Make Your Damn Bed

Why would you want to disconnect from your joy, when trying to restore your sense of joy?You can't go on a T-break for pleasure. Instead, focus on the modifying the way you get your pleasure, instead of eliminating the pleasure itself. Dopamine is just one neurotransmitter responsible for our sense of pleasure + joy. We can't and shouldn't want to detox our dopamine levels. Dopamine is essential to motivating us to do everything from moving our bodies, to sleeping properly. This is why people with dopamine issues, depression, ADHD, etc. often struggle with physical and executive functioning. The problem isn't the dopamine, it's typically the source. Read The Cleveland clinic's Dopamine Detox Article. Read NPR's article on Dopamine Detoxing. Read The Cleveland Clinic's description of Anhedonia.Read the Anhedonia Coping Tips from UCI Health. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I

People associate the feeling of feeling the most alive when they’re laughing and playing and goofing off. People feel the most connected with their purpose and life and future and desire to make the world a better place, when they are connected to joy + their ability to have fun once in a while. But for some reason, as we get older - we make less and less time for play. We find it frivolous and silly and a waste of time... but that means some us have lost our joie de vivre because we forgot how to play. Read The Cleveland Clinic's description of Anhedonia. Read the Anhedonia Coping Tips from UCI Health. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I

I overthink things that don't require second thought. I suck the fun out of joyful activities by worrying about doing it "correctly" or "perfectly" or performing "well enough to not embarrass myself" yet... even when there is no audience, I find myself performing. The expectations take away the true joy that comes from "creating" and "play" and "love" and "fun" and I'm trying to pay attention to this tendency so I can sit with the discomfort of not knowing if I will do a good job or not, but committing anyway. Watch the Junk Journaling video that I referenced here. Play the video game: Life is Strange. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I

We love answers. We love conclusions. We tend to steer clear of open ended problems and tasks, because of this. But there are so many things that leave us with open ended problems that we will never be able to solve. Learning to tolerate that discomfort is an important skill to practice. The "right" answers don't exist. Let go of your "need" to know. Embrace the wholeness of the human experience; which means, we must learn to embrace the discomfort of wondering. Listen to the "I Hate Mysteries" episode of This American Life. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I

have been trying to stop thinking of every single decision I make as some deep moral test. Every time I stay in the shower a little too long, or support a shitty company, or buy a product wrapped in single use plastic, isn’t a condemnation of all of my character. I am not going to hell. I am not broken. I am not a piece of shit. I am a human being, set up to fail, but doing my best any-damn-way. It’s not your job to save the world, but don’t let yourself forget how fulfilling and important it can be to inconvenience yourself, on behalf of love, when the time is right. I try to only focus on doing the next, right thing. Which, naturally, will be based on the context, the situation, the energy, the capacity of everyone involved, etc. The key is balance and discretion, which I will call: alignment. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I

I have complex feelings about our personal responsibility. As we know the richest 1% cause more climate damage than over half of humanity. 57 companies are linked to 80% of greenhouse emissions, but our society has pushed us into the thinking its ALL our personal responsibility OR it's not at all. But all or nothing thinking is counter-productive and self-defeating.Instead think of every single imperfect (but inspired) action as a slice of swiss cheese.Sure, some harms may still make their way through the holes. But the more slices you stack on top of each other, the less those holes line up. And eventually, you create a pretty impenetrable block of actions that remind you that the holes were not a problem to begin with.Imperfect action > no action.Read the Inner Self Article on How to Make the World a Better Place. Read about the Swiss Cheese Method.SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

We can actually build a better world, but we have to break the cycle of cynicism, first.THE CYCLE OF CYNICISM1. Finding out about a problem2. Wanting to do something to help3. Not seeing how you can help4. Not doing anything about it5. Feeling sad, powerless, angry6. Deciding that nothing can be done7. Beginning to shut down8. Wanting to know less about problems9. Repeat until apathy results.THE CYCLE OF HOPE1. Taking personal responsibility for being a good person2. Creating a vision of a better world based on your values3. Seeking out quality information about the world's problems4. Discovering practical options for action5. Acting in line with your values6. Recognizing you can't do everything7. Repeat until better world results.Read the Inner Self Article on How to Make the World a Better Place. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

We can actually build a better world, but we have to break the cycle of cynicism, first.THE CYCLE OF CYNICISM1. Finding out about a problem2. Wanting to do something to help3. Not seeing how you can help4. Not doing anything about it5. Feeling sad, powerless, angry6. Deciding that nothing can be done7. Beginning to shut down8. Wanting to know less about problems9. Repeat until apathy results.THE CYCLE OF HOPE1. Taking personal responsibility for being a good person2. Creating a vision of a better world based on your values3. Seeking out quality information about the world's problems4. Discovering practical options for action5. Acting in line with your values6. Recognizing you can't do everything7. Repeat until better world results.Read the Inner Self Article on How to Make the World a Better Place. SUPPORT JULIE (and the show!)DONATE to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund AND THE Sudan Relief FundGET AN OCCASIONAL PERSONAL EMAIL FROM ME: www.makeyourdamnbedpodcast.comTUNE IN ON INSTAGRAM AND YOUTUBESUBSCRIBE FOR BONUS CONTENT ON PATREON.The opinions expressed by Julie Merica and Make Your Damn Bed Podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. Make Your Damn Bed podcast is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.