Weekly Wellbeing Focus – Feel Good Brain Chemicals / Natural Highs

Welcome to the Weekly Wellbeing Focus. The focus for this week is Feel Good Brain Chemicals / Natural Highs.

Parent Wellbeing: Resilience is the ability to bounce back after setbacks and requires you to be able to: have optimism and hope for the future, regulate the strength of your emotions, control your impulses, think flexibly, have empathy for others, believe in yourself and build social connectedness with others. What does each mean to you?

Human beings have evolved living in tribes for survival, and as such, we are hard wired to be our best when cooperating with others to achieve things together. Over thousands of years, our biology has also evolved to support us to do this.

When we feel that others value us and think that we matter, a powerful brain chemical, serotonin, is released into our bloodstreams to create feelings of self-worth. When we experience trusting and loving relationships, another brain chemical, oxytocin, is released to make us feel loved and special.

They are called neurotransmitters, and they provide us with natural highs to thrive and flourish. These feelings come from being with other people in person to achieve things side by side and face to face. Many 21st century students prefer to be glued to their phones in their relationships, and miss out on feeling serotonin and oxytocin from in person interactions, and also causing their interpersonal skills development stunted.

When students enjoy honest and caring relationships with their families and friends, serotonin and oxytocin are flowing, they are happy in themselves and able to look for the good things they are doing. This puts them in a position to make the most of teamwork and feel socially connected with a sense of belonging.

Acknowledgement: Diener & Biswas-Diener

Some useful videos that discuss this week’s focus:

Jake McIntosh
Assistant Head of Secondary – Wellbeing