Believe Like A Boss
Learn how to smash your goals and expand the possibility of your life through mindset management, spiritual (energetic) alignment and intentional action. Join each week as Life Coach Nandi (rhymes with Gandhi) teaches you how to create what she calls "a life of thrive" with ease and authenticity. | NandiCamille.com
Believe Like A Boss
Happy Hormones: Your Guide to Natural Mood Boosters
Life throws challenges at all of us. Sometimes we choose them, and sometimes they choose us. Either way, understanding how to naturally activate your body's "happy hormones" can make all the difference in how you navigate difficult seasons.
In this science-backed episode, I break down the four key hormones that regulate your mood and emotional wellbeing: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. For each one, I share practical, accessible strategies to boost them naturally when you're feeling low. Whether it's completing small tasks for dopamine, spending time in sunlight for serotonin, connecting meaningfully with others for oxytocin, or laughing to release endorphins—these techniques require no prescription and can be implemented immediately.
What makes this episode especially valuable is how these approaches work together. Creative expression, for instance, often activates multiple happy hormones simultaneously. I explore the crucial balance between creating versus consuming and how this distinction might be at the heart of why you're feeling depleted. The strategies shared range from completely free (like deep breathing or gratitude) to simple lifestyle adjustments anyone can make.
Save this episode for those inevitable moments when you're feeling off-center. It's designed to be your practical toolkit for natural mood enhancement that you can return to again and again. Whether you're navigating career transitions, relationship challenges, or simply the day-to-day stress of modern life, these evidence-based approaches will help you tap into your body's natural happiness chemistry without medication or expensive interventions.
Ready to transform how you feel on a regular basis? Visit nandicamille.com or book a discovery call at nandicamille.as.me to learn how coaching can help you implement these strategies in a personalized way.
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Hi, friends, and welcome to Believe Like a Boss. I'm your host Life Coach, Nandi Camille. Join me as I teach you how to smash your goals and expand the possibility of your life through mindset management, spiritual alignment and authentic action. I'll teach you how to create what I like to call a life of thrive, with ease and authenticity. It's time to play with what's possible. Are you ready? Let's go.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Believe Like a Boss. I am your host life coach, Nandi Camille. Welcome back. My friends, I hope you've had a beautiful week. I hope that you've been able to apply some of what we talked about last week in networking, even if it was just at your place of work, right? How is it that I might connect naturally and authentically with the people that are just around me a little bit more, wherever you are this week, however your Easter weekend was, I hope that you are finding yourself on this Tuesday, this Wednesday, whenever you listen to the podcast. The podcast usually comes out Tuesday midday. Tuesday evening is what I'm shifting into. So if you're used to the podcast coming out Tuesday during the day, it is going to shift to Tuesday evenings Small shift, but I'm making small adjustments right now in my life because my life is changing and, to be very honest, it's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard when things are changing. There's change that we create and that change can be hard. Right, that's us maybe wanting to lose weight, and so we've decided to change our fitness regimen and the foods that we're eating, and so it's hard. But we've chosen that hard, and so it's a different kind of hard. And then there's the hard that has chosen us that life circumstances have changed, and so I'm in this place where it's a little bit of both. My life circumstances have changed in that my husband has been looking for employment for quite some time after receiving his master's degree from the number one business school in America. It's not normally the story that you want to tell, right. Normally the story is I just got this amazing master's degree, immediately goes in to get the really beautiful job that he's been dreaming of, and we ride off into the sunset. That's not what has happened, and so that has been a challenge that's been thrusted upon us. And then, on the flip side, there's been the challenge that I've chosen of stepping into the next level of.
Speaker 2:I've been in education since I was 12 years old. I got my degree in education and I'm at the highest level that I've ever wanted to be while in education, and that's an executive director of a small school, and so what that means is I'm in charge of the school. I run a school. Besides that, I also run this podcast, and I also run a life coaching business that I'm very, very passionate about, and I'm starting a new passion project that I'm not ready to talk about here on the podcast. It is unrelated to what I do with Nandi Camille Life Coaching, but it's related to what I do with everything. So, to tease it a little bit, this is going to combine my work in education with my work in coaching.
Speaker 2:As I've talked to many people, there is a gap when it comes to coaching and wellness, when it comes to teens and young adults, and so that's all I'm going to say. I'm just going to tease it a little bit that way. But, as a multi-passionate person who is juggling these things, I'm just going to tease it a little bit that way. But as a multi-passionate person who is juggling these things, I'm now needing to make adjustments to better support myself in this season of my life, otherwise I will burn out. I've noticed the patterns that are my cues, rather, as I'm working with clients that's the word that I use. What are your cues that you are starting to get towards burnout? What are your cues that you are not listening to yourself or the boundaries that you've set Our job, especially as mindfulness stewards and students? Right Mindfulness is awareness.
