320-Want More Dopamine The Happiness Hormone?

What would happen, scientifically, if someone smiled at you?  Find out in today’s episode.  

 

Transcript:

 

Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in 2-ish minutes a day,  through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life. 

 

I'm your host Katie Jefcoat and let's talk about Dopamine - not only does it make us happier, but it turns on the learning centers of our brains, which magnifies our success and productivity. 

 

There is science around how a smile is contagious.  If you do a brain scan when you are smiling, small activations in your brain will show that you are smiling.  But if you stop smiling and the machine keeps scanning, but now, you are flashed a picture of someone smiling, all the little parts of your brain called mirror neurons will start to activate.  But you're not smiling.  But before your brain can register that you are not smiling and you are just looking at a photo of someone smiling, your brain drops a chemical called dopamine into your system that raises your level of happiness and your face moves into a smile before you can stop yourself.     

 

Your mirror neurons are always at work.  You notice this when someone in a room yawns and all of a sudden you feel fatigued and feel a yawn coming on.  Or one person coughs and pretty soon you hear all these coughs throughout a room.  

 

Not only do smiles spread, but feelings of stress, anxiousness, apprehensiveness, and nervousness will also spread. What we are learning in the research is that we can pick up stress and negativity the same way we can pick up second hand smoke.  

 

What we know is that we are influencing people all the time. With these mirror neurons we can create a positive behavioral change and watch it ripple out into the world around us and into other people’s brains toward a positive mindset.    

 

This proves that a simple smile can give you a boost of dopamine and when shared, can give others the same boost.   

 

Inspired by:  Shawn Achor on the Super Soul Podcast. 

 

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