Our hormones can regulate our mood and change our emotions, so it would be great to know how we can use this knowledge to our advantage. Here are a few ways that you can use your hormones to optimize your mood. To learn more, read this blog post!
Set goals
The hormone dopamine, which promotes positive and motivating feelings, is linked with the reward system in our brains. When we achieve something that we have been working towards, the great feelings of success are most often caused by a rush of dopamine. Therefore, if you want to get yourself in a good mood, set yourself regular goals and work towards achieving them. Once you start, dopamine will promote lots of positive emotions and motivate you to reach more of your goals.
Be intimate with a loved one
Oxytocin is a hormone that promotes feelings of love and bonding, and it can be increased in the body through intimacy with another person. Any form of close contact with another person can boost your oxytocin levels, such as having sex, hugging, kissing or cuddling. These boosts of oxytocin will help you get into a happy mood. Oxytocin is also released during childbirth and while breastfeeding to promote intimacy between mother and baby.
Do activities you enjoy
Serotonin is released to make us feel happy, therefore when we are doing things that we enjoy and are not stressed or worried about anything, our serotonin levels will increase. Whatever activity it is that makes you feel comfortable and that you enjoy, make sure to work it into your schedule regularly. This could be exercising, crafting, art or many other activities that have the potential to boost serotonin levels and your mood.
Mitigate stress
Our hormones are involved when we get stressed, as cortisol increases and stress can also decrease the levels of serotonin in the body. Therefore, to control our hormones and improve our mood, it is very important to manage stress in a healthy way. Try different stress-reducing activities that work for you, such as meditation, yoga or taking a bath. Some of these activities will also actively increase other hormones, such as dopamine and serotonin, that will help put you in a great mood.
Be kind
Carrying out acts of kindness trigger the release of endorphins into the body, promoting feelings of pleasure. Therefore, not only does being kind to others brighten their day, it can also put you in a great mood because of the reaction of our hormones.
Indulge
Eating healthy and looking after our bodies from the inside out is so important, and living with a healthy diet is key to our wellness. Sometimes we need to indulge in the things we enjoy, and this can help to improve our mood and promote positive feelings. Eating dark chocolate is known to produce endorphins that will trigger feelings of happiness, and red wine also does the same thing. So every now and then, if you need something to get yourself in a good mood, have some dark chocolate or a glass of red wine.
Hormone University was created as an educational platform with the mission to improve hormone health through accessible knowledge and to advocate for social impact in our communities.
You’re not alone.
80% of the adult female population has experienced hormonal imbalance at one point in their life that affected not only their physical health but also their mental health. Coping with pain, infertility, anxiety, depression, body image issues, and, on top of this, judgment is the heavy load most of these women have to bear each day and an important problem we need to tackle as a society.