Speaker 2:It is to be aware of when we're feeling out of alignment so that we can better support ourselves to being in alignment, because when we're in alignment we are so much more helpful to everybody else around us, to society as a whole. When our cup is full, we're kinder, we're slower to anger, we think more clearly, right, scientifically, we just think more clearly when we're not in fight flight freeze, right, and that's where we are. When we're not in fight, flight freeze right, and that's where we are when we're in burnout. And so I've been making little changes, little adjustments. One of the things is the podcast coming out a little bit later to better support myself in this season where I am choosing to challenge myself in some ways while also being challenged by the world and I wouldn't even say the world like. This is just life, right, life is 50-50. Life is always going to be some level of challenging, and so, while I'm not necessarily excited about all the challenges, I'm going to take them on with as much grace as I can. Trust me when I say Tyler and I have had some arguments. We've had some rough times. This has been, I think, the most challenging part of our marriage and at the same time, we've been able to reflect that, as a result of this challenge, we're stronger than we've ever been. Not that either one of us would ever have asked for these challenges specifically, like you know, the ones that we're not asking for but as a result of us taking them on, and taking them on together, we've become stronger. That is not what today is about, my friends. I just thought I would give you a little bit more behind the curtains, behind the scenes, tell you a little bit about what's going on over here when talking about today.
Speaker 2:I've wanted to do this episode for a while, but I think part of my brain, my imposter syndrome, is like anybody could truly just look these things up, and so I'm going to start with that. We're going to go over happy hormones today. This is something you can absolutely just Google, you can look up. Right, I'm not going to teach you anything necessarily new today, but my hope is that you can keep this podcast episode in your back pocket. I am an auditory learner, I'm a visual learner, I'm a kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic meaning I learn physically, so experiential, and so for me, this is really helpful to have a podcast episode where somebody goes through the happy hormones. I can save it. You can save this podcast episode and come back to it at any time You're in a funk, you're feeling kind of like off or just like depressed, maybe anxious maybe, and you're like, okay, well, what are those things that I can do on a practical note to summon those quote happy hormones?
Speaker 2:So there's four of them that we're going to go over today. The first one is dopamine. So I'm just going to go through each of these hormones, each four, and then go through what are some ways for you to holistically boost this hormone in your life. Okay, first one, again again, is dopamine. This is the reward and motivation hormone. You can boost this one holistically by setting and achieving small goals. This is completing tasks. That gives your brain a dopamine hit right. So that's when you have a to-do list.
Speaker 2:The very first client I ever had I was she's like I have so much to do, I have so much to do. I said, okay, well, what do you have to do? You tell me. You just say it out loud and I will make your to-do list for you. And I don't remember the things that she's had on that list, but I do remember that there were three things she's like I have to take my dog to the vet, I have to register my business and I have to call my mom and then I said, what else? And she's like oh, that's it. That's it. So for dopamine, really easy way is to make that to-do list, get it out of your head, get it onto paper and knock out the easiest thing, anything that's going to take you less than two minutes to do. Knock out one to two of those things and that will give you a dopamine. Excuse me hit.
Speaker 2:You can also get more dopamine by gratitude journaling. Writing what you're grateful for helps you rewire your reward system right. So what you're grateful for, this one is lovely and hard all at the same time, because when you're in a season of depression, when you're in a season of nothing is working out, and somebody asks you to gratitude journal, it makes you cranky. What do you mean? There's nothing to be grateful for. But I would really really press you to find one thing to be grateful for, even if it's just the breath in your body, or the peanut butter and jelly sandwich you're going to have for lunch today, because it's your favorite food, right or the sunshine on your skin. What is something that you're grateful for? This is a really Two more. Here you can eat some it's called tyrosine rich foods like almonds, eggs, bananas and avocados. These to me feel like protein enriched foods, but bananas aren't. Technically don't have a ton of protein, but these are happy fats, is what I like to call them, but the internet calls them tyrosine rich foods almonds, eggs, bananas and avocados.
Speaker 2:You can also do mindful movement. Dance, yoga or even walking in nature can help. You know that I love movement. I personally love dance. I love a good dance party. I will personally go into a bathroom If I'm having a moment, close the bathroom, stall behind me and twerk in that bathroom stall to absolutely no music at all, or I'll think about the song in my head because I know that that movement is going to give me a dopamine hit.
Speaker 2:Here's your second one serotonin. This is the mood stabilizer. You can boost it holistically by being in the sunlight. This is 100% a go-to for me when I'm feeling low energy, especially if it's a sunny day outside. I am going to be outside Now. If it's cloudy, I'm struggling. I love the sunshine. It's part of why I moved to Colorado. We get 300 days of sunshine out here and I will brag about it all day long. I love the sun out here. I also moved from Florida, which brags about being the sunshine state but is not. Colorado gets so much more sunshine than Florida does. So get outside, get your vitamin D. 10 to 15 minutes of sun boosts your vitamin D and adds to your serotonin production.
