Four happiness hormones

A Yogi and a young doctor had an interesting conversation.

The doctor said to the Yogi, “Sir, you are telling that yoga and meditation results into happiness. I have done my research and found that happiness levels in humans are controlled by the hormones.”

“Interesting, please tell me more about these hormones”, replied the Yogi.

“There are four hormones that control the level of human happiness, namely endorphins, oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. We should keep the level of these four hormones healthy in order to be happy all the time. The first one, endorphins is released in the body when we exercise. This hormone helps the body to cope with the pain that is associated with different body moments and stretching. It is also found that laughter also generates endorphins.”

The Yogi listened with interest and added, “Now I realize the significance of doing yoga asanas and laughter pranayama (hasya pranayama) in the morning. By doing yoga exercise, not only my body feels relaxed and healthy, but my mind also becomes happy due to release of these hormones.”

The doctor continues, “The second one called oxytocin is released in the body when we come closer to other humans – husband wife or mother child or friends. It is a common experience when we hug our children or fiends, our mind feels relaxed due to the release of oxytocin hormones.”

Yogi nodded his head in agreement and replied, “Absolutely – I really feel relieved when I meet my parents, my old friends and little children – when I give them a strong hug. The love within all of us manifests in the form of happiness. Love is our original quality and when it manifests as a strong emotion while giving an hug, we become happy. Many saints give a strong hug to everyone to dissipate that happiness.”

“Another hormone is dopamine, that’s related to the positive thoughts – thoughts of accomplishment, thoughts of satisfaction and thoughts of being appreciated. When we accomplish a goal, we feel elated. When we go for shopping and buy new things, we feel good. When someone else appreciates us, we feel delighted. This is all because of the release of dopamine in the body,” the doctor continued.

“That’s interesting,” nodded the Yogi.

“One more important hormones is serotonin, that’s released in our body when we help others selflessly. When we help others, we feel good about it because this hormone generates happiness.”

“Benefit of others is of supreme importance in our culture. Karma Yoga – the yoga of action is mostly about performing selfless actions for the benefit of others. When we help others selflessly, the God within us gives us the encouragement and satisfaction.”

There was a silence for a moment and the Yogi continued, “Doctor Sahab, that is great information. Let’s go a step further and discuss how can these four types of actions that generates these hormones become part of our day to day life.  When we perform yoga and meditation, we align our thoughts and emotions with the fundamental energy. We streamline our pancha-kosha.

A strong spiritual base, a clear understanding of our inner world makes it easier for us to

treat this body as a gift of God and perform exercises. It makes it easier for us to feel accomplished all the time, to feel blessed all the time and to give blessings to others constantly. The heart of a spiritual being is always filled with love for others and is always looking for ways to help others. Spirituality helps in the generation of these hormones easily which is very difficult for a mind that is immersed in the worldly pleasures. Understanding the importance of these hormones helps. But to practically maintain the balance of these hormones, one should perform deep inner analysis, perform yoga asanas and pranayama, establish the mind in anandmay kosha while performing meditation. All of these actions will balance these hormones on its own and the being will be delightful, peaceful and blissful all the time.”

A true seeker always generates positive energy and positive thoughts. He is always satisfied, peaceful, appreciative of others, filled with love for others, hugs children and other beings, perform exercise ever day and keep on helping others selflessly, and thereby maintaining a good balance of all these hormones.