Week 1: Finding Happiness

While happiness is a state, pleasure is a behavioral response, and can even become addictive.  The addictive qualities of pleasure are rooted in the brain's reward system, primarily involving the neurotransmitter dopamine. When we engage in activities that are pleasurable, such as eating, socializing, or using substances, dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens, a key area of the brain's reward circuit. This release creates a sense of euphoria and reinforces the behavior, making us want to repeat it. Over time, the brain can become conditioned to seek out these pleasurable experiences, leading to increased cravings and potentially addictive behaviors. This cycle is driven by the brain's desire to maintain high dopamine levels, which can override the natural regulation of pleasure and lead to compulsive actions, often at the expense of overall well-being and happiness.

Happiness, unlike pleasure, is generally not associated with addictive qualities. This is because happiness is a more stable and sustained state of well-being, supported by a balance of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and oxytocin, rather than the intense and immediate release of dopamine that characterizes pleasure. Activities that promote happiness, like building meaningful relationships, engaging in fulfilling work, or practicing mindfulness, contribute to long-term life satisfaction and emotional stability. These activities do not create the same compulsive drive as those that trigger the brain's reward system through dopamine release. Thus, while one can develop healthy habits that foster happiness, these habits do not typically lead to the same addictive patterns as those driven by the pursuit of pleasure.

Profession: While you may have been riding high for much of your career, there is a definite drop off point where you begin to decline. Although some may elude this decline, most will inevitably experience it.  Although in the past, scientists thought that intelligence must decrease with age, more current research suggests otherwise.  (Myers, 2009)

A better explanation involved structural changes in the brain—specifically, the prefrontal cortex. (Brooks, 2022)  It is the last part of the brain to develop in childhood and the first to decline as adults.  In middle age, it degrades in effectiveness.  One of the implications of this decline is a decreasing ability to analyze situations quickly and creatively.  Another is that some skills which came easily in the past are now much harder to perform, such as multitasking.  This decline also affects our social skills, such as recalling names and facts. 

At any rate, the cognitive decline associated with aging has a direct impact on our occupation, and ultimately our happiness and satisfaction tied to this occupation. For those whose happiness is based on their occupation, this can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. And at some point, we realize that past achievements and success are not an insurance policy for a happy life in the future. In fact, research suggests that those who were most powerful and achieved the most during their working years tended to be unhappier after retirement than those who did not. (Gruszczyńska, 2019)

But this does not have to be the case.  Remembering that even as your ability to remember abstract problems declines with age, your knowledge about the world has increased steadily.  Wisdom provides an opportunity to understand what we have learned in life and how to use it.  

Self-image: Also related to happiness is your self-image.  People are often identified by characteristics like physical beauty, money or power.  We may be addicted to this vision of ourselves, which may be slowly slipping away.  But we may be too attached to our persona to make the necessary changes.  We continue to push ourselves in the same direction as when we were younger, with disappointing results.

The term self-objectification refers to when we identify ourselves with a quality, and then place high value on that quality.  Whether it be beauty, success or money, this can lower self-worth and life satisfaction.  And in today’s world, it can be made worse by social media.

One of the problems of self-objectification is pride.  Work, success and beauty are all tied to pride.  Fear is also associated with pride.  Fear of losing beauty, failing in your relationships, even of being “normal”.  This fear will actually increase performance anxiety in some (they would be more afraid of the possibility of failing to believe that they could win).

Accumulation of possessions:  In the Western world, we are valued by what we have.  We strive for nice cars, a beautiful home, stylish clothing and lots of toys.  We save trophies and keep remnants of our successes.  But as we age, these things are no longer representing us.  Eastern philosophy suggests that we strip away things to find our true selves instead of hanging onto things that define our past.  Possessions tend to tie us down, crowd our lives and leave us wanting more.