Speaker 2:Meditation and deep breathing this is a really great way to reduce stress and support serotonin balance. As a mindfulness-based life coach, I love to slow down and meditate. Meditation doesn't always mean sitting down cross-legged and closing your eyes. Right, you can do a walking meditation, right. That is again just being mindful, aware of your breath, your body, how your feet feel on the ground, how the air feels on your skin, how the light feels on your eyes, whether it's sunlight or fluorescent light or whatever like. Just noticing all of through your, all of your senses, how you're feeling. Right, meditation and just deep breathing Great way to boost that serotonin.
Speaker 2:Having a healthy gut does help you have a healthy mood. So, eating fermented foods I'm starting to do a little bit more of this I was exposed to I want to say it was Kava, the restaurant where they had it's a pickled onions, I want to say. So, fermented foods are somewhat new to me, but having them embedded, what is the word I'm looking for Infused, embedded, integrated into your diet, is a really great way to start to just sprinkle in that fermentation If you don't want to just grab a handful of it and start eating it. But this is a really lovely way to holistically boost that serotonin. Healthy gut helps with a healthy mood, and then acts of kindness, volunteering or helping others can increase your serotonin levels. I love this one. I think as a Girl Scout growing up, this was a value that was presented to me that I just kept as an adult that volunteering, giving back, finding ways to connect with other people, finding ways to give back to other people, is a lovely way to feed your soul and to boost those serotonin levels. Two more here you have oxytocin and then we have endorphins. So for oxytocin, this is the love and connection hormone. We can boost it holistically by physical touch, right. So whether it's a hug or even with the pets, I find that I can boost my serotonin levels this way if I go and I snuggle Frazier. I love to go and find Frazier when I'm feeling cranky and I will just be like I need a hug. And what I love about him he's a golden doodle. He'll be eight this year.
Speaker 2:When I was a kid. We grew up with Rottweilers and I love Rottweilers, honestly. They are so sweet, they are big babies too. But in our household you weren't allowed to like really play, be on the ground with the dog. That was just. The dog was separate from the family, but a part of the family. It's very different. I was raised in a Southern Black family, so you either get it or you don't. It's okay if you don't, but he was. He was a part of the family, but you were not supposed to be on the ground with him. You weren't supposed to be rolling around with the dog. He wasn't on the couch Like you weren't doing that. And so now, as an adult, it's so fun to have that experience with my golden doodle. He does get on the couch and I do hug him and I love to pick him up and I just get to snuggle him truly like he's my three-year-old child and it feels so good to be able to do that. So you don't have to have a human, you have a pet. You have an animal around.
Speaker 2:Physical touch, massages, cuddling with a pet or a loved one works, meaningful conversations, deep, authentic connection nurtures oxytocin. So many times when I'm working with clients. One of the biggest things that we work on is friendships cultivating aligned friendships, connecting with women or like-minded humans that they can have an authentic conversation with. They can have a like-minded, depth, filled conversation with, and, even if they're not on the same page about everything, to just have a conversation with somebody who can even disagree with them in love right, that feels good. To be able to just commune, to have conversation, whether you're talking about the stars or your dreams or what next fashion item you love or hate, whatever, it is right To be able to have. That authentic conversation will bring about more oxytocin With that eye contact and presence, right. So when you're having that meaningful conversation, when you're connecting with people, make eye contact, be present with them.
Speaker 2:I was just working with a client the other night where we were talking about dissociation, where sometimes, when we get anxious in our body, we just kind of tap out and then we walk away and we get in our car. We're like what just happened? Where did I go? And so one of the ways that we can start to work on bringing about more oxytocin is staying in our bodies when we get anxious, and so that's what she and I worked on last night, and so I'm just going to give you a little nugget right now about that. That's not what this episode is about.
Speaker 2:But if you're one of those humans that finds that you get anxious when you're in a conversation and you find yourself dissociating or tapping out of your body, let's go back to what we were just talking about with taking a deep breath. Right, let's activate a little bit of serotonin by taking a deep breath. That's going to bring some more good feeling hormones and in that deep breath, remind yourself that you're safe. Often, when we're dissociating, it's because there's a fear of sounding stupid, there's a fear that I'm going to say something dumb. There's just a general I don't want to be here-ness. Take a deep breath, bring yourself back into your body and make that eye contact right, telling yourself you're safe or excusing yourself from the conversation if you do not feel safe. Right, but that eye contact and that taking a deep breath is going to activate two feel good hormones in that moment, and then the last one, for oxytocin, is going to be practicing compassion towards yourself and others. So, again, if you're feeling run down, if you're feeling frustrated, check in.
