Less & More: The WFH Mom Edit

Soooo…how’s everyone feeling given the state of the world, the 24/7 news cycle,  and summer insanity? Great? Great. Time to order off the dopamine menu? Maybe!

I’ve been feeling the Maycember crazies drag over to the June Balloon psychosis (y’all, my brain is too tired to think of a good name for the busy feel of June but I am trying my best) and in one of my forbidden-yet-needed late night doom scrolls I became the last person on Earth to discover dopamine menus. 

While I am well versed in dopamine decor obviously, menus are a whole new world to me and as a gal who loves a tool that helps make life easier and more joyful I have fully bought in. Dopamine—a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, motivation, and reward – is a mix of happiness, anticipation, and gratification so a cute graphic and an a la carte menu to turn to when I am feeling in need of a boost? Sign me up. 

The idea is simple: create a list of things that will give you a boost and trigger that reward signal in your wrinkly brain. That signal will help you get unstuck and feel better bit by bit. The idea is to create satisfying little wins to help your brain seek healthy rewards and get that needed mood boost. We love an attainable goal!

I created my own cheat sheet to combat the blahs, mom anxiety, summer burnout, or plain ol’ boredom. While doomscrolling had become my default, my dopamine menu has allowed me to find different ways to keep my gorgeous brain feeling fab without my phone and that inherent guilt/rage that sometimes accompanies it.

Creating the menu was pretty easy! Ideally, look for things that give you those good vibes and break the menu down into categories based on effort and time/energy needed for the task. Pull one idea from each section or just order one or two a la carte. Here’s a quick breakdown: 

Starter 

Low lift, five minutes or less required! Take two if you want, there aren’t hard and fast rules here. 

• Drink of glass of ice water
• Stretch
• Dance to your favorite song
• Set a timer and journal 

Main Course

A little more filling, a bit more of a commitment, between five and 20 minutes!

• Clean one area of your home – a desk, a doom corner, a small closet, etc. 
• Walk it out! Ideally, get some sunshine and hit the road outdoors but if you have to walk inside you can make it work.
• Do a guided meditation, whether you find self-guided the most helpful or you listen along to someone on YouTube, take a few minutes to re-center and re-frame.
• Read! You know I love to read so of course my menu is going to feature some pageturnin’. Whether you have time for a few pages or a few chapters, reading can help boost mood and refocus productivity. 

Side Dishes

These are great for habit stacking and some multitasking for those good feelings. You don’t have to drop everything to feel better. 

• Listen to a podcast, maybe a comedy duo or a self-improvement hour. Whatever appeals to YOU. 
• Do a self-care treatment! A face mask while you answer emails, a deep conditioning treatment while you wash the dishes, or maybe even a bath while you listen to that continued education course you have been putting off. 
• Put on a comfort TV show! I love to have a familiar show playing while I work late at night or while I clean so throw on your fave sitcom and get things done.

Specials

Much like the name implies, these are “bigger” things and more special tasks that you can look at when you  have more time or need a bigger boost.

• DIY it UP. Plan a house project and tackle it! Maybe you want to plant a new raised garden bed or paint that staircase or maybe reupholster your basement couch, the world is your dang oyster. Go do it. 
• Take yourself on a solo date! I am a big fan of spending time with my favorite girl (me). Go to the movies, grab a coffee and go thrifting, or try a new yoga class. Just be with yourself in a fun setting and be intentional about it. 

However you choose to break up your dopamine menu, make it yours! Keep it somewhere that you can easily look to when you need and make your menu options things that most appeal to y-o-u. This isn’t about total perfection or productivity, it’s just about better moods and feeling more joyful in little ways. 

Want to learn more about the dopamine menu trend? I loved this piece from ADDitude Magazine. Inspired to create your own lil dopamine menu? Feel free to download and print the graphic below so you can fill it in. Let us know what you put on yours!