#9: let's build your dopamine menu
what it is & why you need one
Welcome to The Well Path, a space for curious people to build healthier, happier, more intentional lives. New podcast episodes drop weekly on Wednesdays, and new newsletters are sent out weekly on Fridays. If you haven’t already, listen + subscribe to the podcast.
🎙️This week on The Well Path
First thing’s first: This week on the podcast, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dylan Gambardella—a 3x-founder, author, and angel investor who’s making waves in the world of fitness and longevity. Dylan is the co-founder of The Different Labs, a groundbreaking space offering advanced performance and longevity testing to help people perform better, live longer, and set & achieve personalized health goals.
We dive into:
The importance of self-discovery and a growth mindset in entrepreneurship
What it means to think like an entrepreneur
What a VO2 max score really means
The most important baseline measurements you should be taking at any age
Balancing intuition and data when it comes to health
If you’re curious about how to optimize your performance and longevity (or starting or scaling a business), this episode is packed with insights and actionable advice from someone who’s leading the charge in the industry.
Check it out if you haven’t already!
Listen on Apple
Listen/Watch on Spotify
Watch on Youtube
A favor: If you have time, please take a minute to rate + review the podcast—it helps so much and means more than you know! <3
🧞 Let’s build your dopamine menu
Have you ever wished you could bottle up a good feeling?
This week, I want to dive into a simple but transformative concept: building a dopamine menu. We often talk about productivity hacks and optimizing performance, but what about prioritizing the things that genuinely make us feel good?
A dopamine menu is just that—a short list of activities, people and places that consistently spark joy and boost your mood. It’s about intentionally carving out time for what brings you happiness and helps you recharge, so you can show up as your most sparkly, grateful, magnetic self in all areas of life.
Here’s why you need one:
📋 Double-click
What is a dopamine menu?
Simply put: a personalized list of things that bring you a strong feeling of gratitude, contentment, peace and joy. These can be simple pleasures like enjoying your favorite coffee in the morning, hot girl walks with a friend, or taking a class with your favorite yoga teacher. The idea is to have a go-to list of activities that you can turn to when you need a mood boost.
Why it works:
Engaging in activities that release dopamine—the brain’s “feel-good” neurotransmitter—has profound effects on your mental and emotional well-being. When you make a conscious effort to prioritize these activities, you’re not only boosting your mood in the moment but also building resilience against stress.
How to build your own dopamine menu:
Reflect on what brings you joy:
Think about the activities, people, and experiences that make you feel truly joyful, energized and alive. Write them down.Prioritize the simple pleasures:
Not everything on your dopamine menu has to be a grand gesture. Sometimes, it’s the small, everyday things—like a cup of warm tea before bed or listening to a 5 minute breathwork audio—that can make a big difference.Make it a habit:
Incorporate these into your daily or weekly routine. The more you engage with your dopamine menu, the more it becomes a natural part of your life.
Here’s my dopamine menu right now:
Morning espresso on the porch
Sauna/cold plunge sessions
20 minute silent meditations
Fresh pastries
Facetimes with my sister & niece
Beach walks with my parents
FORM workouts
Coffee dates with close friends
Burning palo santo
No phone 1 hour before bed / 1 hour after waking up
Challenge of the week: create your own dopamine menu & write it down.
That’s all for now. Thank you for being here.
See you next week!
Love, Brooke
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