Oxytocin the happiness hormone

Oxytocin the happiness hormone image of a dog staring into your eyes, get oxytocin through eye contact with animals

This week’s thrive in five is about Oxytocin the happiness hormone and ways you can get more of it

I want to pick up and elaborate a little bit on a point I made in last week’s post about blue Monday. It was about the idea of staring into a dog’s eyes to get oxytocin, the happiness, bonding and connecting hormone.

There are other ways that you can get more oxytocin.

Human contact

One way to get more oxytocin the happiness hormone into our system is through human contact. That can be through eye contact, but also through touch. For example, massage and also hugging. Now I know that we need to be careful who we go up and hug. You need to ask permission first! This advice is always to be dispensed in a socially appropriate way.

If somebody is willing to share a hug with you, studies have shown that even if that somebody is a stranger, if you hug for 20 seconds or longer, which is longer than feels comfortable, you will both get a big release of oxytocin.

So I think that’s really interesting. Now of course be careful who that person is, if you need a little bit of a pick me up, find a loved one and give them a long hug. Or seek out massage or some other form of appropriate contact, because that helps to dispense lots and lots of oxytocin the happiness, bonding and connecting hormone.

The power of a hug

A hug is a very, very powerful thing that makes us feel part of a tribe. And I think if you’re looking for that connection, if you’re looking for that human reassurance, it’s a great thing to pursue.

Now, there are other ways that you can get oxytocin. We have a dearth of content on our blog and podcast with ideas on ways to get more oxytocin so head over and have a read of a listen! Alternatively, run a Google and explore the many ways that you can get more bonding and connection into your life.

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