Wanna boost the brain’s happy chemicals?
The Brain's Happy Chemicals can be made available in plenty when you are in charge of production!
Dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphin are perhaps our bodies’ most important hormones, and for a good reason too!
Also known as the brain’s happy chemicals, these four chemicals combine a good number of positive feelings to keep us happy throughout the day.They are secreted by the brain on different triggers and essential to our moods, temperaments and overall happiness. In fact, they’re so important that their deficiency is directly related to conditions such as depression, anxiety and sadness.
So how can one boost and maintain their brain’s secretion of happy chemicals? Here are a few ideas.
Dopamine
Also known as the ‘chemical of reward’, dopamine is the chemicals that increases our motivation and allows us to feel euphoric and excited. When the brain secretes little or no dopamine, our motivation and drive is dampened, resulting in feelings of self distrust, doubt, low enthusiasm and procrastination.
Low dopamine levels also have a big impact on sleep, movement, cognition, attention, memory and more. In some cases, one might need a dopamine shot to boost their levels. Here’s how you can achieve that naturally.
- Get up to 8 hours of sleep every day for the ultimate rest. A tired brain releases lower dopamine over time.
- Put in a few hours of exercise regularly to alert the brain.
- Create smaller goals you want to achieve by breaking down bigger goals into smaller ones that are easier to achieve. (for e.g. for a marketing campaign aimed at 10,000 subscribers, celebrate whenever you make 100 subscribers a day.) When you achieve your goals and feel good about them, your brain releases more dopamine.
- Make others in your circle feel good by noticing their accomplishments. It helps increase their dopamine secretion.
- Volunteer for an activity that helps others. The feeling of reward you get from getting others feel better triggers more dopamine secretion for you.
Serotonin
Serotonin secretion is triggered when you experience feelings of importance, value to others, significance in your environment and accomplishment. It directly improves our moods, resulting in feelings of satisfaction and happiness. Want to know someone whose serotonin levels are so low?
Look for lonely, depressed, attention seeking people. It’s the number one reason people are instructed to go on antidepressants. If you don’t want to go there, try the tips below.
- Get yourself a good amount of exposure to the sun’s rays, especially in the morning or afternoon. The UV rays from the morning sun not only stimulate Vitamin D production but also trigger increased serotonin secretion from the brain.
- Looking back on happy memories and personal achievements gives you a good dose of self confidence and pleasure in your abilities, which is good for serotonin secretion.
- Tell someone (or think about) how much you value them. Literally. The brain acts on feelings of value (whether they’re being given or received) by releasing more serotonin.
Oxytocin
You may know it as the ‘love’ or ‘cuddle’ hormone. Oxytocin is responsible for feelings of intimacy, love and trust, which explains why it’s secreted more during sex, childbirth and breastfeeding. It’s also responsible for improving social interactions, feelings of connection and fidelity. Well, you can’t always go in for sex or give birth to increase your oxytocin secretion, but you can always try these alternatives.
- Go in for hugs whenever you can for as long as 30 seconds.
- Loosen up around people and allow more physical contact, like cuddles and hugs.
- Get yourself a massage from a good place. That levelof physical contact increases oxytocinsecretion.
Endorphins
Endorphins are the most known sources of happiness and associated with lower levels of stress. Endorphins are released by the brain during moments of pain and anxiety for relief. Low secretion of endorphins is commonly manifested through feelings of unhappiness and anxiety.
- Throw in regular exercise even if it’s just walking. Exercise jolts the body up and triggers endorphin secretion.
- Eat your dark chocolate. Consuming darker chocolate is associated with increased secretion of endorphins and feelings of happiness.
- Laugh out loud. Do something that makes you laugh, such as watching comedy or catching up on old times. Laugh out freely, and don’t curtail your emotions.
- Indulge your sense of humour in day to day activities.
- Breathe in vanilla and lavender scent whenever you can to maximize its stimulating power over endorphins. You can always introduce lavender essential oil in your house with a diffuser to make more use of it.
- Get your fill of spicy food. Research shows that the body reacts to spicy food by releasing endorphins, thinking it’s pain.
- Listen to your favourite music or make your own beats if you want. You can even dance to them; dancing jolts the body up.
- Eat your meals on time. Serotonin exists largely in the gut, which is why hunger is a big trigger for unhappy thoughts.
At the end of the day, the best way to stay happy and maintain secretion of the brain’s happy chemicals is by keeping positive and appreciating the good things that happen to us every hour of the day.
Don’t forget to make it a routine to watch funny programs on TV and always keep lavender and real vanilla extract available for times when you are down.
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