Anticipation, Addiction & Alignment: How Dopamine Shapes Your Reality—and How to Take Your Power Back
THE SCIENCE BEHIND DESIRE: ANTICIPATION VS. REWARD
As a SUD (Substance Use Disorder) professional, one of the most profound insights I gained in my training was this:
Dopamine doesn’t just spike when we receive a reward—it spikes in anticipation of it.
That means it’s not the wine, the scroll, the sugar, the like, or the hit that hooks us.
It’s the pursuit.
The anticipation.
The chase.
According to research published in Nature Neuroscience, dopamine neurons fire in response to cues associated with reward—before the reward even arrives. This is what creates that feeling of urgency, craving, or obsession.
In addiction, the brain gets hijacked by this cycle. You’re no longer pursuing true pleasure or satisfaction—you’re chasing the chemical rush of the chase itself. And over time, the actual reward brings less joy. You feel empty, and the pursuit becomes compulsive.
But here’s the good news:
That same mechanism can be rewired. You can learn to anticipate joy from aligned, healthy experiences—experiences that actually nourish your nervous system, rather than deplete it.
THE POWER OF SETTING THE TONE FOR YOUR DAY
Here’s where the energetic alignment piece comes in.
You don’t need a huge event or a big breakthrough to feel good today.
You need the intention to be open to joy.
Let me offer you a practice:
Before reaching for your phone, your to-do list, or your coffee, take 30 seconds and say to yourself:
“I’m open to unexpected joy today. I am attuned to simple pleasures. I trust joy to find me.”
Because here’s the thing: the brain wants to anticipate. So give it something worthy to anticipate.
The sound of birds outside.
The warmth of sun on your skin.
The perfect bite of a fresh peach.
A funny meme from a friend.
A moment of being truly seen by someone.
When you train your brain to look for those moments, you begin to shift your dopamine system out of hijack and into harmony.
This is the energetics of manifestation. Not “waiting for something big,” but aligning your energy with the frequency of joy. It’s how we shift from seeking to receiving.
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What if the support you need is just one trained assistant away?
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EARLY WIRING & WHY WE LOOK OUTSIDE OURSELVES
Many of us learned young that our needs weren’t going to be met consistently or safely. So we developed a default strategy: look outside yourself for validation, comfort, or relief.
Maybe you turned to food. Or achievement. Or people pleasing. Or fantasy. Or substances.
That’s not failure. That’s adaptive survival.
But over time, that survival pattern starts to cost us our alignment. It teaches the brain to constantly search outward, never feeling safe to rest inward.
The antidote?
Re-parenting your brain.
Re-sensitizing your nervous system to slow, quiet joy.
And building new neural pathways through small, repeated habits of mindful pleasure.
According to studies in Frontiers in Psychology and Dr. Judson Brewer’s research on behavioral neuroscience, mindfulness and reward substitution strategies can rewire the reward system and reduce compulsive behavior over time.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU—WHETHER YOU’RE HEALING OR MANIFESTING
Whether you’re someone recovering from self-sabotaging behaviors, or a woman on the path of spiritual alignment and conscious creation, the core challenge is the same:
“How do I train my system to seek joy in ways that nourish rather than deplete me?”
This is where recovery meets manifestation. Where neuroscience meets spirituality.
You don’t have to live on the edge of craving. You can live in a state of openness and readiness to receive.
And from that space?
The joy multiplies. The peace lands. The energy aligns.
The universe doesn’t respond to the noise of desperation—it responds to the frequency of embodied trust.
Explore the Empowered Recovery Course:
Helps women rewire those thought loops, release self-sabotage, and reclaim sovereignty over their mental landscape.
INTEGRATION PRACTICE
Here’s your alignment invitation today:
Morning Mantra: “I am open to the pleasure of simple things. I anticipate joy with gratitude and ease.”
Embodied Action: Set a timer for 3 minutes. Sit somewhere quiet and just notice 3 things that feel good. Light. Color. Scent. Breath.
Optional Journaling Prompt:
What joy am I open to receiving today?
Where have I been chasing a reward that leaves me empty?
WANT MORE?
If this message resonated with you, I invite you to explore more in-depth support:
The Empowered Recovery Course helps rewire the mind and create sustainable healing habits
The 28-Day Reset gets your body, habits, and energy back into integrity
The 5-Day Cleanse offers a gentle physical and emotional detox to reconnect with your clarity
You can also join the Aligned Living Tribe Newsletter for weekly reminders, resources, and real tools to stay in harmony.
📲 And follow me on Instagram & Threads: @alignment_with_PrairieYana
Because healing doesn’t have to be heavy. And manifestation doesn’t have to be hard.
It begins with training your brain to expect goodness—and showing up with the energy to receive it.
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Learn More: Scientific Sources That Informed This Episode
Salimpoor, V. N., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., & Zatorre, R. J. (2011).
Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music.
Nature Neuroscience, 14, 257–262.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2726Braver, T. S., & Westbrook, J. A. (2016).
Reward motivation and cognitive control: A neuroscience framework.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 555.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00555/fullBrewer, J. (n.d.).
Hacking the Habit Loop.
Omega Institute for Holistic Studies.
https://www.eomega.org/article/hacking-the-habit-loopKim, H. R., Malik, A. N., Mikhael, J. G., Bech, P., Tsutsui-Kimura, I., Sun, F., & Watabe-Uchida, M. (2023).
Dopamine transients follow a striatal gradient of reward time horizons.
Nature Neuroscience, 26, 649–662.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01566-3van Holst, R. J., Veltman, D. J., Büchel, C., van den Brink, W., & Goudriaan, A. E. (2014).
Distorted expectancy coding in problem gambling: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 100.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00100/full