Did you know that your brain values celebrations?
Celebrations are a form of reward……..
which confirm a sense of achievement to the brain. When you celebrate, the brain produces dopamine which signals pleasure and then demands for more pleasure from the source. This means if you do more of what has brought about this pleasure, you get more, which drives you further into action.
It is argued that human behaviour is driven by two main aspects
- Necessity for food, water and sleep.
- Avoidance of pain or seeking pleasure or a reward that is any object or activity such as a party. Most people are motivated by pleasure that comes from rewards. Hence rewards act as reinforcers of behaviour.
How does the brain value the reward?
There are a number of neurons in the different parts of the brain, which communicate using dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter chemical in the brain.
Dopamine is released in particular parts of the brain called the brain’s reward system.
The Brain’s Reward system
The reward system is a stimuli that drives appetite to alter behaviour; either to introduce a new behaviour, change a behaviour or actually continue with a behaviour. It is an important part of the brain that many of us do not utilise. You can harness it to help yourself to achieve your desired goals or help others to achieve their goals. For example, if you are a parent or coach, employer or teacher, you can utilise this knowledge to drive others into action. However, you have to know them well enough to do so. It all starts with knowing thyself.
The rewards system is composed of different parts working together. Each part is concerned with different roles. These include:
- Striatum which is concerned with action planning, decision making, reward perception, motivation and in charge of reinforcement.
- The Ventral Tegmental Area, which is the VTA and the Nucleus Accumbens Areas which are both dopamine producing areas.
- The Amygdala which is concerned with emotional processing.
- The Hippocampus, which is an area that is concerned with learning and memories.
- The Prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of planning, reasoning, and emotional processing as well. All these areas communicate in nanoseconds.
How the parts work
Dopamine is released every time the brain expects a reward or celebration. This movement happens every time dopamine signalling is made. The dopamine producing area which is called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) communicate with the Nucleus accumbens area to evaluate the reward and then motivate one into action.
So, every time the reward or a celebration is done whether it is in form of activity or object dopamine signalling happens. Each time dopamine is released, it enhances reward related memories which in the end strengthen our learning and memories in the Hippocampus. This also signals the emotional processing centre, which is the Amygdala and then communicates and signals with the Prefrontal cortex that is in charge of planning, memories, and emotional processing. This signalling and communication continue to emphasise the pleasure that is coming from a particular reward or celebration. In that way the reward or celebration becomes a reinforcer of a behaviour.
Important to note
However, it is however important to note that it is not the reward or celebration that is important. It is the expectation from the reward or celebration. The more expectation you have from a reward or celebration, the more dopamine is released, the less expectation from the reward, the less dopamine is released. If you’re going to find yourself into action, you need to associate the action or behaviour with the reward or celebration that has high expectation so that more dopamine is released every time the action is going to be taken. It is thus not necessarily the cake or the big party or the bicycle or the toy that is important, it’s what is expected from it by the individual. Different people have different expectation from different rewards or activities or celebration as this is based on their past experiences. This explains why the same reward may not have the same effect to different people.
For example, the stellar women interviewed each of them had different ways they planned to celebrate. Some wanted it small and others wanted to celebrate in a lavish way, others preferred childhood experiences and others created new.
Let’s look at the big 40th party Will Smith gave for his wife Jade Pinkett Smith. This reward did not turn out very well even if everything was done to perfection. This is because Jade does not like big parties for herself. Although Will Smith knew this, he thought every woman likes to celebrate her 40th in a lavish way and that his wife would get the best party to be talked about. Jade ended up very sad on the day as nothing related to her expectation of her 40th birthday party. On the other hand, Will Smith felt that if someone had done the same for him, it would be the best thing that ever happened. Have you had such an experience before?
It is possible that although you may have always associated a reward to an action, you may never have fully thought about the need to evaluate the expectation of the pleasure from the reward. This is especially true when using a reward to drive others like employees, or children or students into action. One may not take that action, even if there’s a reward. This is because the reward is not signalling pleasure as no dopamine is released.
Children in particular will be altering or changing their behaviour during this holiday period. This is because they have high expectations from rewards that are coming from Santa or parents. Some children change the behaviour because they are running away from pain (not getting the best toys they desire) and others because of expectation of the pleasure (playing with the toy with friends). Parents, caretakers and teachers can use this time to influence a change in behaviour. During Christmas many children start to alter their own behaviours just because they know there’re implications. Many have high expectation that will bring them pleasure. Could it be a led light bicycle or pair of shoes or doll?
In addition to the above, it is important to note is that some rewards are so effective as they signal high levels of pleasure. This means that you may need to find out what reward is effective for you or the person of interest. For example, my boys love football very much. This means missing a football or going to a football match can be very effective in changing their behaviour.
What about you?
- How well do you know yourself?
- Is there an outcome you would like to have in your life?
- What do you enjoy doing or what would you like to get or add to your life that can be attached to the outcome in no.2? This is the reward.
- What behaviour or action needs to be taken to get outcome no.2?
Use no.3 as a signal for celebrating accomplishing no.2. For example, if you would like to lose 4 kgs of weight, then get a reward that you attach to no.4. Say to go to the cinema every time you run 10k. However, does going to the cinema excite you more than going to a dancing club? This is why we start with knowing thyself.
Make a choice of the right celebration that will help you to alter your behaviour and achieve your goals. Keep celebrating.
If you would like to know more about altering behaviour using the brain rewards system see my youtube channel or email me at stella@stellarwomanmag.com. I would love to hear from you.