Emotion Hacking – Use Science to Improve Mood

Today’s topic: EMOTIONS, and how to “hack” your own – so you can consistently feel really good. Warning – this is a potent skill, so it deserves a fairly detailed post. Feel free to jump around if you need.

*Disclaimer before we continue – I’m not a doctor or psychiatrist. Consult a therapist, psychiatrist, or other medical doctor if you suspect you even might have clinical depression, anxiety, or any other psychiatric issues, and before doing anything mentioned below. Consider this article informational in nature and do anything mentioned here at your own risk. None of this is medical advice*

HEADS UP: This post will NOT cover cognitive techniques such as CBT, DBT, focusing on gratitude, thinking positively, etc.

Instead, this post will focus simply on the chemicals that create your mood, and physiological interventions that will immediately and significantly adjust those chemicals with minimal effort. In other words, this post will cover anything that acts on your body like a drug to make you feel better, without the need to alter your thinking.

(As a rule of thumb, I generally start with these when trying to feel better.)

Fundamental Science:

Every one of your emotions is correlated to specific hormones and neurotransmitters in your brain. Specific interventions can cause your brain to produce more of these “good” hormones and neurotransmitters and make you feel significantly better.

Experiment:

Instead of viewing the world through the lens of “thoughts and feelings,” consider viewing the world through the lens of “hormones and neurotransmitters.” Use relevant interventions.

Key Players:

All of your good emotions basically come down to a few key hormones/neurotransmitters. They are as follows:

SEROTONIN: The overall good-mood neurotransmitter.

Serotonin feels like: a pleasant, relaxed, happy, easy-going, sunny day. It feels like “enough,” “content.”

Lack of serotonin feels like: a tense, irritable, depressed, anxious, stressed, grey, overcast day. “Tense, agitated, bleak.” It can also manifest as feeling “sad,” “emotional,” “emotionally volatile,” “teary,” and generally less emotionally resilient.

ENDORPHINS: The natural painkilling “exercise-high” neurotransmitter.

Endorphins feel like: euphoria, a “runner’s high,” a massage, sex, chocolate, a nice painkilling buffer against sadness or tears.

Lack of endorphins feels like: Tears, sadness, pain, easily emotional.

CATECHOLAMINES: Including Dopamine, Norepinephrine, and Epinephrine – the pleasure/ motivation neurotransmitters.

Catecholimes feel like: “WIN,” “YES,” “JACKPOT!!!”, drive, motivation, excitement, seeking more.

Lack of catecholimines feels like: Boredom, lack of drive, lack of sparkle or motivation.

GABA: “Gamma aminobutyric acid” – the calm neurotransmitter.

GABA feels like: absolute, deep, peaceful, relaxed, fearless, utter calm; safety.

Lack of GABA feels like: anxiety, fear, extremely tense, fight-or-flight, terror.

OXYTOCIN: the “love”/ “bonding” hormone.

Oxytocin feels like: Warm, meaningful connection, peaceful, calm, loving, cuddling a kitten.

Lack of oxytocin feels like: empty, lonely, meaningless, unsafe.

Keep in mind, there’s a lot of overlap here, since certain activities usually trigger multiple chemicals. For example, sex and chocolate raise your endorphins, but they also trigger dopamine as well. With this in mind, doing something to trigger even one of the above “happy chemicals” will usually end up triggering some of the others.

Interventions:

Using the list above, identify whatever you are most lacking – and then get more of that – for the most potent improvement. While good nutrition, hydration, and sleep will help with ALL of the following, there are certain things you can do to specifically elevate particular chemicals.

SEROTONIN:

Serotonin is excellent because – to my knowledge – it helps with just about any bad mood. (For example, raising serotonin is clinically helpful for anxiety, but also depression.) Because of this, we’ll take a little extra time to focus on it.

Serotonin is triggered by SUNSHINE and EXERCISE. Getting outside in the morning sun and getting some sort of exercise as frequently as possible – even if the exercise is not that intense – will trigger serotonin. (I believe that cardiovascular exercise is especially useful for serotonin boosting.) Ideally, you want to get some amount of daylight – NOT filtered through a window but through being outside – during early morning and around sunset, because it’s not only good for your mood but is excellent for your circadian rhythm.

(*Tip – if it’s overcast outside, it becomes even more critical to get daylight. Instead of, say, 3-5 minutes of outdoor light, aim for 10-20.)