Speaker 2:How have you been talking to yourself and others? How have you been talking to yourself and how have you been talking to others? With kindness, with love, with compassion or with judgment? With what is the word Defensiveness? With anxiety, anxiety? And know that that's okay, right? If you've noticed, oh, I have been a little defensive lately. I'm not here to beat yourself up, it's how do I want to show up? Instead, what might feel a little bit better? How might I practice compassion towards myself and others a little bit more? And then your last one here is endorphins, the natural pain killer. You can boost endorphins holistically by laughing Laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh.
Speaker 2:I have a board on Pinterest Ooh, what is it called? It's not called, lol, I think it's called Ridiculousness. I have a board specifically on Pinterest that I've been building since I don't know I was 18 years old probably of just things that make me laugh, things that make me laugh out loud, that when I go to this board, it is so that I can just giggle, I can laugh out loud. I can laugh so loud that my husband looks at me and is curious about what I'm looking at, and then I have to show him too, so laugh.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you have a favorite comedian. Maybe you haven't been to a comedy show in a while. They have these now. I'm in Denver so I don't know if they have them everywhere, but they are popping up these like secret comedy shows. So they're either up and coming or new comedians and it's in a secret location. So you don't know who the comedians are, you don't know where you're going. It sounds sketchy, but it's actually a lot of fun. And then you get an email. It's the day before the day of. I haven't done this for a few years, but you get an email the day before the day of that tells you the location. Then you show up. The one I went to was like the back of a brewery. So it was like in this industrial part of Denver and we're in the back of this brewery, plus like warehouse space, and you get to see these comedians.
Speaker 2:The point being it was a really creative and inexpensive way to laugh. So don't talk yourself out of laughing. There are free ways to laugh. You can make yourself laugh. There's Pinterest. You can pay to laugh. You can go to a comedy show, right? There's so many different. Don't sleep on laughter is all I'm trying to say. Laughter is such a great healer.
Speaker 2:Exercise is another really great way to boost endorphins, right Movement. We said this Movement is beautiful If you're not moving your body. Movement has so many beautiful benefits. We have endorphins. We have what was the other feel-good hormone? It was from movement and dance. Dopamine was the other one that we get a hit from when we move our bodies. Movement helps our physical bodies, it helps with our aging, it helps with us feeling good and confident.
Speaker 2:Move your body, my friends. Exercise is so good for you, but move your body in a way that feels good for you, right? If you don't like to run, don't run. If you don't like to rock climb, don't rock climb. If you don't like to dance, don't dance. Find what works for you. And if you don't know yet, go figure it out. Go rock climb and figure it out. If you like to rock climb, go dance and figure it out. If you like to dance, go paddleboard, go swim, go. What else can we do? There's so many things to do. You can go rollerblading. There's so many ways to move your body. Move your body. Spicy foods or dark chocolate. Spicy foods or dark chocolate can trigger a small endorphin release. So, my friends, I like both of those. There's a win just for liking dark chocolate, right, you can just tell your partner I need to eat these spicy foods and this dark chocolate for my endorphins, you didn't know.
Speaker 2:And the last one here is creative expression Painting, singing, writing or playing music, being your creative self, how do you like to express yourself? Do you like to draw? Do you like to paint? Do you like to sing? Do you like to dance? How do you like to express yourself? And I want you to notice.
Speaker 2:The note that I want to leave here is how much are you creating versus consuming? I find so many times that when I am fresher, when my clients are fresh air, when we're in a funk, it's also often because we are consuming more than we are creating. And when I'm creating, I'm incorporating a lot of these different parts that give me endorphins, that give me oxytocin, that give me serotonin, that give me dopamine. Right, when I'm, say, dancing, singing, whatever it is, I'm moving my body, but I might also be connecting with somebody, because I'm in a class with somebody, right, and then I'm grateful for being able to move my body and connect with somebody. And now I've got this concoction of feel good hormones happening with me just choosing to be in my creative space. Right, that might be writing for you, that might be singing for you, that might be.
Speaker 2:What is it that I'm trying to say? All the elements that you do to create on social media. Right, there's a part of the media element. There's also part of like showing up, and when you show up online, maybe you love that you get to get ready first, and that's part of hair and makeup, right, lean into what makes you come alive creatively. And again, if you don't know, go find out, go play, have fun. Save this podcast episode for when you need to know how to get your happy hormones. What are some ways to quickly get it? As always, my friends, take what's next to you, leave the rest. I will say all of this is scientifically based and backed and, as as as always, if you're looking for some support, you know where to find me nandikamilcom, or go to nandikamilasme to book your discovery call. I'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:Hey friend if you like this podcast, I would love it if you give us a five-star rating. Share it with your friends. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, if this podcast resonates with you and you're ready for some one-on-one support support for you and your journey go ahead to nandikamilcom to learn more, or head over to nandikamilasme to sign up for your free discovery call.