Meet Joy: Finding Happiness in Everyday Moments

By Timm Jahred De Jesus

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter in the monoamine category. This is made in a human’s brain and can also be made in the adrenal gland on the top of each human’s kidney. This also acts as a hormone and is one of the central catecholamines (a group of hormones that serves as neurotransmitters and hormones that are vital throughout the autonomic nervous system). 

Neurotransmitters are a human’s chemical messengers. These neurotransmitters carry the messages of the body’s reaction from one nerve cell across another, muscle, or gland cell. These messages contain information on how the body or mind should react to these situations. These messages can be: create movement with our limbs, feel sensations, create a pump flow for a human’s heart, etc. 

How does dopamine affect a person’s happiness?

Dopamine plays many crucial roles in a person’s body, such as happiness. Dopamine is known for being the “happy” hormone, for this gives a human a sense of pleasure and motivation to the actions that you do when you feel, well, pleasure. 

Dopamine is meant to be the reward system of the body. When people exchange something for their will’s happiness, dopamine acts as a revolutionary milestone for them. When your body senses something pleasurable, your brain will give out the message to release a large amount of dopamine to your body. 

How can I improve my dopamine release levels?

There are medical drugs to compensate for the low dopamine levels in your body. Still, there is also a natural way for a person to earn this: a natural diet comprising a diet of high magnesium and tyrosine-rich foods. These foods are the foundation blocks for the production of dopamine.