55. The DOSE Effect: One Small Habit to Boost Mood and Motivation

In this episode of The Nurses' Break Room, host Jenny Lytle, RN explores The DOSE Effect by neuroscientist TJ Power — a powerful framework for improving mental health, energy, and motivation through brain chemistry. Learn how dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins (DOSE) impact your mood — and the simple, science-backed habits that boost each one.

Jenny shares her personal takeaways, including:

• Why you shouldn’t try to overhaul everything at once
• The cold shower habit that supercharges motivation
• How celebrating tiny achievements rewires your brain
• What nature walks (without your phone!) can do for stress
• The endorphin-boosting ritual you can start today

🎯 Whether you're overwhelmed, burned out, or just looking for a more sustainable way to feel better — this episode will give you one small shift you can make today.

Takeaways / Action Steps: Pick one thing to focus on in each DOSE area - things like:

• Try ending your morning shower with 30 seconds of cold water
• Celebrate a win — even if it’s small — to train your brain for motivation
• Take a walk in nature without distractions
• Add a simple stretching routine to your day to ease tension and elevate mood

If you're feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or like there’s never enough time, I’ve got something just for you! Head to https://selfcareisntselfish.com to grab your FREE copy of my book, Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: The Compassionate Nurse’s Step-by-Step Guide to Personalized Stress Relief. It’s packed with simple, effective strategies to help you prioritize your needs—without guilt—so you can feel energized, focused, and ready to take on the day. Go to https://selfcareisntselfish.com 

Looking for connection with people who get the stress and self-care struggles of nurses and caregivers? Check out https://thenursesbreakroom.com

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylytlern/

More ways to connect here: https://linktr.ee/jennylytle

Chapters

• 0:58 Introduction to The DOSE Effect
• 2:07 Dopamine Boosters and Cold Showers
• 4:30 Oxytocin and Celebrating Achievements
• 5:34 Serotonin Through Nature Connection
• 6:36 Endorphins and Stretching Benefits
• 7:49 Final Thoughts and Contact Info

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurses' Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. Today we're going to do something a little bit different and I'm going to share some of the things that have really stood out to me from a book that I'm reading, and this book is called the DOSE Effect by TJ Power, and he is a neuroscientist, and right now I have been listening to the audio and I've got the a copy of the physical book here in front of me that I got from the library and I think I'm probably going to end up buying the physical book because I just like to be able to mark things up and and it's something that I'm sure that I'm going to refer back to over and over again On the front cover, the point of it is optimize your brain and body by boosting your dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. That's where dose comes from. I really like the way that he breaks things down, but there's also studies that back all of that up on the website where you can dig into things further, and I haven't done a ton of that yet, but I've just taken a peek at it. But each area when he talks about the particular thing, the first one is dopamine. So TJ goes into these five different actions that you can take that will boost your dopamine, but then encourages you to just choose one of those actions to be your primary one, because if you're somebody like me, you probably want to do all of the things, think you know what I'm going to do all of that and there's ways to incorporate bits of each one. But starting with one as your primary focus is a better way to really cement that in, as opposed to you think you're going to do them all. Then it feels too overwhelming and you end up just going back to where you were. So for dopamine, the primary actions are flow, state discipline, phone fasting, cold water and my pursuit. I know those may not make a lot of sense just in and of themselves, but I just wanted to give you that quick overview.

Speaker 1: 2:35

The one that I am really focusing on and loving is cold water and it's turning your shower to cold each morning as a way to bump up your dopamine supercharge, your motivation and really it. At first, especially for some of you, you may think there is no way I can do that, but you don't do it all at once. You don't just jump into a cold shower. It's at the end of your shower. You turn it on for 30 to 60 seconds. So my last step is rinsing the conditioner out of my hair and rinsing my body, and so I'm already under the warm shower. And then, when I'm just actually now today, I did almost my entire rinse in cold water, but I just reach over and I turn it down to pretty darn cold. So starting with it on the top of your head is the best way to do it, just like we were taught to jump in when you're getting in the pool. There is science that backs that up. So letting that cold water run on your head yes, it's going to be a little jarring at first, but then you'll be amazed that it feels good, like in a stretch yourself kind of way. And if you shiver, that's okay. That actually is not a bad thing either, but it really helps to perk you up, and I find that those effects last throughout the day as well. So that's the one that I'm focusing on. From the dopamine section A.

