By Michael Weston
Did you know that you can feed your happiness simply by doing things you love?
Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Endorphins are famously happy Hormones that promote positive feelings like pleasure, happiness,and even love. Hormones and neurotransmitters are involved in lots of essential processes, like heart rate and digestion, but also your mood and feelings.
DOPAMINE (Reward)
- Enables motivation, learning and pleasure.
- Gives you determination to accomplish goals, desires and needs.
OXYTOCIN (Love)
- Gives feeling of trust, motivates you to build and sustain relationships.
- Known as “Cuddle or Love Hormone”, plays a role in bonding.
SEROTONIN (Mood)
- Feeling significant or important among peers.
- Calm form of accepting yourself with the people around you.
ENDORPHIN (Pain)
- Releases a brief euphoria to mask pain.
- Response to pain and stress to alleviate anxiety and depression.
Here is a D.O.S.E. Diagram that I use very regularly to keep in-check with the things I love doing. If any have dropped off then I make a personal commitment to myself to re-instate them into my life for I know if I do, my mood and feelings will benefit as will my Mental Health.
I would encourage everyone reading this to think about the things that provide happiness in your life and populate the diagram. Remember, there is no right or wrong answers for it is based purely on what makes YOU Happy.
An example, let’s talk about Exercise.
Some may be rewarded after exercising which releases the reward hormone Dopamine or some like myself it releases Endorphins which assists with my mental pain but sometimes it release both hormones which is a win-win.
Like I say, everyone is different and have different needs so there is no right or wrong answers.
I have provided a snapshot of just a few things that make me happy. The list is endless but it will give you an example of some of mine.
Stay Happy Everyone!