A Little About Stimulus Control

Bismillah.

Nukil Buku "Master Your Dopamine" - Nick Trenton, www.NickTrenton.com

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Aliran rasa setelah baca 6 halaman lanjutan dari buku tersebut. Nukil bukunya dalam bahasa inggris, mohon maaf kalau ada typo dan grammar. Feel free to correct me in comment.

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Prolog

*you can skip this part*

37/143

I am wondering whether I should still share my reading progress to the friend whom I got the PDF from. He seems busy and his messages might be filled with many chats. He hasn't read my last chat, and the previous chat too he only seen it (probably not read it, or read but forget to reply).

My reading progress is so slow, compare to reading novel. And it might be that he doesn't relate to my rambling or felt the need to reply since it's not the book he read currently, and my rambling is mostly like a resume of what I read.

He actually suggest me to join the reading club group he made in Discord. But I personally don't want to do it, cause I don't have discord in the first place, and if I install discord, it means I add another new social media. I already distracted so much, and add 2 new social media (thread and substack —i know it's blog/writing social media but still).

Anyway, let's just write what I got so far from reading 5 more pages from the previous reading session.

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6 pages I learn a little about Stimulus Control.

Stimulus Control

Stimulus control refers to instance in which a behavior is elicited by the presence of absence of stimulus.

Stimulus control has the ability to either encourage or inhibit behavior.

Based on what Schultz write in 1993, the author take conclusion that by controlling the stimuli of food or money, individuals can successfully regulate their dopamine levels.

So when we do stimulus control, we basically try to eliminate opportunities for negative behaviors by removing harmful stimuli from surrounding environment.

This control of harmful stimuli is going to cause their dopamine levels to increase naturally, as the brain craves change. And it shifts from immediate gratification to long term gratification which will make us having a better satisfaction and resourcefulness long term.

Example of Stimulus Control

Example of stimulus control, for someone who distracted often by their cell phone, the control is either put the phone away and make it harder to access, or built a timer or alarm so we limit our interactions with cellphone.

Do you know IG has that facility to make alarm/limit your scrolling? Have you activate that? *I haven't. And maybe that's why I often find myself guilty after wasting time scrolling reels ><

There's also many productivity app like Forest, that helps us to focus on doing other activity with certain amount of time, while activating that app.

Baca juga: Instagram, Forest, dan lainnya

And you know what? Opening a VR in hellotalk somehow can make me more focus on reading, and help me read longer than I usually read. Like this session, I only read 6 pages. But if I read in VR mostly Indonesian book, I can read 30 minutes. I usually still break it into 15 minutes per book. I usually schedule to read 1-3 books in hello talk VR. But the minus from doing that is.. it is actually slower to read in VR, cause I read aloud, of course reading without sound is faster. And my throat is getting dry often. That's why I don't do VR reading often cause my energy is limited, I only do when I am on my extrovert side.

Silent reading, few pages, while taking notes and write resume like this is more familiar for me. But doing VR is also good when I feel like I don't have any focus and want to finish reading after 3 pages while doing silent reading. Let's just do any variation to make the habit of reading stay. Ah, and my WhatsApp reading support system for girls is still there, if anyone want to join, you can reach out to me in my social media, just search Isabella Kirei id, that is me in most of my social media. (I do have other nickname for hellotalk,slowly,bottled,and substack) but other social media x,IG,thread,medium,Tumblr,telegram my id is Isabella Kirei.

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Back to the book, I closed this writing with quote from the book.

The Stress of Multi-task and How to Release It 

Multi-tasking and trying to do too many things all at once can be highly stressful. For those feeling stressed, if might be valuable to engage in an alternative activity that is incompatible with whatever is causing the stress (the stimulus); this could mean doing something physical instead of sitting in front of a screen all day, or going outdoors for some fresh air and sunshine instead of worrying about satisfying that "urge to indulge".

Itches that Shouldn't be Scratches

There are some itches that shouldn't be scratched. Think of an urge as an "itch". If it is constantly scratches, it might get infected.

 

The dopamine system works in a similar fashion. Continuously satisfying an urge is going to make it come back stronger than ever, and it's going to require an individual to scratch a lot harder.

 

If someone is addicted to the dopamine high that accompanies a good meal and is always ready to indulge in a little emotional eating, it would be beneficial to go and play badminton instead as soon as the urge surfaces.

 

This is the backbone of a dopamine fast—replace all harmful behaviour with healthy ones and do not give in to the urge.

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Oh ya, kalau kamu gimana, punya trik atau tips untuk stimulus control kah?

Sekian nukil buku kali ini. Sedikit, tapi semoga bermanfaat.

Wallahu'alam.