Giving Back to Feel Good
When you give of yourself through service to others, generosity of spirit, and other positive actions, you positively impact the lives of those around you. Altruism also affects brain chemistry in ways that lead to your own increased feelings of happiness and well-being.
Giving back increases the feel-good chemicals that help you feel good about yourself. Helping others and caring for animals both increase serotonin and GABA in your brain. In other words, they make you feel better about yourself. Done regularly, they can reduce depression, help manage stress, and decrease anxiety not to mention increase resiliency and feelings of connection.
Altruism and Brain Chemistry
Altruism (i.e., helping others) increases dopamine, a feel-good hormone associated with pleasure and reward, and oxytocin, sometimes called the love hormone because of its involvement in feelings of connection and trust. These changes in your brain chemistry are associated with higher serotonin levels. So, when you’re helping others, you use your brain’s natural reward system to create positive feelings.
In addition, studies show that helping others activates the same regions of the brain involved in the pleasurable things – eating chocolate or having sex, for example – we do for ourselves. This is because helping others taps into the same dopamine reward system responsible for our sense of satisfaction and well-being.
In addition to increasing serotonin, altruism also decreases cortisol, the main stress hormone, and increases GABA, the neurotransmitter associated with feelings of serenity and calm. A decrease in cortisol and an increase in GABA means people who help others not only better manage stress but also feel more peaceful overall. Interestingly, when researchers gave GABA to people who don’t naturally have a high amount of it, the recipients also become more altruistic.
Doing things that help reduce stress and improve your mood, such as volunteering or donating, changes the chemical structure of your brain. As a result, you become more resilient and capable of dealing with future stress.
Giving to Feel Good
Studies show that people who volunteer or donate have reduced levels of cortisol and higher levels of GABA, serotonin, and dopamine than people who don’t give. Giving to others can also increase oxytocin, making you feel more connected to others, reducing anxiety and depression, and helping you to feel more satisfied and happier overall. Giving to feel good can come in many forms, from adopting or rescuing a pet to connecting with your community.
Pet owners have increased levels of serotonin along with decreased levels of cortisol. The more you care for your pet, the more serotonin you’re likely to have in your brain. Taking care of animals can also increase dopamine, making you feel happy and satisfied, as well as oxytocin, which makes you feel more connected to others and is associated with reduced anxiety and depression.
Connecting with your community also affects your brain chemistry in much the same way. There are many ways to connect with others and doing so looks different for everyone. Some ideas include:
Volunteering at a soup kitchen
Tutoring kids
Babysitting for a neighbor
Cleaning up an abandoned lot
Picking up trash on the sidewalk
Donating to a local charity is another way to give back, especially if you don't have a lot of free time for in-person acts. All these acts of kindness that benefit others also help increase your GABA and reduce cortisol.
Giving to others is a great way to increase all the feel-good chemicals – serotonin, GABA, dopamine, and oxytocin – in your brain while also reducing cortisol to lessen feelings of stress. If you want to increase your feel-good chemicals, try giving of yourself to others.
