Doses of Self-Love and Happiness: 5 Daily Choices |
Attending regularly to our own happiness is a loving gift to ourselves. Life is not and cannot always be joyful, but having joy matters. Amid complex, demanding, stressful lives, we can find ways to seek out some moments of pleasure.
Happiness doesn’t mean always getting what we want; in fact, struggle and effort towards a goal can sometimes result in some of the best kinds of positivity surges. And delight can sometimes happen to us at unexpected times, such as getting a raise or finding a $20 bill in a coat pocket. But taking charge of including happiness opportunities into our lives at regular intervals is key.
I am highlighting the DOSES acronym to inspire five daily choices that can improve mood now and into the future. I will be using and modifying the DOSE framework introduced by neuroscientist T.J. Power in his book, The DOSE Effect: Small Habits to Boost Your Brain Chemistry (2025). He used the acronym to reference the four major chemicals in our brains that influence our happiness: Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. I will underscore the importance of releasing those neurochemicals, adding alliterations to help remember the primary categories, as well as adding a fifth category to the acronym. (For more ideas and details about the DOSE effect, see TJ Power’s book.)
Dosing with daily loving happiness strategies affects our hearts, literally and figuratively. Taking care of our neurochemicals is taking care of our nervous, immune, and internal organ systems. This, in turn, affects our mindset and mood, improving resilience and overall well-being.
Doing something that involves an accomplishment, task completion, or a creative outlet increases dopamine. By making sure we add some achievement or purposefulness in our lives, we allow dopamine, the reward chemical, to flow more freely in our bodies. Accomplishment in our days gives us focus. This engages........