There are primarily four neurotransmitters within the brain that concern themselves with your happiness and your experience of mood. They are: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins.

And while these complex chemical messengers play their respective roles in shaping our everyday emotions and motivations without requiring any additional supervision on our part, it’s still us who are in control of the vast majority of input they receive. That is, we humans are responsible for engaging in actions and interactions that are hard-wired to bring us joy — and bring us joy they do…

In fact, so much so that simply by knowing when, and how, these neurotransmitters are set fire in our brains, we have the potential to use them to our advantage.

It’s like teaching the brain how to hack itself. Neuro-ception, if you will.

So, whether you’re just curious about understanding the fundamentals of the brain science of happiness, or you’re in need of a quick mood-booster — this article is for you.

Enjoy and maybe get yourself some of those feel-good chemicals while you’re at it!

Dopamine

This neurotransmitter is commonly referred to as the “reward” chemical — but it actually has a lot more to do with motivation than reward (1).

This is because if you were to measure the release of dopamine in the brain before, during, and after receiving a reward, you’d find that all activity of this particular neurotransmitter would come to a grinding halt as soon as that first taste of reward was experienced.

So, contrary to what is highlighted by most of the article you might have come across, research shows that the signaling of dopamine neither diminishes, nor disappears, even when a reward is not attained. Rather, it was found that equal amounts of dopamine are released in an area of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens, both when a player loses a bet, as well as when they win! Thus, you’ll find particular activities like gambling — where reward attainment is significantly more unpredictable — have a tremendously more dramatic effect on your dopamine receptors.

With that said, I’m not going to recommend you turn to gambling as a way of hacking some extra dopamine. Instead, try and one of the following activities (2):

  1. Completing a task or achieving a goal
  2. Viewing or creating a piece of art
  3. Having a snack
  4. Engaging in acts of ‘self-care’
  5. Having an orgasm

Serotonin

This neurotransmitter is implicated in the mediation of happiness, optimism, and general satisfaction — it’s also the chemical thought to be responsible for depression when produced inadequately within the body (with around 90% of this production actually taking place within the human digestive tract, aka the gut (3).

Check out my article, “6 Foods That Might Be Negatively Affecting Your Maximum Happiness,” for more information on the role that food plays in supporting our mental health.

Serotonin also enhances the production of lovely dopamine featured above, and simultaneously inhibits the production of cortisol — a hormone that’s released from the adrenal glands and is primary associated with increased levels of stress, neuroticism, and depression (4).

By hampering the release of cortisol within the body, serotonin stabilizes the nervous system and allows for higher order thinking skills such as objectivity and rationality in decision-making to take place.

So, if you’re feeling a little too overwhelmed, or overstimulated by your current environment, give some of the following activities a go and observe how your happiness and peacefulness increase as a result:

6. Meditating

7. Getting some sun

8. Spending time in nature

9. Going for a run/bike/swim

10. Eating plant-foods high in tryptophan

11. Visualizing a happy memory

Oxytocin

This powerful peptide hormone and happiness neurotransmitter is all about the love. Responsible for the warm and fuzzy feeling we primarily associate with romantic satisfaction and physical touch, oxytocin is also linked to a range of social, behavioural, and physiological effects such as empathy, bonding between a mother and child, and the establishment of trust (5).

Evolutionarily speaking, we humans have an intrinsic need for security within our interpersonal relationships, as well as the acceptance and affection of our in-group. For this reason, oxytocin plays a large role in determining our overall happiness, as it facilitates our social interactions and largely encourages companionship (6).

Oxytocin is also the chemical compound found in MDMA — which explains why people report feeling more or less in love with everything in their general vicinity.

Aside from self-dosing with ecstasy, however, it’s possible to boost your levels of oxytocin in a variety of different (and more recommended) ways. Consider the following:

12. Petting an animal

13. Interacting with a child

14. Holding someone’s hand

15. Giving a 30-second hug

16. Complimenting someone

17. Listening to music

Endorphins

Technically speaking, endorphins are opioid peptides that act as neurotransmitters. But, unlike other neurotransmitters, they’re produced by central nervous system, and have the primary function within the body to relieve and eliminate pain. In fact, endorphins are actually comparable to morphine in both their structure and the site where they bind to receptors within the brain — making them an endogenous (aka “of natural internal origin”) form of the very same drug (7).

Research shows that exercising, take even something as straightforward as 30 minutes of walking per day, is enough to significantly increase levels of endorphins and reap the benefits of a stronger, better, and more confident mood (8).

In addition to both aerobic and anaerobic forms of exercise, endorphins tend to kick in when a heightening of emotions is at play. This can include moments of intense fear, to fits of laughter, and even a few types of indulgence.

If you’re looking to boost this pain-relieving happiness chemical, then look no further than trying some of the following:

18. Watch something funny (or thrilling)

19. Using essential oils/soaking with Epsom salts

20. Eating some dark chocolate

21. Exercising

Alexandra Walker-Jones — June 2021

Text References:

  1. Dfarhud, D., Malmir, M., & Khanahmadi, M. (2014). Happiness & Health: The Biological Factors- Systematic Review Article. Iranian journal of public health, 43(11), 1468–1477.
  2. Girija Kaimal, Hasan Ayaz, Joanna Herres, Rebekka Dieterich-Hartwell, Bindal Makwana, Donna H. Kaiser, Jennifer A. Nasser. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: Coloring, doodling, and free drawing. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 2017; 55: 85
  3. Evrensel, A., & Ceylan, M. E. (2015). The Gut-Brain Axis: The Missing Link in Depression. Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 13(3), 239–244.
  4. Mitchell RL, Phillips LH. The psychological, neurochemical and functional neuroanatomical mediators of the effects of positive and negative mood on executive functions. Neuropsychologia. 2007 Mar 2;45(4):617–29.
  5. Carter CS. Neuroendocrine perspectives on social attachment and love. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 1998 Nov;23(8):779–818.
  6. Diener E, Seligman ME. Very happy people. Psychol Sci. 2002 Jan;13(1):81–4.
  7. Dfarhud, D., Malmir, M., & Khanahmadi, M. (2014). Happiness & Health: The Biological Factors- Systematic Review Article. Iranian journal of public health, 43(11), 1468–1477.
  8. Rokade PB (2011), Release of Endomorphin Hormone and Its Effects on Our Body and Moods: A Review International Conference on Chemical, Biological and Environment Sciences (ICCEBS)Bangkok.