Courage, Dopamine, and Taking Instagram Less Seriously

It was quite a good day.

I wanted to share a small perspective I’ve been forming about Instagram a relationship that has always been… complicated for me. Sometimes it’s fine, even fun. And sometimes it makes me wonder: why am I even doing this?

The Pattern of Courage

Lately, I’ve been trying to establish a personal pattern: courage.

Courage, to me, is doing something that makes you nervous. The kind of nervous that tightens your chest just a bit. The interesting part is that once you do it, there’s a strange release a feeling of “oh wow, that wasn’t so bad.” Sometimes it even comes with external validation: likes, comments, people resonating with you.

And that’s okay. It is chill. It is nice.

But the real achievement for me wasn’t the reaction it was that I took Instagram less seriously.

There was a time when I would simply write. Not trying to be clever. Not trying to be different. Just… being. And somewhere along the way, that simplicity started getting overshadowed by metrics and reactions.

Dopamine Isn’t the Goal

When people like your post, dopamine spikes. That’s biology not philosophy. But those spikes can also make you restless, jumpy, dependent. And that’s something I don’t want.

My current intention is simple:

Post and keep the dopamine flat.

Not too excited. Not too disappointed. Just neutral.

Instagram shouldn’t decide whether my day was good or bad.

As Shah Rukh Khan once said: read more and use less Instagram. It sounds obvious, but wisdom is often obvious and rarely practiced.

Posting as Practice, Not Performance

When I posted recently, it wasn’t about likes or dislikes. It was practice. Practice for courage.

It scared me and that’s exactly why I did it.

That day, a line from Brené Brown stayed with me:

“I value courage, and I was courageous.”

Not successful. Not approved. Just courageous.

My nervous system, I’m realizing, needs to learn one thing clearly: slow down. Not speed up. Not refresh. Not check again.

Even now, there’s an urge to open Instagram and see who liked what. But I won’t. I genuinely have better things to do with my life.

Speak, Then Return to Silence

I notice an interesting cycle within myself:

• I speak.

• I share.

• Then I need silence again.

Both are necessary.

Right now, I feel grounded energy connected to the earth. After a fun but slightly chaotic day, it’s time to return to process. To structure. To study.

Social media diaries, when done consciously, feel natural and important. Not because they transform the world but because they teach me.

I’m confident that what I share adds more value than it subtracts, even if it’s not commercially appealing. Not everyone will like the post. Not everyone will like you.

And that’s okay.

Owning Fragility

When I joked about a “desperate attempt to look hot”  lagta hai ab set wet se hi kaam chalana padega it was more than humor. It was comfort. Comfort in being seen as I am.

Sometimes I laugh at it myself.

The irony, of course, is that the more you engage, the harder it becomes to disengage. Even giving pulls you back in checking who liked, who didn’t.

That’s not how I want to give.

Give and forget that you gave.

Noise, Then Stillness

Today had its noise too. A random conversation with Sagar while buying bar soap. Work talk. An app idea. Interesting maybe meaningful maybe not.

But after noise, we need stillness.

Tomorrow, the focus goes back to depth: videos, lectures, skills. Cal Newport-style deep work. That’s the path forward.

Yes, I diverted some energy to Instagram today. It happened. Was it right or wrong? I don’t know. But it was courageous and maybe that matters more right now.

Structure With a Touch of Chaos

I’m learning to balance two forces:

• Masculine stability: structure, discipline, career, purpose.

• A little chaos: spontaneity, expression, experimentation.

Both must coexist.

Instagram also brings up insecurities and that’s fine. Life does that. Avoiding insecurity isn’t strength; moving through it is.

What matters now is clarity of purpose. Building a strong career. Creating something meaningful.

I went out yesterday just for fun randomly. And I think I should do that more often. Exposure builds comfort.

Still, I believe this deeply:

Instagram is a waste of life if you can’t handle the chaos that comes with it.

So for now less noise, more silence. Less scrolling, more studying. Less performance, more process.

Just living. Just learning. And trusting that courage compounds quietly.