How to Get Your Happiness Hormones, Even If You’re Alone

Summary

The article provides strategies for boosting happiness hormones—oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins—through activities that can be done alone during periods of isolation.

Abstract

The article "How to Get Your Happiness Hormones, Even If You’re Alone" offers guidance on maintaining mental and emotional well-being by naturally stimulating the body's mood-elevating hormones. It suggests various activities to release oxytocin, such as petting animals, meditating, and self-massage. For dopamine, it recommends meditation, music, and touch. Serotonin can be increased through exercise and meditation. Endorphins are encouraged through chocolate, spicy food, music, laughter, and exercise. The author shares personal anecdotes, like singing scales while self-massaging and watching cat videos for laughter, illustrating practical ways to apply these suggestions in daily life.

Opinions

The author prefers email letter-writing over video calls due to unreliable internet connections.
They find memorizing new songs, especially humorous or uplifting ones, helpful for managing worry and enhancing dopamine levels.
The author enjoys swimming and walking as part of their daily routine for serotonin release.
They acknowledge the challenge of starting new habits, like online Zumba classes, but prioritize activities that bring joy, such as laughter yoga.
The author endorses the idea of solo activities, including self-massage and laughter exercises, to maintain happiness.
They suggest setting reminders for daily laughter as a beneficial practice.
The author believes that engaging in these hormone-boosting activities daily can lead to a happier life.

Can’t get hugs? I’ve got you covered.

We need to keep our health and spirits up during the Great Pause, which means supporting our bodies to produce mood elevating hormones. There are four we want to have:

Oxytocin, known as “the hug hormone,” increases trust.

Well, if you’re in isolation right now and can’t get hugs, what can you do?

Pet/stroke animals

Meditate

Listen deeply to someone or open up emotionally (so jump on the phone or Zoom)

Self massage

Since I prefer e-mail letter-writing to Zoom (because of spotty Internet connections), I do a combination of self-massage on my limbs, followed by gentle chest thumping while singing scales, because the silly, wobbly sounds I produce make me smile.

Dopamine, known as “the bliss hormone,” “the feel-good hormone,” or “the reward hormone,” is involved with attention, motivation, decision making, memory, and sleep. You get it from:

Meditating

Listening to music

Touch

Low-level underlying worry is still distracting me from having any effective meditation, so I’m memorizing a new song every week. Most of them are either funny or cheerful.

Serotonin, known as “the happy hormone,” relates to well-being, pride and status. You can get it from:

Exercise

Meditation

Touch

For me, that means exercise. I swim for half an hour to forty-five minutes every morning, and walk out at midday to pick up my take-away lunch. (I keep trying to get myself to turn on the free online Zumba classes in the evening because I love to dance, but somehow I always end up watching a movie instead.)

Endorphins. These hormones give a feeling of euphoria, relieve stress & pain, and help to create good habits. You get them from:

Eating chocolate

Eating something spicy

Listening to music

Laughter

Good sex (I’ll leave this on the list cuz most of you know how to fly solo)

Exercise

I love to laugh, so for me it’s some solo Laughter Yoga, or watching some silly cat videos online (I’ve seen hundreds of them, and I’m still laughing). I’ve even got a laughter reminder on my phone in the early evening to make sure I get in my daily laughs.

There you go. If you help your body produce these four hormones every day, you will enjoy a much happier life.