Serotonin is ultimately derived from the amino acid tryptophan, so eating HIGH-PROTEIN, TRYPTOPHAN RICH FOODS (like turkey, chicken, and tuna) can be very helpful in raising tryptophan levels. If you’re ever feeling sad and you’re not sure why, consider (in addition to drinking some water), eating some protein – it may help significantly. For a more potent intervention, supplement directly on an empty stomach with L-TRYPTOPHAN, which converts into 5-HTP, which converts into serotonin. To increase the potency of L-Tryptophan, ingest it with some carbohydrates (like sugar, starches, bread – not protein). For an even more potent, direct approach, supplement directly with 5-HTP. (Do not combine with an antidepressant.) Tryptophan and 5-HTP are quite effective serotonin boosters.

Another effective intervention is using a SEROTONIN LAMP. I use this one. Weirdly enough…it actually does help. A bit. I didn’t expect it to work, but I tested it anyway. Sure enough, it does improve my mood, a moderate but noticeable amount.

Another intervention that boosts serotonin, which we will mention again in connection with other neurotransmitters, is PHYSICAL TOUCH. Getting a hug from someone you care about – or cuddling your pet – are, in fact, serotonergic (that is, they release serotonin).

In addition to DAYLIGHT, EXERCISE, TRYPTOPHAN, 5-HTP, and PHYSICAL TOUCH, one of the most powerful ways to raise serotonin (if you are clinically short in it) is through an SSRI – Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor. SSRIs are antidepressant medications that require a prescription. If you suspect you may benefit from an SSRI, please see a doctor or psychiatrist.

These are the most powerful serotonin boosting methods I know. If you still want other interventions, try this:

I hear that ST. JOHN’S WORT and CISSUS QUADRANGULARIS can also help boost serotonin levels — and can be easily bought without a prescription — though I would need to test them more before I could confidently recommend them. I’m currently unsure of the mechanisms behind St. John’s Wort and Cissus Quadrangularis, but I do believe there are articles in quality journals showing they have statistically significant, robust effects on serotonin levels. I’m not making any recommendations to try either of these, but if someone were to look into testing these, you’d want to to try one of the above at a time, and not combine it with an SSRI.

Okay, that was a lot on serotonin, moving on –

ENDORPHINS:

Endorphins are triggered by lots of things, but primarily EXERCISE, TEMPERATURE, and PHYSICAL CONTACT.

While easy or moderate exercise can trigger serotonin, it’s the more intense exercise that’s really good at triggering endorphins. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) – e.g., short bursts of sprints –  and resistance training are excellent for this.

*Play around with finding the “minimum effective dose” of exercise “pain” to trigger your body to release these natural “painkiller” hormones.*

In fact you may realize even a very short, fast sprint will give you a huge dose of endorphins. Or just a tiny bit of heavy weight-training work in the gym might do the trick. (Side note – when you start exercising purely for the emotional benefit, you’ll quickly get benignly addicted.)

One of the coolest emotion-hacking tips (no pun-intended) is that temperature can dramatically boost your endorphins. Particularly heat exposure. A hot shower, bath, hot tub, hot spring, or SAUNA can actually mimic exercise and work wonders for boosting endorphins (it’ll also release serotonin). This is another go-to method I use regularly.

Any type of massage can also help boost endorphins. Getting a loved one to massage you, getting a professional massage, or just using a massage gun on yourself can all release endorphins. So can sex.

Finally, though I suspect it won’t do as much as the above interventions, taking a few deep breaths (rhythmically and slowly) will raise your endorphin levels. While I would assume this may not be the most powerful method, it can be done at any time, which makes it pretty useful. Consider using this physiological sigh method (or double inhale, extended exhale), as explained by Andrew Huberman, to help relax.

CATECHOLAMINES:

This category of neurotransmitters, which lumps together dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, has to do with drive, excitement, anticipated pleasure, and seeking more.

These neurotransmitters are fascinating because they are associated with getting things done, accomplishment, and success – being “on it” – but also with addiction; continually wanting more of something (like TikTok) that triggers dopamine release.

After a very long time, I’ve finally found one supplement that is extraordinarily helpful with naturally boosting catecholamines in a healthy way:

TYROSINE.

Tyrosine, or L-Tyrosine, is an amino acid that is an essential component in the production of dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. I had very low expectations when experimenting with this supplement. However, to my surprise, tyrosine actually made quite a noticeable difference in my mood. (And seemed to somewhat reduce my need for coffee as well.)

To use tyrosine: Try TWO to THREE 500-mg capsules, ONCE to TWICE daily, morning and midday, so as not to interfere with sleep. Start with one capsule and add more as needed if you don’t notice anything after 10-30 minutes. Take before coffee, because you may not need much caffeine after. Stop taking as needed. *Again: I’m not a doctor, these are just ideas, consult your physician before changing anything.*

Also, BLACK COFFEE and tea can help trigger catecholamine release as well. Interestingly, regular ingestion of caffeine increases upregulation of certain dopamine receptors, making you more sensitive to anything with a dopaminergic effect.

