E219: Your Daily D.O.S.E. of Happiness

I read recently that if you want to be more productive, watch a funny video or comedy skit before getting to work on that project. Today I’m going to share why this works and how you can increase your levels of happiness every day!

[00:44] Welcome back to the Women’s Empowerment Podcast! I am your host and Healthy Habit Mentor, Valerie LaVigne. Before we get into today’s episode I wanted to take a moment to share my gratitude and appreciation with you.

Whether you are a long time, or new listener of the podcast, THANK YOU SO MUCH! I would honestly not be here if it wasn’t for you and your support. I also want to take a moment to CELEBRATE WITH YOU!

The Women’s Empowerment Podcast has reached over 100 000 downloads this week which is SO FREAKING COOL AND it was also my birthday a couple days ago so that felt like a fun birthday surprise and extra celebrations.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for making this happen! If you haven’t already I would love to invite you to review the podcast. You can leave a thoughtful review on Apple Podcasts, and a star rating on Spotify. Rating and reviewing the show helps it reach more people and benefit more lives. It would mean the world to me to receive and read that.

I mentioned right at the intro of this podcast episode that watching a funny video before working on a big project can actually make you more productive, and it’s true!

When you laugh your brain releases neurotransmitters which is a signaling molecule that is secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse or junction between two nerve cells. In its simplest explanation, laughing sends chemical signals from your brain to your body that make you feel happier!

These happiness chemicals and hormones hugely affect our mental, emotional, and physical health. Learning what they are, and how to increase them can support you in creating habits, routines, and rituals to better serve and support your body and wellness.

You may be familiar with these four “happiness chemicals:” Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. Let’s break them down.

[02:52] Dopamine

Dopamine is known as “the reward chemical.” It enables learning, motivation, and pleasure. We need dopamine because it gives us the determination to accomplish our goals, as well as our needs and desires.

This chemical is triggered by acts of short term pleasure. It touches five brain receptors and is addictive. We are always wanting more. To increase our dopamine levels in a healthy way, we can:

Complete a task on our to do list
Pamper ourselves with self-care routines
Try something new
Appreciating every bite of food
Celebrate little wins

When we are deficient in dopamine we might procrastinate, experience low self-esteem, have low energy or fatigue. We will probably lack motivation and focus, which can also lead to feelings of anxiousness, hopelessness, and possibly mood swings.

The everyday problem is that our brain is always wanting and craving dopamine. While it gets dopamine from checking the box on your to-do list, and positive social interactions, it also gets dopamine from mindless scrolling or spending! The problem being that the brain doesn’t know the difference between good and bad social interactions.

Checking social media, emails, and messages first thing in the morning gives you a super dose of dopamine. Along with putting you into a sense of alertness before your brain has a chance to gradually wake up, it also puts your dopamine baseline levels extremely high.

So what does that mean? Well your brain remembers that it can get dopamine from checking socials, emails, and messages. And as we know from forming habits, our brain and body wants to satisfy cravings in the quickest and simplest way possible. It remembers that checking socials, emails, and messages was how we did that first thing this morning so now we want to continue to check all those apps again.

But… the brain is expecting that same high-level dopamine hit, and guess what? We won’t be able to reach that same high so we close the apps down and moments later reopen them again.

How do we overcome this negative habit loop? By breaking the cycle. Stop checking our phones first thing in the morning. Personally, my phone is on airplane mode when I’m sleeping and when I wake up there are no notifications that come through until I turn off airplane mode. My goal every morning is to wait at least one hour before taking airplane mode off and I would say four out of seven days I can make that happen.

Some things I do instead are:

Drink greens and any other supplement potion I’m mixing. (These days it’s collagen, B12 combo thing, and electrolytes)
Make breakfast
Empty the dishwasher
Eat breakfast presently and enjoy every bite
Dream out/visualize my day

So before any notifications come through I’ve checked off to do lists, I’ve excited my taste buds, I’ve fueled my body and allowed my brain to wake up with ease.

Straight up I’ve noticed a huge difference in my day when I’ve checked my phone upon waking versus not and I have to say it’s a noticeably better and more productive day!

Are you someone who checks their phone in the morning? Can you create boundaries with your technology to better support your health and wellness daily? I’m not trying to eliminate technology or social media, heck if it wasn’t for tech we wouldn’t be connected together here on this podcast, but it’s about the relationship we have with our devices and we want to create a healthy supportive one.

Speaking of connection and relationships…

[07:17] Oxytocin

Oxytocin is known as “the love hormone.” This is important because it motivates us to build and sustain important relationships, and gives us a feeling of trust. Although oxytocin is a powerful hormone, it actually functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain. It plays a huge role in bonding, and is sometimes called “the cuddle hormone.”

