Giving in to temptation (an increasingly frequent habit in the society we live in) means “killing” our ability to concentrate: let’s see how
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Who has never felt the temptation of a second slice of cake, despite having eaten a generous and satisfying one? Or the urge to watch “just one more episode” of your favorite series? Or to scroll for five more minutes on social networks?
Nevertheless, every time we give ourselves that “something extra”, the pleasure seems to fade faster. What gave us immense pleasure in the beginning seems to become less rewarding with each repetition. But why does this happen?
The answer lies in a well-known biological mechanism: the release of dopamine. Dopamine is a brain chemical that drives us to seek rewards and experience pleasure.
It’s the reason we feel satisfaction after eating a nutritious and satiating dish, doing an effective sports workout or listening to our favorite music.
However, there is a catch: the more our brain is flooded with dopamine, the less pleasure we perceive. This phenomenon leads us to want to consume more and more in search of that same rush of pleasure which, ironically, becomes increasingly difficult to achieve.
The dopamine trap
The dopamine mechanism leads us to enter a vicious circle: the more gratification we seekthe less we get. Let’s imagine eating a slice of cake. The first is delicious, it fills us with pleasure, but what happens with the second?
The taste seems less intense, the emotion less satisfying. The same happens with other activities such as watching episodes of a TV series, playing video games or scrolling endlessly on social media.
We could define this phenomenon as “second slice trap”: As time passes, our brain becomes less and less sensitive to dopamine and requires a greater amount of stimulation to achieve the same level of pleasure.
This leads us to an increase in the consumption of “slices of pleasure” – be they food, digital content or emotional experiences – without ever being able to achieve that feeling of satisfaction we initially felt.
How dopamine is destroying your concentration
Whether it’s a slice of cake, the next episode of a series or incessant scrolling on social media, dopamine pushes us to seek immediate gratification. But at what price?
Every time we choose to avoid boredom or discomfort through a quick pleasure, such as checking our cell phone or indulging in dessert, we are weakening our ability to resist distractions and cope with difficult emotions.
Boredom and fatigue are normal emotions in everyday lifeyet modern society has accustomed us to escape from these sensations through continuous dopamine releases.
This creates a vicious circle: at the first sign of discomfort, we take refuge in distractions, such as a video on YouTube or playing a video game, but in doing so we train our brain to always look for quick and superficial solutions, weakening our mental resilience.
The solution? Getting bored
The solution is not to banish all forms of pleasure from our lives, but to learn to dose it and to live with discomfort in a healthy way. As our grandmothers used to say, it’s the dose that makes the poison.
Immerse yourself in boredomaccepting fatigue and frustration are essential practices for training our mind and developing what the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls “anti-fragility” – that is, the ability to grow and improve despite difficulties, or rather, precisely thanks to them.
A slight discomfort or a healthy effort not only are they normal, but they are also essential to train our ability to stay focused and achieve our goals.
For example, learn to stay in boredom without seeking an immediate distraction can help develop greater concentration.
Resisting the urge to check our phone during a dead moment or giving in to the temptation of another episode of a series trains us to better manage temptations and focus on our long-term goals.
As we often say in our articles, concentration is not a natural talentbut a skill that requires constant training. No one can hope to achieve great things without facing challenges and difficulties.
We must accept that goals difficult And significant they cannot be achieved through always easy and rewarding activities.
The ability to stay focused and progressing towards what is important to us requires the will to stay in difficulty and to resist the temptation to seek immediate and fleeting pleasures.
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