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 DOS.

I'm going to walk you through how to dose your brain with happiness hormones.

DOS 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.

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