To increase oxytocin levels consider actions such as:

Giving compliments
Listening to music
Give or receive a massage
Spend time with your friends and loved ones
Play with an animal or a baby
Opening your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people

I learned recently that even prolonged eye contact (60 seconds or more) releases oxytocin. Now I’m picturing us going for a walk later and staring down everyone we pass by hahahaha

If we’re low on this hormone we can experience feelings of loneliness, stress, and lack of motivation. As well as a decrease in energy, and disconnected from relationships. We may also experience anxiety and/or insomnia.

Remember that oxytocin isn’t just about what we get and receive, but also from how we can give! We feel better in our own bodies when we do something nice for someone else. This is also connected to the third hormone I want to share with you today which is Serotonin, but before we talk about that ask yourself how you can give and receive love, affection, kindness, and play today?

[09:00] Serotonin

Serotonin is known as “the mood stabilizer.” It’s what makes us feel important or significant in our communities. It also helps us feel calm and accepting of ourselves among our peers.

Unlike dopamine, serotonin is triggered by acts of long-term satisfaction. It touches 14 brain receptors and is non-addictive. Serotonin has a lot to do with being grateful for what we have vs always wanting more. Some of the ways we can increase our serotonin levels are:

Meditation
Enjoy a healthy diet
Getting sunlight
Exercise
Observing that all emotions can be helpful
Go for a walk in nature
Cold therapy or cold showers

When our serotonin levels are low, we can experience low self-esteem, feel overly sensitive, experience panic attacks and anxiety and possibly stress in social situations. We might also feel hopeless or obsessive/compulsive, and potentially have insomnia.

If you do struggle with increasing serotonin levels it would be beneficial to contact your medical doctor or holistic nutritionist who knows a lot about or specializes in gut health because 95% of serotonin is produced in the gut while only 5% in your brain.

There are several types of foods that can support your physical gut health as well as your mental health, as a lot of experts will tell you that your gut is your second brain (some will call it your first brain)! I read an excellent book on gut health that I highly recommend called GUT: The Inside Story of Your Body’s Most Underrated Organ

Some of the foods known to increase serotonin are:

Greens or green juice blends
Walnuts
Almonds
Cayenne Peppers
Bananas
Dark leafy greens
Oats
Blueberries
Chia seeds
Coconut oil
Turmeric
Sauerkraut
Salmon
Water/hydration

Are there foods on that list, or actions you can start to take today to support your daily dose of serotonin? What can you commit to including today? What three things can you commit to incorporating this week?

As your Healthy Habit Mentor, I find joy in supporting you to elevate your life by creating empowering habits, routines and rituals. And to help you create your new healthy habits and behaviours, I have a free guide for you!

The last happiness chemical I want to share with you today is called endorphins.

[12:33 ] Endorphins

Endorphins are known as “the painkiller neurotransmitter.” The brain releases endorphins that feel like a brief euphoria that masks physical pain. It’s a chemical response to pain and stress to ease depression and anxiety.

Whenever I think or talk about endorphins, I always remember the Legally Blonde (movie) quote: "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't." – Elle Woods

Which always makes me giggle – and guess what, giggles release endorphins! Here are some ways to increase endorphins:

Laughing
Practicing yoga or meditation
Dancing or running
Regular exercise
Going out and creating
Watch a funny video

A decrease in endorphins can affect our physical and mental health through feelings of anxiety, depression, and mood swings. It can have our body feeling lots of aches and pains, possibly insomnia as well as impulsive behaviour.

Even though I’ve broken down these four happiness chemicals, they are all very similar and quite closely tied together. You can take very simple steps to improving even ONE of the neurotransmitters I shared today and you’re highly likely to experience a ripple effect into the other three as well.

Now listen… There are a lot of ways we can support our mental and physical health, and performance. I like giving a variety of ideas and suggestions of tangible things we can do to elevate our health and wellness and I do this so that you can create your own healthy habits, routines, and rituals.

I saw a post not too long ago by Dr. Andrew Huberman that said:

“Every 24 hours we need to re-up”

Sleep
Morning Sunlight
Exercise
Nutrients (even if from body stores)
Water

The fact that we can survive >24 hrs without one or several of these, is irrelevant. Healthy flourishes when we make getting all 5 of these daily a priority.”

Original Post

I share this because all of these things can be achieved for free, and they all support the happiness chemicals in the body. I’ve been noticing a lot of conversations I’ve been having with others lately are very much around anxiety and stress. And when we look at what these people are doing to support their health and wellness, it doesn’t seem to be a priority at all! In my opinion, we’re not giving ourselves a fighting chance without prioritizing these basic actions.

Visit the show notes page for today’s show to read through the list of actions I’ve shared today, or relisten to this episode and really feel into which actions and behaviours you can start implementing ASAP! Remember there is a helpful online workbook available to support you in this at www.valerielavignelife.com/habits.

You can also connect with me on instagram @vallavignelife and share how you’re getting your daily D.O.S.E. of happiness!

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!