With all the strife in the world, it can be difficult to find your slice of happiness.

I don't have the ability to fix the world's issues, but I can give you a few ideas of how to hack your brain to increase the amount of joy in your life.

The great thing is, you don't have to worry

about the impending recession that everyone keeps threatening because most of

these things don't require any money. Today we're going to discuss four

neurotransmitters that are related to a good time and how to hack them. Welcome

back to savvy psychologist. I'm your host,

Dr. Monica Johnson. Every week on this show, I'll help you face life challenges with evidence-based

approaches, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Y'all know I love a good acronym, and today's is dose. I'm going to walk you through how to dose your

brain with happiness hormones. Dose stands for dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.

The first neurotransmitter that we're going to talk about is dopamine, which is affectionately

referred to as the reward chemical. It's called this because it's tied to your reward system.

You know that heck yeah, power fist feeling you get when you accomplish something?

That's dopamine for you. Dopamine enables

motivation, learning, memory, and pleasure. Whenever you achieve something, dopamine is there to pat

you on the back and give you a cookie for your successes. You do want to be careful with dopamine though, because unfortunately,

like most things in life, you can have too much of a good thing. It's okay to be a cookie lover,

but we don't want to go full cookie monster. While dopamine is great, it's a fleeting emotion, and it's important to keep it in context,

otherwise it can lead to bad habits.

When we are overly reward-seeking, we engage in a lot of activities that lead to instant gratification.

I tell my patients all the time that instant gratification rarely leads to long-term satisfaction.

Dopamine has its place when you need a little boost though, but use it in moderation.

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