Your weekly dose of mental sunshine...

Are you happy today?

Is the sun already shining in your mind, or do you need a bit of help with that?

Today I want to tell you about the happy cocktail of chemicals inside your brain.

Your body and brain are basically a big chemistry set, and how you feel depends on what the chemicals inside of you are doing.

The four happiness chemicals you need are Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins.

When you have enough of these four substances in your brain and body, you feel good.

Even if you still have stress in your life, you feel like you can cope and things are not so bad.

When one or more of them is off though, it can really affect your ability to feel good.

Take a look at this image from mindmypeelings.com which shows how a deficiency in each chemical affects you, and how you can increase them.

Your daily happiness chemicals

Of course, nobody sits there thinking “ah, I feel a bit off - perhaps my dopamine is a little low today” - but it is definitely worth being aware of these chemicals and the role they can play in our moods.

Perhaps start by choosing one or two things from the “how to increase happiness levels” list and incorporating it into your daily routine - you might be surprised at the difference a small change can make to your happiness cocktail!

An excellent, more detailed blog post, can be found here at mindmypeelings.com

I'd love to know what's your favourite way to increase your happiness levels?

Forward to a friend