Speaker 1: 4:01

Part two is about oxytocin. That's the O in dose and the primary oxytocin actions are contribution, touch, social life, gratitude and achievements, and contribution. I feel like that's one that I already do a fair amount of, and that's ensuring that others are at the forefront of your mind, and that's something that honestly comes naturally to me. So I wanted to do something that was a little more of a stretch. So, for oxytocin, I'm going to focus on achievements, which is committing to celebrate myself for the effort and progress that I'm making in my life. I have a tendency to celebrate others, and I'll take a moment to celebrate myself, but I can often focus on all of the things that I didn't get done, and so that is why I feel like focusing on that one would be a great idea.

Speaker 1: 4:53

The Next one is serotonin, and so the primary serotonin actions are nature, sunlight, gut health, under thinking and deep sleep. I'm doing bits of all of these already, but the one that I really want to focus on first is nature, and although I get into nature, part of this is connecting with nature, with the outside world, headphone free, so without distractions, and I do that some, but I also use my nature time or my time in walks to get caught up on things, to listen to things, to brainstorm, and a lot of that involves my phone and talking to it, and so this is going to be a bit of a stretch for me, but I do believe that there are some really good benefits from that. So that is something that I want to work on and, last but not least, endorphins work on and, last but not least, endorphins. The primary actions for this one are exercise, heat, music, laughter and stretching. I've been bumping up my exercise a little and I've also been trying to increase my music time, because I know that it does really improve my mood. But I often listen to audio books or podcasts or things like that when I'm driving, and so I'm trying to spend a little bit more time with music. But for this one, I really want to focus on stretching, because I know that I sit a fair amount and, especially driving things like that, I get stiff and I'm not getting any younger, and so being able to be a little more flexible, stretching more often and really being intentional about that is the way that I want to go with this one.

Speaker 1: 6:50

This is a book that has been really great so far, and I read part of it and then I listened to the rest of it. I got it on Audible and I'm really enjoying it, and it's definitely something that I want to go back into and learn more about and dig deeper. But I just did a high level overview when I was listening to it. One of the really high level takeaways that you can use going forward is whether or not you read the book, and I do encourage you to read the book. It's great, but I probably will be going into it a little bit more because I think there is so much in there to unpack.

Speaker 1: 7:24

But when you're looking at doing something different in your life, it's so important to look at what you're already doing and maybe expand on that a little or choose something to add into that completely different that's going to benefit you in a different way, and don't try to do a big overhaul all at once, but add in things and then slowly build on that and as you do, you'll find that it's not nearly as overwhelming. It doesn't take as much time or energy as you feel like it's going to, because you're not trying to completely revamp your life all at once. I would love to hear from you if you've read this book or if any of the things that I talked about today stood out to you. I would love to know, like, what you're thinking and if you've tried any of these things or what you will try, and maybe it's something that just made you think of something completely different and you thought you know what I want to do this particular thing. I'd love for you to share that with me, and you can reach out to me on social media.

Speaker 1: 8:33

I'm Jenny Lytle or Jenny Lytle RN, and feel free to shoot me a message. You can email me at Jenny Lytle at Jenny Lytlecom, or, if you're on Buzzsprout, there's an area where you can just reply to the podcast. Either way, I'd love to hear from you and be sure to check out my free resources on my website at Jenny Lytlecom. Thanks so much. Have a wonderful week and remember self-care isn't selfish. It's essential if we want to continue to care for others and live our best lives.