The Power of love

There are many benefits of being in love. The feeling of loneliness stimulates anxiety. Your cortisol and adrenaline levels rise when you feel insecure or threatened. A lot of people think that the feeling “love” is generated by your heart but that is furthest from the truth. It is actually your brain that releases feel-good chemicals called dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, and oxytocin. These chemicals act as a mood intensifier so people feel more positive and motivated. Hence the expression of feeling on cloud nine when you are in love.

Being in a healthy relationship can reduce anxiety and there are fewer cases of depression. People that are in love feel more motivated to take care of themselves and seem to manage stress better.

There are several benefits to being in a happy relationship such as quitting smoking, eating healthier and staying fit. People that are happy tend to eat less and not eat out of boredom and depression.

There are four chemicals of happiness that are released from your brain. Endorphins are one that can be produced from exercising, laughing, having sex, listening to music, meditation, eating chocolate or hot peppers and drinking alcohol. There are numerous methods that release this natural pain killer and it depends on your goal and/or will power to choose the healthiest way. For example, you can sit around and eat an abundance of chocolate and drink a bottle of wine, which might make you feel good at the moment but would certainly cause damaging effects down the road.

Dopamine is released in several different ways, unfortunately, a lot of dangerous, addictive habits cause this release as well. Make sure you are getting your dopamine from habits that benefit you and not harm you. Some of the more positive ways for this chemical to be released is by eating bananas, almonds, and apples, fat loss, listening to music, hugging, being well rested, dancing, taking a cold shower, being intimate. Some of the more negative ways are gambling, drinking alcohol, numerous illegal drugs and nicotine. It’s easy to see how people become addicted when this is a feel-good chemical. You feel good at the time the chemical is released but need to continue the habit to maintain the feeling.

Serotonin helps you maintain a positive mood but can be one of the trickiest to maintain. Lower levels of serotonin are linked to depression. The majority of anti-depressants are serotonin boosting but has an adverse side effect. You can boost your serotonin level by eating food with ginger in the recipes or eating dark chocolate (in moderation), drinking green tea, or eating yogurt, and cold water fish. However, if you drink alcohol, caffeine or intake anything with aspartame it will reduce your level of serotonin.

Oxytocin is known as the chemical of love. The highest levels are produced while having sex, childbirth and being in love. There are other ways to obtain this chemical as in touch, exercise, meditating, music, massage, being around a loved pet or giving to someone. You need to be careful with this chemical because smoking and stress eating also releases a high amount of oxytocin and can easily replace the healthier chosses.

While balanced and your best judgments used, means for producing these chemicals can determine your happiness as well as helping you live a healthy lifestyle. While trying to obtain these feel-good chemicals if unbalanced, many of these means can become very destructive and damaging.

In short, choosing to eat right, drinking lots of water, participating in an exercise of your choice, being compassionate to others, meditation of sort, caring for your body, being intimate in numerous different ways, be positive, laugh, love and be loved, you will glow with the help up these mood-altering natural chemicals.