How To Feel Better By Hacking Your Feel Good Neurochemicals

You are happy and satisfied. You think you’ve finally gotten control of your feelings. Now, there’s nothing that can steal this sense of calm from you. But you forget…

Nothing is permanent.

As time passes, your peace goes away. For some silly reason, you feel upset or frustrated. And now you want to feel better.

Does this ever happen to you?

Welcome to reality, my friend.

While you can train yourself to switch your mindset, no one can ever guarantee full control over your emotions.

We are humans. Complex processes go inside our brain and body.

All your feelings and emotions stem from the neurochemicals and hormones in your body.

Instead of blaming your self-control, you can change the chemistry of your brain to make it easier for yourself to live in a beautiful state of mind. You’ll be able to focus on what’s important to you and keep your mood stable most of the time.

Before we begin, I want to reward you for reading this post. If you do, I will give you my secret hack for optimizing my brain at the end of the post (no email sign up required).

No cheating. Okay?

It’s an opportunity for you to train your mind for patience.

Sounds good? Let’s begin.

While neurotransmitters like glutamate, GABA, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, orexin, and many more control us, below are four major ones that dictate how you feel.

How To Feel Better Naturally

1. You Don’t Lack Willpower, You Need Your Dopamine Dose

How To Feel Better: Dopamine

Dopamine is released as a response to anticipation of a reward (1). It is responsible for motivation and drive (2). It also helps with attention, cognitive function, creativity, learning, sleep, and mood (3).

Extroverted personalities have more dopamine receptors in their brains. They seek more dopamine as they are less sensitive to it. So they seek stimulating activities like socializing as they want to stay aroused from the outside world.

Introverts avoid too much stimulation as it could make them anxious or overwhelmed. But if you’re an introvert and you learn to manage your anxiety with practice, you can bring on your extrovert side in a social situation by boosting your dopamine levels (4).

Dopamine is important for romantic love and maternal behavior (5, 6). Heck, it can even lower systematic inflammation in your body and increase bone strength (7, 8).

Dopamine plays more functions but by now, you’ve got a pretty good idea of how powerful and important it is. But it comes with its downsides if you have excess levels of dopamine.

Excess dopamine may make you apathetic and give you poor social functioning (9). Seeking too much dopamine from an activity leads to addictive behavior such as drugs, porn, food, social media, and video games (10, 11, 12). It can make you more aggressive or competitive and less communal or nurturing (13, 14).

On the flip side, too little dopamine may lead to low motivation, depression, fatigue, attention, or memory problems.

Dopamine is the reason we fail to keep the new year resolution. At the time of setting the goal, our dopamine is high, and we feel motivated. But soon, our dopamine levels drop off as we seek novelty and achievement. If we fail to make good progress, we set new goals to get high dopamine, and the cycle repeats.

To optimize your dopamine levels, you must first identify your sources of dopamine and seek healthy levels for optimal mood and performance.

You want to diversify the source of your dopamine and make sure you get it from healthy sources.

To increase dopamine levels:

  • Check items off of your daily success checklist (141).
  • Break down tasks into smaller to-dos (141).
  • Set healthy rewards for healthy behaviors (141).
  • Exercise (15).
  • Do yoga (16).
  • Meditate (17).
  • Spend time outside in sunlight or bright light and smell fresh cut grass (18, 19).
  • Get a massage (20).
  • Keep inflammation low (by avoiding toxins in the air, water, fast food, etc.) (21).
  • Listen to pleasurable music (22).
  • Get human touch, tickle, or have sex (23, 24, 137).
  • Have positive social interactions (135).
  • Pet a dog (136).
  • Take a cold shower (129).
  • Keep a healthy weight (130).
  • Do intermittent fasting (131, 132).
  • Get good sleep (133, 134).
  • Consume tyrosine-rich foods (meat, fish, avocados, cheese, yogurt, beans, nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, soy, and especially bananas), omega 3s (EPA/DHA from fish or algae), green tea, caffeine, resveratrol (red grapes, red wine, peanuts, cocoa, blueberries), folate & thiamine (vitamin B1 & B9 from meat, green leafy vegetables, chickpeas, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, avocados, beets, broccoli), curcumin, probiotics (Lactobacillus Plantarum from fermented plants such as sauerkraut, pickles, kimchi), magnesium and iron (cocoa, nuts, seeds, legumes, bananas, leafy greens, avocados) (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 118).
Dopamine and Serotonin Pathways
Wikipedia

2. Be The Boss Of Your Mood By Controlling Serotonin

How To Feel Better: Serotonin

Serotonin makes you happy. Anti-depressants focus on increasing serotonin production to help people come out of depression. Not only does serotonin helps with depression (36), it improves your mood during social interactions by decreasing aggression and increasing dominance (37). Who doesn’t want that?

Serotonin plays a role in heart function (38), improves gut-brain connection (39), controls body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing (40, 41). It can also help with food cravings (salt and carbohydrates) and anorexia (eating disorder) (42, 43, 44). The combination of dopamine and serotonin can improve Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (45).

Lack of serotonin may impair immunity functions in the body (46) and disrupt the biological clock (47). It could cause migraines (48) and impair memory (49). It may also lead to anxiety disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), panic disorder, social phobia, and aggression (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55).

Moreover, serotonin promotes patience and persistence (114, 115, 116). Along with increasing happiness, it also increases pain tolerance (117).

Getting your brain to produce serotonin is as easy as imagining. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and imagination.