We all think that we want more possessions.  And for many, we regard this as a requisite for satisfaction in life.  The key to managing your possessions is identifying what you need to achieve satisfaction.   This is vastly different that identifying what you want. You may want a new TV, a new pair of shoes, or a new cooking tool.  You make that purchase, and yet you find it does not satisfy you.  It turns out that you are addicted to acquiring possessions.  

Your brain does not appreciate this, and will try to neutralize the feeling, making it more difficult to get the same enjoyment in future shopping trips.  You will continue to accumulate possessions but will increasingly find that you are not satisfied with what you have done.  This process in the brain is known as homeostasis (Brooks, 2022), and is clearly seen in addiction.  While your first drink of alcohol may have given you a strong buzz, an alcoholic will only feel a small bump with the same drink.  And you will find that it is only when you are drinking alcohol that you feel normal.  

The carrot in all of these is our natural reward system, which uses neurotransmitters such as dopamine to provide a happiness spark.  Dopamine is a feel good naturally occurring neurotransmitter, and it is associated with the reward system.  Any of these things that we think will make us happy will use the same reward system with the same neurotransmitter release.  However, we will see that there are more ways to achieve happiness, particularly when the happiness is within.  Read on…

Would it surprise you to learn that our joys and sorrows are based on the assembly of nerve cells and neurons?  In fact, it is these nerve cells that influence our memories, ambitions, and sense of personal identities.

This theory was initially voiced by Francis Crick (DNA pioneer) but supported by a discovery in the 1960s of a reward system in the brain associated with pleasure.  In the center of the systems the nucleus accumbens, responsible for happiness, laughter, and euphoria. 

The nucleus accumbens receives the “fuel” for pleasurable sensation from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which responds to pleasurable sensation signals from the cerebral cortex.  The VTA floods the nucleus accumbens and other brain regions with dopamine, a hormone associated with pleasure.

Other regions of the brain suggest a location for the basis of happiness.  During reward, for example, the prefrontal cortex activates which focuses our attention and conditions us to repeat the task.

Getting out into sunlight:  A 2008 research study found that sunlight can increase production of both serotonin and endorphins.

Exercise: There is no shortage of research supporting exercise and mental health.  An example is the “runner’s high”, which is the link between exercise and endorphin release.  Exercise can also increase dopamine and serotonin levels.  Add to your happy hormones by exercising with a group, moving outdoors, and going at least 30 minutes.  

Laughter:  Laughter releases feelings of anxiety and stress and can improve mood by releasing dopamine and endorphins.  Two unique studies demonstrated that social laughter triggered endorphin release.  If you laugh with a loved one, you might even trigger some oxytocin!

Cooking and eating:  Cooking and eating with a friend can release dopamine and endorphins.  And, with a loved one, an increase in oxytocin as well. Some foods may also trigger some happy hormones, such as spicy foods (endorphins), yoghurt, beans, eggs, low fat meats and almonds (dopamine) and foods containing tryptophan (serotonin). 

Supplements:  Some supplements may also increase your happiness levels if you cannot get them in food.  They include tyrosine (dopamine), green tea (dopamine and serotonin), probiotics (serotonin and dopamine) and tryptophan (serotonin).  However, some supplements may interact with medications, so make sure and consult your doctor before adding supplements to your diet.

Music:  Instrumental music, such as those that give you chills, can increase dopamine, while just listening can put you in a good mood, increasing serotonin production.  Musicians may release endorphins when creating and performing music, dancing, singing or drumming.  

Meditation:  There has been evidence that meditation can increase dopamine production during practice and can spur endorphin release.

Petting your pets:  It has been suggested in research that when petting and cuddling with your pet, you may increase oxytocin.

Sleep:  Quality sleep can restore the balance of hormones in the body which will make you feel better.

Manage stress:  Living with stress can cause drops in dopamine and serotonin.  Try techniques mentioned above to decrease stress and boost your levels of serotonin, dopamine and more.

Massage:  Massage has been shown to boost all four of the happy hormones, serotonin, dopamine, endorphins and oxytocin.