Hormones play crucial role in your body as they are chemical messengers. Hormones are produced by different glands across your body. There is a group of hormones often called “feel-good hormones” as they make you happy and sometimes even produce euphoric feelings.
These “happy hormones” include:
- Dopamine: Known as the “feel-good” hormone, dopamine is associated with pleasurable sensations, along with learning, memory, and more.
- Serotonin: This hormone and neurotransmitter helps regulate your mood as well as your sleep, appetite, digestion, learning ability, and memory.
- Oxytocin: Oxytocin is also called ‘love hormone’ is essential for childbirth, breastfeeding, and strong parent-child bonding. It can also help promote trust, empathy, and bonding in relationships. Levels generally increase with physical affection.
- Endorphins: Endorphins are your body’s natural pain reliever. The body produces this hormone in response to stress or discomfort. Your endorphins levels may also increase when you engage in reward-producing activities such as eating, working out, or having sex.
How to boost happy hormones?
- Get outside: Spending time outdoors, especially in sunlight, is a great way to boost your serotonin levels.
- Exercise: Regular physical activity can not only increase your endorphins levels but it can also increase your dopamine and serotonin levels, making it a great option to boost your happy hormones.
- Laugh more: Laughing helps in relieving feelings of anxiety or stress, and improve a low mood by boosting dopamine and endorphin levels. Bonding over something hilarious with a loved one might even trigger oxytocin release.
- Cook and eat with a loved one: The enjoyment you get from eating something delicious can trigger the release of dopamine along with endorphins. When you share the meal with someone you love, you can boost oxytocin levels.
- Listening to music: Listening to music can help in increasing the levels of happy hormones like dopamine, serotonin and even endorphins.
- Go on date nights: Simply being attracted to someone can lead to the production of oxytocin. Physical affection including kissing, cuddling, or having sex, also contributes to oxytocin production. Dancing and sex lead to endorphin release, while orgasm triggers dopamine release.
- Sleep: 7 to 9 hours of sleep can help restore the balance of hormones in your body, which will likely help you feel better.
