Dopamine Factory

Our anger has fizzled. A new chemical takes over. Dopamine (doh-pah-meen) is the main one. There are others, but dopamine is the happy chemical.

It’s the one that makes you smile. By the way, it takes fewer muscles to smile than frown.

How do you make dopamine? Well, smiling at someone helps. A return smile helps even more. Here are some others:

• Giving or getting a hug

• Playing a game with a friend

• Having friends

• Making friends

• Sharing

• Giving

• Helping

• Caring

Of those eight things, guess which ones don’t involve other people. If you said ‘none of them,’ you’re correct. As well as being a happy brain chemical, dopamine works well with others. A happy talk with your bestie gives you a shot of dopamine.

Caring for others, like your little brother when he’s sick, gives you another shot. We humans get lots of dopamine from being around each other. It’s what we do.

We’re little dopamine factories caring and sharing our way to happiness.