To increase serotonin levels:

  • Express gratitude and think positive thoughts (56).
  • Take pride in your accomplishments (125).
  • Enjoy your social position no matter what it is (126).
  • Exercise (57).
  • Meditate (58).
  • Connect with positive people (59).
  • Walk in nature, spend time in bright sunlight and get vitamin D (60, 61, 62).
  • Get good sleep (63).
  • Get a massage (64).
  • Listen to pleasant music (65).
  • Consume tryptophan-rich foods (eggs, meats, fish, yogurt, cheese, sesame seeds, cashew, walnuts, oats, quinoa, brown rice, beans, legumes, bananas, potatoes), omega 3s (EPA/DHA from fish or algae), curcumin, vitamin B6 rich foods (meat, fish, nuts, seeds, chickpeas, beans, avocados, bananas, spinach) and carbohydrates (pro tip: take it from good sources) (66, 67, 68, 69, 70).

3. Cuddle Others (And Heal Your Wounds) With Oxytocin

How To Feel Better: Oxytocin

Oxytocin plays a major role in social bonding. It increases trust (when there is no reason to distrust), generosity, empathy, and willingness to share your stories and emotions (71, 72, 73, 74).

Oxytocin inhibits the fear response and decreases bad memories (75). It increases romantic attachment and feelings of contentment, calmness, and security (76). It reduces stress response, decreases inflammation, and promotes wound healing (77, 78). How great is that?

To increase oxytocin levels:

  • Give a gift or do random acts of kindness (128).
  • Help, trust, support, encourage, inspire, motivate, compliment others and be trustworthy (128, 141).
  • Listen to others for deep connection (128).
  • Engage in adventurous or thrill-seeking activities with others (128).
  • Use social media, but don’t overdo it (128).
  • Share a meal together (128).
  • Express your emotions (smile, laugh, cry) (124).
  • Pet a dog (79, 136).
  • Exercise (80).
  • Do yoga (81).
  • Have positive social interactions (82).
  • Smell Jasmine or Lavender (83, 84).
  • Take warm showers or get in warm temperature (85).
  • Get a massage (86).
  • Listen to soothing music (87).
  • Do loving-kindness meditation (88).
  • Hug, cuddle, touch, kiss, love, and have sex (89).
  • Consume caffeine, magnesium (cocoa, nuts, seeds, legumes, bananas, leafy greens, avocados), sage, fenugreek, and vitamin C rich foods (guava, kiwi, bell peppers, strawberries, orange, papaya, broccoli, tomato, kale) (90, 91, 92, 127).

4. Feel Less Pain And Get “High” Without Taking Drugs By Inducing Endorphins

How To Feel Better: Endorphins

Endorphins give you the feeling of “high”. It may help you overcome addictions as you can get the feeling without using any drug. I will give you only the natural and healthy ways to boost your endorphins.

Endorphins are released during exercise, pain, stress, sex, eating, or drinking. They are natural painkillers and stress reliever (93, 94). Impressive, huh?

To increase endorphins levels:

  • Exercise (with others for an added boost) (95, 138).
  • Play (96).
  • Laugh (97).
  • Spend time with your friends (98).
  • Spend time in sunlight (99).
  • Take cold showers or hold your breath (100, 101).
  • Take warm showers or sauna (102, 103).
  • Meditate (104).
  • Get good stress (105).
  • Get good sleep (106).
  • Listen to music and dance (107, 140).
  • Get a massage or acupuncture (108, 109).
  • Have an orgasm (139)
  • Consume magnesium (cocoa, nuts, seeds, legumes, bananas, leafy greens, avocados), spicy food like chili, and probiotic (Lactobacillus Acidophilus from yogurt, kefir, miso, or tempeh) (110, 111, 112).

Using This Information To Feel Better…

That’s a lot of information to take in. My goal is not to give you straight facts or throw a bunch of studies at you. I want you to put this information into action so you can feel better whenever you want.

Instead of relying on your brain to remember the information, here’s what to do next:

  1. Save this article.
  2. When you feel low motivation, get your dopamine dose (from the ways mentioned above).
  3. When you want to change your mood, get your serotonin dose.
  4. When you feel lonely or self-absorbed, get your oxytocin dose.
  5. When you want to take a break to experience euphoric feelings, get your endorphins dose.

Of course, you don’t have to wait for the cues to get your dosage. Make sure you regularly do the most impactful actions that produce “feel good” neurochemicals.

The key actions that make you feel better are:

  • Exercising.
  • Meditating.
  • Listening to music.
  • Getting good sleep.
  • Taking hot and cold showers.
  • Having positive social interactions.
  • Spending time in nature and getting sunlight.
  • Getting a massage and doing yoga. (I use a foam roller for self-massage)
  • Eating mood-boosting foods (a high-quality diet with adequate protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients).

Related: Life Designer’s Toolkit — Top Health Tools

My secret hack to feel better…

Now it’s time for the secret hack I promised to give you at the beginning of the post.

Here’s your bonus tip…

Consume cocoa powder or dark chocolate. Not only does it contain high amounts of magnesium (which is great for dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins production), cocoa flavanols especially help in dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins production. It helps your brain produce Phenylethylamine which is the same compound that is produced when you fall in love. Moreover, it releases anandamide which is regarded as the “bliss” molecule (113).

Cocoa solves everything. Higher the percentage of cocoa in dark chocolate, the better. Or you can blend pure cocoa powder in your smoothies.

Note: if you want to try a natural supplement to feel better, I recommend New MOOD from Onnit.

Take care of the basics and take your neurochemical dose as needed to feel better naturally and instantly.

You are the average of your friends. It holds true for your mental wellbeing too.

Share this post with your loved ones to get small dose of oxytocin now.

Now go, and optimize your brain to feel better, productive, motivated, happy, and calm most of your life.

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