Another very potent method to boost catecholamines is COLD EXPOSURE (Like a cold shower) – which is challenging in the moment, but continues to steadily increase dopamine for hours after the initial exposure. (Note: This technique is excellent for raising dopamine, but not good for lowering anxiety.)

PLAYING COMPETITIVE GAMES, solving interesting problems, and SETTING OR ACHIEVING ANY TYPE OF (EVEN SMALL) GOAL are all dopaminergic.

So is MUSIC. And EXERCISE – but only if you like it.

Medically, if necessary, catecholamines can be boosted by certain drugs such as Wellbutrin.

GABA:

Gamma aminobutyric acid is extremely calming. The most direct way to raise GABA that I know of is through prescription medications such as benzodiazapenes.

However, you can significantly raise your GABA through INTENSE EXERCISE, which releases GABA and helps you experience calm after the exercise is completed.

Try using intense exercise such as sprinting or boxing, or just a little bit of good-form heavy weight lifting, to release any pent-up fight-or-flight chemicals. And just like with endorphins, see if you can find a minimum amount of time that gives you a maximum feeling of calm afterward. Jumping up and down, clenching your muscles, and SHAKING VIGOROUSLY for 20 second intervals – and then relaxing — can all release that pent up stressful energy, and trigger GABA. So can LAUGHING.

I would be remiss to touch on calming GABA without briefly mentioning cortisol. Cortisol is widely known as the “stress” hormone. While some amount of cortisol is healthy and necessary, chronically elevated cortisol can have detrimental effects. Reducing cortisol has a similar calming effect as increasing GABA.

One supplement shown in experiments to reduce cortisol with extreme effectiveness is ASHWAGANDHA. Again, studies show a statistically significant and very robust effect. I have tested it myself and find it to be quite potent.

Alternatively, one of the other best ways to boost your feelings of calm is indirectly, by focusing on oxytocin:

OXYTOCIN:

Like serotonin, oxytocin is one of those chemicals that seems to help with everything.

The best way to raise oxytocin is by CUDDLING A LOVED ONE, or CUDDLING A PET – especially if you’re thinking of how much you love the person (or kitten!) when you do it.

However, you don’t need to have either of those handy to trigger this hormone. You can also boost your oxytocin through any type of close friendship or SENSE OF COMMUNITY.

SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE YOU REALLY ENJOY really does act like a drug, significantly improving your health and mood. Even having a positive, friendly interaction with a stranger – or just wishing someone well – can boost oxytocin, to a degree. If you really want to maximize your oxytocin when interacting with others, try bringing a sense of giving into the interaction – of actively giving love, of helping another, of reassuring your loved one (or pet that) that they’re loved, of caring for the other person. Keep in mind, all of the above recommendations will also trigger serotonin as well.

From an evolutionary standpoint, humans are tribal creatures. Any sense of “tribe,” “companionship,” or “connection,” in virtually any form will significantly elevate your mood. In fact, studies show that having a strong social support network is one of the most powerful way to reduce overall stress levels.

Priorities Checklist

That’s a lot of different chemicals and interventions to think about. Whenever I get a lot of information like that, I always ask: What’s most important? If I had to forget about everything except for one or two concepts, what would I remember? If you find yourself feeling bad, what do you focus on first?

EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) go through a specific assessment flow when working with new patients – they always check for critical life-threats first. Pilots go through a pre-flight check, following a specific series of steps before they take off.

With this in mind, I propose a basic Emotion-Hacking Priorities Checklist.

Before I lay it out, I want to remind readers that your body, generally speaking, naturally produces ALL of the above chemicals on its own – so long as you give it the basic building blocks it needs: food, water, and sleep. The importance of those three basic factors cannot be overstated; these three core factors are critically involved with the production of all of the feel-good chemicals.

I also want to re-emphasize that out of all the interventions we’ve gone over, some are going to have a bigger impact than others.

With that in mind, here’s a “pre-flight,” “critical-threats” Emotion Hacking checklist, in order of importance. (It starts with a 3-way tie for first place.)

#1 SLEEP

#1 NUTRITION

#1 HYDRATION

#2 RX MEDICATIONS (if applicable)

#3 CONNECTION/Company/Oxytocin

#4 NATURAL SUNLIGHT (for Serotonin)

#5 EXERCISE (Endorphins/Serotonin/GABA)

#6 HEAT/COLD (Endorphins & Serotonin, and Dopamine)

#7 5-HTP/Tryptophan (for Serotonin)

#8 Ashwagandha (for reducing cortisol)

#9 Tyrosine (for Catecholomines/Dopamine)

#10 Serotonin lamp light

#11 Deep Breathing (Physiological Sighs)