Top 5 Strategies to Hack Your Happy Brain Chemicals
“I just want to be happy.”
How many books, courses, and seminars have been held every year with the ultimate objective being to help you become happier and more fulfilled?
Of course, we could talk about finding our purpose, living in the present moment, finding our core values, and even practicing gratitude every day in an attempt to become happier. These strategies are extremely helpful and beneficial but I’ve always left with the same question —
What if implementing these mindset strategies isn’t enough?
What if there is a much more foundational issue starting in our brain? Your brain is the house your mind lives and issues in the brain manifest themselves with symptoms in our mood, feelings, thoughts, and even behaviors.
When it comes to happiness and your brain, we can’t go any further without talking about Serotonin.
Serotonin is your “Happy Neurotransmitter,” allowing you to feel happy, calm, and fulfilled. Neurotransmitters are what your brain uses to communicate from brain cell to brain cell. Without the proper levels of neurotransmitters, our brain is trying to operate with limited resources.
Imagine trying to work on a project that requires 20 people on a team, but instead, you’re given a team of 10. Do you think the project will be done on time and that it will be done well?
Probably not.
The brain is no different. If we have low levels of our happy neurotransmitter, Serotonin, it makes it more challenging for our brain to feel happy. Low levels of serotonin are seen cases of depression and the lower the levels of serotonin, the more severe the depression may get. [R]
Different medications specifically designed to treat depression, like SSRIs, actually work by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. The only concern is that there are some potentially serious side effects.
So this begs the question…
Can we hack our own happiness, or at least increase our likelihood of achieving happiness, by increasing our levels of serotonin naturally?
Here are the top 4 ways to naturally increase your Happy Chemicals!
REDUCE STRESS
The biggest killer of your serotonin is STRESS. When your body is chronically stressed from work, junk food, emotional stress, relationships, finances, and general life, it releases a hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol is an amazing hormone that helps our body adapt to stress when we need it most like when your hiking and a mountain lion comes out of nowhere looking for a meal.
The problem is that cortisol is great for a short-term response but was never intended to be a long-term solution.
Many of us are under constant stress from work, relationships, technology, sitting for 8 hours a day at work, and eating food that isn’t good for us. This causes our bodies to constantly be producing cortisol all the time.
Over time cortisol begins to lower our serotonin levels, which can make us feel more unhappy, anxious, and less calm. [R]
So naturally, in order to make sure, we keep our serotonin levels as high as possible, we need to help our body better adapt to the stress we may be under. We need to make sure we’re working out, having fun, taking time for self-care, and even meditating to help our body cope with stress that may be unavoidable.
5-HTP
Serotonin is made from an amino acid called tryptophan, which is found in rich protein sources like meat, cheese, and eggs. A logical conclusion is that we could increase our levels of tryptophan and therefore increase our serotonin levels.
There are two main problems with this:
- A majority of tryptophan that enters the body (90%+) doesn’t actually turn into serotonin. Most of it gets used for other purposes in the body, some of which create some harmful by-products for our brain.
- Tryptophan needs to get into the brain for it to become serotonin. Tryptophan has a really hard time doing that and needs additional help to get from your blood to your brain.
So increasing our tryptophan intake isn’t a great or efficient option, but there is another tactic we can take.
Before tryptophan becomes serotonin it gets converted in 5-HTP. 5-HTP can get from the blood to the brain with little trouble at all.
Supplementing 5-HTP isn’t as versatile in the body as tryptophan, but it is a very tactical and efficient way of increasing your levels of serotonin if that is your main objective.
SUNSHINE
Research has shown that variations of the seasons produce changes in our serotonin as well. During winter when most people are indoor and lack sunlight for long periods of time, researchers have noticed decreases in serotonin levels that correspond to the amount of sunlight we get. [R]
So getting more natural sunlight can be a helpful way to increase your serotonin. All it takes is a 20-minute walk in the natural sunlight. Take your calls while you walk outside if possible. Take a break outside. Do whatever you can to get more natural sunlight and it may do wonders for your “happy chemicals.”
MASSAGE
Massage therapy is extremely effective at helping the body adapt better to stress .One study, in particular, showed that getting a massage does more than “rub sore shoulders.” It turns out that massage therapy can affect your brain chemistry.
In this study, they discovered that massage therapy decreased cortisol by 31% and increased serotonin by 28%, as well as increasing dopamine, your motivation neurotransmitter, by 31%.
Make regular “dates” for your own self-care and get a massage. You’ll find yourself much happier, less stressed, and in the long run far more productive because of it.
EXERCISE
Never underestimate the power of a great workout. It turns out that exercising can have some amazing benefits for your brain and your happy hormones.
Activities like yoga and aerobic exercise like running, swimming, or hiking seem to have the maximum benefits of raising serotonin in the brain. Particularly one studied showed that maximum benefits of exercise happened when the participants worked out until they couldn’t any more. [R]
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