On your search for happiness, oxytocin may be your best friend. A kind gesture delivers a little oxytocin to both you and the gift-receiver. Those long hugs give both you and the hug-receiver a dose of oxytocin.
What’s especially great about oxytocin is that it often works two ways.
FEEL GOOD HORMONES FULL
Working together with others, sharing a meal, giving a gift, opening up emotionally, providing full attention while listening to someone, and long hugs. How can you increase your oxytocin levels? Positive social interactions tend to be the best way to increase the output of this hormone. Unlike dopamine, which is largely responsible for instant gratification, oxytocin gives us lasting feelings of calm and safety.” 1 “Oxytocin boosts our immune systems, makes us better problem solvers and makes us more resistant to the addictive qualities of dopamine. 1 If humans are social animals, oxytocin is one of the main reasons why. It’s also the feeling behind love, friendship, or deep trust. Oxytocin is often affectionately referred to as the “hugging drug” because it is released by the brain during physical contact with others. It will last just long enough to get you to check another social feed on your phone or beat another level of Candy Crush. This isn’t the type of long-lasting happiness you’ll be able to savor, and it’s likely not the goal on your quest for happiness.
However, dopamine is becoming a real problem because of its addictive nature and how closely tied it is to our bad technology habits.Įven worse, the effects of dopamine are fleeting. Today, dopamine is what helps you get through your to-do list or motivates you to start a new habit. Without dopamine, early humans never would have had the motivation to hunt down large mammals and benefit from investing effort into long-term goals. Dopamine causes that little happy feeling when someone likes your post on Instagram, fill in a checkbox, or complete a small task.ĭespite the bad press, dopamine is an incredible drug! It’s meant to motivate your body toward a distant goal, one step at a time. You’ve probably heard of dopamine if you’ve been listening to ongoing news about tech addiction. Think of this as your introduction or field guide to what these chemicals are and how they affect your daily happiness. So then, what’s the real cause of our happiness? What makes us feel sensations of happiness, closeness, and joy? Brain chemicals! There are four primary chemicals that can drive the positive emotions you feel throughout the day: dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins (sometimes referred to as D.O.S.E.).īy understanding how these chemicals work on a basic level, we can better decide for ourselves whether the latest trends will be helping or hurting our happiness.