People today seem to be getting more and more tired and disinterested, don’t you think?

How do you feel every day? Do you feel tired all the time? Doesn’t sleep seem more tempting than anything else, even going out?

If you answered yes, please read on.

The modern age is a paradoxical age – it has given us so many benefits at a rather high price: diminished attention and mental energy.

More precisely?

There is a price if you stare at the screen for a long time.

Why do I feel so tired all the time?

Why do I feel so empty?

Why don’t I have energy?

Why do I get bored easily?

Why do I rarely feel like it?

I will try to answer these questions briefly – the subject being extremely broad.

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The psyche has its energy. The body has its energy; but the psyche and the body are not two separate entities, but two sides of the same coin. If you influence one side, you automatically influence the other.

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In this age, temptation is everywhere and people are wasting their mental energy without realising it. So two questions arise: how and where is this energy lost, and what can we do to recover it?

How can I raise my mental energy level, improve my concentration and feel more alive?

Now, we need to talk a little bit about dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in motivation, memory, attention and the brain’s reward system. When dopamine is secreted in the brain, it creates a state of pleasure and satisfaction in relation to a specific behaviour. Simply put, when we want something badly enough to do it, the enthusiasm and drive needed to move towards that goal is determined by the level of dopamine in the body. This neurotransmitter also helps us to resist effort.

Once we have achieved our goal, we feel satisfied and happy. This good feeling doesn’t last forever and so we will have to refocus on another goal. Through this continuous movement dopamine is naturally secreted by the body.

Now, I paraphrase Dr Viktor Frankl who tells us: man does not need a tension-free state – he always needs to be engaged in something. There is something hidden in us, something that craves adventure. To put it more simply, we always have to bang our heads against something in order to maintain our health.

Dopamine is associated with desire, well-being and continuous progress.

What is happening now?

Modern culture offers us many temptations and we easily fall prey to temptation.

On a biological level, dopamine is no longer naturally secreted by the brain following exertion, but is induced through poor nutrition and other pathways.

On a psychological level, dopamine levels tend to drop because there are so many distractions. Human attention is overstimulated by YouTube recommendations, Instagram feeds and online news. Media companies are fighting for our attention.

Brain overload from constant scrolling , obsession with consuming everything online and the desire to be connected all the time destroys the brain – dopamine is no longer naturally secreted because … it can no longer be secreted. The brain has its limits.

Concentration is a superpower in our age; and to be able to achieve anything in life, you have to have this ability.

If we are always over-stimulated, then we waste our mental energy and will no longer have the ability to fight for the things that really matter in life.

We need balance in everything if we want to keep our mental and psychological health.

We need to be careful how and where we use our attention!

Of course, the question that follows is a common sense one: what can we do? Do we have anything to do? Can we get anything back? Of course!

What you can do is to come and meet Daniel Lieberman at The-INNER Mapping inside event, 3-5 June in Cluj-Napoca.

Daniel Lieberman is the bestselling author of Dopamine and will be presenting The INNER-Mapping Inside event. He will be giving a talk entitled Dopamine and How The Brain Works, where you will learn more about this interesting substance, but more importantly how to use it to your advantage.

You can help! Pass on the information you learn from this event for others to use.