Mental Health: Here's How You Can Boost Happy Hormones Through Simple Lifestyle Changes

We all wish for happiness since it's a wonderful emotion that can consume your mind and body, causing you to laugh or even cry, and it's contagious enough to spread to other people. Our bodies go through a series of extremely intricate chemical processes that cause us to feel happy, chirpy, or exhilarated.

To stay happy, it is important to understand what these 'happy hormones' are and how does one boost their production to feel happy and content. Under this article, we list some of the happy hormones our bodies produce and how to boost their production through lifestyle changes.

Here are the hormones that are often referred as the 'happy hormones':

1. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and hormone that aids in mood regulation along with digestion, hunger, sleep, learning, and memory.

2. Dopamine, also referred to as the 'feel-good hormone', is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in the reward system in your brain. Alongside learning, memory, and other things, it's connected to pleasant feelings.

3. Endorphins are hormones that your body naturally creates to ease pain in reaction to stress or discomfort. Levels may also rise as a result of rewarding behaviours like eating, exercising, or having sex.

4. Oxytocin also known as the 'love hormone', is crucial for nursing, birth, and a close parent-child relationship. Additionally, it can encourage bonding, empathy, and trust in partnerships. Physical affection often results in a rise in levels.

Now that you understand what the different happy hormones are, let's understand which lifestyle changes can aid the sufficient production of these hormones.

Here are lifestyle choices that can boost the production of these hormones:

1. Engage in physical activities

The majority of individuals are aware that exercising releases endorphins. Any type of exercise that raises your heart rate will make you feel good, and a strenuous workout that does just that might make you feel euphoric from exercise. Your brain's pain receptors will also interact with endorphins in a way that actually lessens your feeling of pain.

2. Eating HH-boosting foods

Your diet plays a significant effect in how your hormones function. Due to its high phenylethylamine content, dark chocolate might improve your mood in little doses. Other foods that can improve mood include chilli, which includes capsaicin, oily fish for its omega 3 fatty acids, coffee (in moderation), foods that contain tryptophan, such as some chicken, eggs, milk, nuts, and seeds, and coffee in moderation.

3. Get a massage

Endorphins can be released and oxytocin production stimulated by massage or any other form of relaxing touch, in both the recipient and the masseuse. The same is true for other healing modalities that relax the body and reduce pain, like acupuncture, chiropractic care, and hydrotherapy.

4. Laugh more

Watch your favourite comedy program to release endorphins. Laughter reduces stress, strengthens the immune system, and uplifts your mood in general. Because it works so well, laughter therapy has become a recognised cognitive behavioural therapy for treating stress and sadness in patients.

5. Sunbathe

Along with consuming a variety of fish, fish liver, and egg yolks, vitamin D can also be obtained by exposing the skin to sunshine in the early morning or late afternoon. In addition to maintaining the health of our bones and immune system, this vitamin also indirectly promotes the creation of serotonin, a hormone that can lessen the symptoms of depression.

6. Listen to music

More than one of the happy hormones can be increased by music. Instrumental music, particularly chill-inducing music, can make your brain produce more dopamine. However, if you appreciate music, merely listening to it may help you feel better. Your production of serotonin may rise as a result of this improvement in your mood.

7. Practice gratitude

The brain's reward system is activated by gratitude, and feel-good chemicals are released. Many people keep a regular gratitude notebook in which they list their blessings; others undertake the 'three blessings exercise,' in which they concentrate on three blessings each evening.

8. Take a cold shower

A hot shower is soothing, but a burst of cold water will awaken your body's endorphins and leave you feeling slightly euphoric. For a while now, studies have examined cold water exposure and therapy. Experts contend that the production of endorphins, our body's natural painkillers, as a result of taking a cold shower improves our mood.

There are numerous more ways in which you can boost your happy hormones naturally and in a safe manner.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.