Supercharge Your Brain with Happiness Neurochemicals

Hello friends. Today, we’re going to delve into how you can supercharge your brain with happiness neurochemicals.

So I want you to consider this: when you are feeling better physically and mentally, you sleep better, you’re brighter and alive, you perform better at work, and you are more emotionally available for your family and friends.

The things I just described are the pathway to thriving — and I mean really living, not just surviving.

And let’s face it, there’s a lot going on in the world today that’s causing many people to experience unhealthy levels of anxiety and stress. Too much stress and too much anxiety are not good for your health. And I can speak from personal experience. Unhealthy levels of stress, lack of sleep, and not getting in self-care were the triggers for my early-stage diabetes to kick in.

Impacts of Stress

Stress can really, really trigger a lot of health issues that we just shouldn't ignore:

• Anxiety disorders – chronic stress keeps the amygdala on overdrive.
• Depression – prolonged cortisol can deplete serotonin and dopamine. 
• Cognitive decline / memory problems – stress damages the hippocampus, impacting learning and recall.
• Sleep disorders/insomnia – overactive stress hormones disrupt the circadian rhythm.

And there are more health-related issues beyond the aforementioned issues.

Heart & Circulatory System

• High blood pressure (hypertension) – constant adrenaline and cortisol constrict blood vessels.
• Heart disease – stress is linked to higher risk of heart attack and stroke. 
  
• Arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) – stress hormones can destabilize electrical signaling in the heart.

And that’s just the short list. Stress also weakens your immune system, makes you more prone to illness, and fuels inflammation that worsens conditions like arthritis, asthma, and autoimmune flare-ups. Stress is no joke.

3 Small Actions that Spur Happiness Neurochemicals

I want to share three things you can do to supercharge your brain and actively work on wellness — small, doable shifts that move you toward thriving.

That’s right: you need to take your wellness into your own hands. And it doesn’t have to be a life overhaul.

You may already know the line-up of happiness chemicals I want to focus on: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins — your body’s built-in feel-good squad. When we are under stress, we need to reduce the stress chemicals and actively bring the happiness squad forward. And you can do this by focusing on the following concepts:

1. Reflection and Gratitude Spotting
2. Self-Care Check-In
3. The Wild Card Goal Reflection

You might be giving me an eye-roll at the moment because you have heard the praises of gratitude a lot, but I want you to stick with me — because these three small things can be the path to brighter moods, better sleep, and an overall healthier you.

But before we dig in, I want to talk about my struggle with journaling and how I overcame it. I’m not a good journaler. And I bet a number of you aren’t either.

I used to think I had to sit down and write this soulful story about my day. Write love letters to myself. That’s just not me. 

Here’s the funny part: I LOVE journals. Sounds crazy, right? I can’t journal but I love journals. I keep them for lists, recording my workouts, jotting down ideas, and doodling while talking to people on the phone. Because yes, I actually like to talk to people and not just text.

So I stumbled across this process I call flow journaling and adapted it for people like me. I even published a couple of journals that teach you how to write down the good stuff and let go of the idea that you need to write a novel.

It’s simple: you use one notebook for everything — gratitude, goals, notes, workouts, lists — all in the same place. Which leads to the first thing I want you to do to supercharge your brain with happiness neurochemicals: learn to spot micro-moments that you are grateful for. 

Gratitude Spotting

This has been on my radar since 2020 when I took a class at Yale called The Science of Well-Being.

You train your brain to see the micro-moments in life and reflect on them — and this sparks dopamine and serotonin in your brain. These are your mood stabilizers and joy boosters.

Gratitude journaling has been shown to improve sleep, reduce stress, and strengthen recovery after trauma. These aren’t just words on a page — they’re daily resets for your body chemistry.

And here’s a cool fact: when you reflect on a positive experience, your brain doesn’t know the difference between remembering it and experiencing it in real time. It still releases those feel-good neurochemicals. Reflection is basically giving your brain a second dose of happiness.

These reflections don’t have to be monumental. It could be the help desk at work being super fast and saving your project. Or the fact that you have a job, a home, a comfy bed, and good food in your kitchen. There are all kinds of things to be grateful for.

Science shows that if you write down something you’re grateful for five times a week for 21 days, you start to rewire your brain toward wellness.

That’s why I’m kicking off a 21-day Energy Reset to rewire your brain for happiness and wellbeing. I’ll share more at the end of this blog.

Self-Care Check-In

Next up is your self-care check-in.

We all need to invest in self-care. And self-care isn’t cookie-cutter — it looks different for each of us. But I want you to really think about how you’re caring for yourself and write that down at least five times a week.

Maybe you need to drink more water. A lot of people don’t realize that proper hydration helps all your organs perform well. Your kidneys alone filter about 200 liters of fluid every day — hydration keeps that process clean and efficient.

Your brain is roughly 75% water. Mild dehydration — just 1–3% — impairs memory, focus, and mood, triggering irritability and brain fog. Dehydration can even spike cortisol, the stress hormone.

So hydration matters. But so does sleep, nutrition, movement, and connection. Maybe your self-care today looks like getting eight hours of sleep. Or reading a book. Taking a walk at lunch. Cooking a healthy meal. Adding more fish to your diet. Going to therapy. Or just connecting with friends.

The point is: you need to commit to and reflect on one thing you did for your body or mind each day. Even small acts like stretching, drinking water before coffee, or ignoring email for five minutes to breathe — these release endorphins, your natural mood-lifters. Daily micro-moves matter more than grand gestures.

Wild Card Goal Reflection

The third action is what I call the wild card goal reflection.

I want you to write down one sentence about a personal or professional goal each day for 21 days. And these goals can change as your days and weeks change.

For example, I just took a trip and was on tour buses multiple times. I ate sugar three times in 8 days — which is a lot for me. I only managed two days of focused exercise, and I’m usually a five-day-a-week gal. So my immediate goal was to get back into my healthy movement and nutrition patterns.

Once I hit that, my goal will shift.

Here is a professional goal I set — tackling the hardest things first thing in the morning when my work days start.

Reflecting on goals ties you back to your values and sense of purpose. That taps oxytocin — the chemical of connection and meaning.

When you do this consistently, you’re reshaping your brain to become more resilient.

The 21-Day Energy Reset

So here’s your 21-day experiment: grab any notebook — a two-dollar composition book, a fancy leather journal, or even one of mine at artbodyandsoul.com — and commit to writing these three prompts each day:

1. Gratitude spotting
2. Self-care check-in
3. Wild card goal reflection

At the end, check in with yourself. Notice your mood, your energy, your sleep, your overall vibe. That reflection is the reset your brain has been craving.

You don’t need fancy hacks to supercharge your brain with happiness neurochemicals. You just need to notice, jot, and flow. See what happens when you do.

As I promised, you can join me for the 21-Day Energy Reset to supercharge your brain. I’ll be starting it at the beginning of September and will make it an evergreen event you can jump into at any time. It’s totally free, and I’ll be hosting group sessions to connect and check in. If that’s something you’re interested in, please visit artbodyandsoul.com and sign up.

If you liked what you heard, please share this episode with a friend so we can spread more positivity in the world. And please consider subscribing.

I make it a personal goal to lift someone up each and every day — and I hope you will too. Take good care and be well.

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