Four chemicals, produced by your brain, serve as a master switch for nearly everything you think, do, and feel. In no small way, they also control our lives. But, all too often, instead of harnessing them to fuel amazing experiences and outcomes, we are controlled by them. Today, we learn how to take back control and harness them for good.

Our guide is TJ Power, lead neuroscientist at the DOSE Lab and the author of The DOSE Effect. His research investigates how modern sedentary, digitally saturated lifestyles are reshaping the brain chemicals that govern how we feel, connect, focus, and recover from stress. He has delivered live experiences to over 75,000 people at institutions including Oxford University, Amazon, and the NHS.

His DOSE framework centers on four chemicals: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These chemicals evolved over hundreds of thousands of years for a very different experience of life. One with more movement, more connection, more sunlight, more sustained effort, and far less of what TJ calls dopamine land, the scroll-and-reward loop that phones have engineered into our days.

In this conversation, you will explore:

• Why dopamine is not the reward chemical you were taught it was, and why the phone has hijacked the system that was supposed to motivate you
• The difference between dopamine and oxytocin, and why TJ believes we are pursuing the wrong chemical as a species
• How 90% of your serotonin is manufactured in your gut, and what ultra-processed food is actually doing to your mood
• Why stress evolved to be released through physical movement, and why sitting still with your problems makes them worse
• The 20 free behaviors from The DOSE Effect that recalibrate all four chemicals without cost, pills, or a major life overhaul

If you have been wondering why certain things that used to feel easy now feel effortful, this conversation gives you a biological explanation and a practical path forward.

You can find Tj at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript

Next week, we are sitting down with Dr. Vonda Wright to talk about why most of what you have been told about aging is actually data about people who did nothing. The decline curve, it turns out, is negotiable, and ages 35 to 45 are the highest-leverage window. But she also makes the case that the door never closes. Be sure to follow Good Life Project wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss it.

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