effect on my anxiety and adhd.

For a long time, I felt like my brain was constantly stuck in **fight-or-flight mode**: racing thoughts, tension, urgency, overthinking, and the feeling that my nervous system was always searching for the next problem.

What has helped me regulate that state more than I expected is this:

**Reading a book (a novel) extremely slowly.**

And when I say slowly, I mean **very slowly**. Almost word by word, as if I were learning how to read again.

I do this for **30 uninterrupted minutes every day**.

I do not try to finish lots of pages. I do not rush to reach the end of the chapter. I simply focus on each word, each sentence, and the story.

When my mind wanders, I do not get frustrated. I just notice it and gently return to the words and the story.

It is basically a form of **mindfulness through reading**.

The key is the slowness.

An anxious brain often wants to move quickly, predict everything, jump between thoughts, and stay alert. Reading very slowly creates the opposite rhythm. It forces the mind to reduce its speed, and after a while, the rest of the nervous system seems to follow.

The results I have noticed:

* More calm * Better mood * Fewer racing thoughts * Better concentration, no Brain Fog. * Better memory * More awareness of the present moment * Less of that constant “on edge” feeling

There is research suggesting that mindfulness, focused attention, and repeatedly bringing the mind back after it wanders can help with anxiety, emotional regulation, attention, and working memory.

I have not seen research specifically on reading this slowly, but for me, the mechanism feels very similar.

This is not a cure, and it does not replace therapy, medication, or professional support. It is simply a very basic practice that has helped me much more than I expected.

Try it:

**30 minutes without stopping. A real book (a novel, with a story). No phone. No rushing. Read word by word, very, veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery sloooooooooooooowly.**

Do not focus on how many pages you read.

Focus on being fully present with the words.

It feels almost too simple, but for me, it has been incredibly powerful.

I've been really interested lately in getting away from the constant dinging of notifications, "de-googling" (within reason) and having more true experiences in my life, like not viewing events through my phone screen. Some silly things I've done is to buy physical, no digital items like video games, music, movies. We took smart devices out of our house. Besides our phones. The phones are a tough one. I need it for work, family, etc. and like it for YouTube, surfing web and all that.

Some of the other bigger things I've done is go to a dumb watch, which has been super great! For most things in life, if something has basically just one job, it makes everything a lot more intentional. No smart hubs in the house, just plain cd/tape players - even for white noise for the kids! We've seen that it helps them go to bed which in turn helps us go to bed haha. There's too much going on in this world that can just cause adults and kids to never sit down and think for themselves. It's easy to get caught up into without even knowing.

The other thing I tried, honestly half as an experiment on myself, was building a little app that locks my apps until I earn the time back with exercise, brain games, or an outdoor photo. It's called MonkeyLock. Happy to share if it helps anyone else, much like my switching to a non-smart watch.

Every single Sunday night used to be the same for me. I would get this random wave of motivation and decide that Monday is the day I completely change everything. Wake up at 5am, meditate, journal, eat clean, hit the gym. Then Tuesday afternoon comes and I am completely exhausted. By Thursday I feel like a failure and just drop everything.

I only managed to break this loop when I started shrinking my habits until they felt stupidly small. Like doing just 5 pushups or sitting still for literally two breaths. I realized that every time I try to improve myself I focus way too much on the big results instead of just showing up.

Doing something for 30 seconds is easy even when you are tired, and it builds the identity first. Once your brain gets used to the routine, scaling it up is pretty natural.

What is one tiny habit you guys actually manage to keep even on your worst days?