Small Habits That Help You Fine Tune

Your Feel-Good Chemistry

Oxytocin

Doing Something for someone else

  • Hugging a pet or playing with an animal

  • Holding hands, cuddling, or looking into another person’s eyes

  • Yoga 

  • Love and Kindness Meditation or notes to friends or loved ones.

  • Massage or self-massage of shoulders and temples

  • Socializing with friends

  • Chamomile Tea, Vitamin C, Sunshine, Warmth

  • Oxytocin is available as a nasal spray

Dopamine

Completing a task

  • Physical contact, like a big hug.

  • Listening to music

  • Spending 30 minutes a day in the sunshine

  • Physical Activity: Exercise will be different depending on how much you enjoy it – if you enjoy exercise, it will increase dopamine 2x above baseline).

  • Good night’s sleep

  • Chocolate will increase dopamine by 1.5x

  • Nicotine (when smoked) increases dopamine by 2.5x

  • Sex (pursuit and act) increases dopamine 2x

  • Amphetamine increases dopamine 10x

  • Close social connections that release oxytocin have been found to trigger dopamine release.

  • Take a cold shower. A cold plunge (the water temperature will depend on cold adaptation) can boost dopamine up to 2.5x above baseline and is sustained for up to three hours post-exposure!

  • Drink green tea

  • Deep breathing

  • Meditation

  • Create art like painting, writing, photography, or cooking

  • Eat fruit to increase tyrosine

  • Doing something new and interesting

Serotonin

Spend 5 minutes in nature

  •  15 to 20 minutes in the sunshine

  • Eat bananas for the amino acid tryptophan

  • 20 to 30 minutes of exercise each day  

  • Smell lemon or lavender essential oils

  • Recall pleasant, positive memories

  • Get a massage

  • Laugh by calling a funny friend or watching a comedy

  • Practice gratitude

  • Supplement with probiotics to increase tryptophan

  • Eat good carbohydrates like apples, sweet potatoes, and carrots

  • Listen to music

  • Dance to music

  • 5 to 10 minutes of mindfulness every day