Table of contents
1. Where and how do happiness and well-being arise?
For many people, the state of happiness means the subjective feeling that is brought about by personal actions such as success or top performance.
Being happy does indeed depend on how you shape your life and how successful it is for you. What many people don't realize, however, is that being happy is also a chemical process in your brain .
Strictly speaking, there are four key neurotransmitters /neurochemicals that produce the feeling of happiness in the brain. Biochemically, three neurotransmitters in particular are involved: dopamine , serotonin , and oxytocin .
These three neurotransmitters are joined by a cocktail of your own brain opioids: endorphins . Together, they create a state of happiness and ensure that you feel content and simply well.
The length and quality of this happiness depends on what triggers the positive feelings . Sex or material rewards, such as money, activate your reward system, specifically the nucleus accumbens.
An area of your brain that responds primarily to the neurotransmitter dopamine. However, the happiness generated by dopamine is only temporary and must be renewed again and again.
Other forms of reward, such as social interaction in the form of a deep friendship or recognition at work, activate a longer-term state of happiness .
They activate areas in the cerebral cortex that are primarily responsible for processing positive experiences.
Success makes you feel good , and you also need a good sense of well-being as a basis for your performance.
An unbalanced diet can result in your body not receiving all the necessary substances to produce serotonin.
Therefore, if you are feeling down due to a serotonin deficiency , it is important to compensate for this with a balanced diet.
Alternatively , natural mood enhancers can help. These are remedies and hacks that are based on purely plant-based substances and provide you with the necessary vitamins and micronutrients.
You can also increase your serotonin levels with the right routines . For example, in order for your brain to produce the important feel-good hormone serotonin, it needs certain substances, such as L-tryptophan .
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At least as important for the production of serotonin is vitamin D , the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is produced on your skin when exposed to sunlight and is essential for your well-being.
If there is no sun in winter, less of the natural mood enhancer is produced and this reduces our well-being - the result can be the winter blues .
A study from Harvard Medical School examined this issue in depth. The study found that impaired well-being and mood swings are often due to vitamin D deficiency .
Especially when the hours of sunshine decrease, vitamin D supplementation is advisable, especially because vitamin D is found in very few foods. However, vitamin D can also be absorbed through food, especially oily fish.
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3. Stress vs. well-being? For many, the mere mention of the word "stress" makes the hairs on the back of their necks stand up, because stress is generally considered a bad thing that should be avoided.
But that's only half the truth. Stress can actually have a positive effect on you and your well-being. To understand this, you first need to know that there are different types of stress .
1. Eustress and Distress
When you find yourself in a stressful situation, such as an upcoming exam, your body goes into a state of emergency. The stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released, your heart rate increases, and your breathing accelerates.
This feels uncomfortable for many, but in reality, your body is just preparing you for the task ahead. Once the exam is finally over, your body calms down and the stress disappears. This type of stress is called "eustress," and it actually represents a positive kind of stress.
The hormones cortisol and adrenaline temporarily make you more efficient in this situation and mobilize all your strength to solve your task as best as possible.
The opposite of eustress is "distress." This is negative stress that should actually be avoided. The difference from eustress lies in the time involved.
If you are constantly exposed to stress, your body constantly releases the stress hormone cortisol, which not only significantly limits your well-being but often also has health consequences.
2. Oxidative stress
A third type of stress is oxidative stress . Oxidative stress means that your body is exposed to high levels of harmful substances from the environment, namely so-called free radicals.
These free radicals destroy your body from within, cause you to age faster, and lead to memory loss. This sounds quite dangerous at first, but it's quite easy to get under control.
The key word here is antioxidants. Antioxidants , or antioxidants, are essentially a natural protective shield for your cells because they have the ability to scavenge free radicals.
Antioxidants occur naturally in food – for example, vitamin C and vitamin E.
4. Gut Feeling - Your Gut, Your "Second Brain." Do you make decisions based on your gut instinct, do you listen to your gut feeling, or does something really upset your stomach? These sayings aren't without reason.
In fact, your gut has a significant influence on your mood and well-being. The gut and brain are closely connected via the so-called gut-brain axis .
Communication between the gut and the brain occurs in both directions via nerve connections in the spinal cord, hormones and the vagus nerve.
The latter holds a special position, as it has been recognized that the vagus nerve also acts as a direct connection between the microorganisms in the gut and the central nervous system. This has led to the recent emergence of the term "microbiome-gut-brain axis."
