Easy ways to make more oxytocin, because sometimes your body needs a lovely reminder.
Hormones play important roles in human health. Testosterone, for example, helps increase muscle mass and bone density. Estrogen is vital for female reproductive health and the growth of new tissue around their bodies. Dopamine and serotonin both help to improve mood.
Oxytocin is one hormone most people don’t know about, yet is one of the most important. Oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone”, plays a significant role in pregnancy and childbirth, but it also sends signals to the brain to relax and trust the person we are with.
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A lot of our positive emotional responses (what we know as “love”) are simply oxytocin-sending signals to our brains.
If you want to increase your connection to your partner, husband, wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, or date, an influx of oxytocin will do the trick. But how can you increase oxytocin levels?
Here are a few ways to make more oxytocin:
- Share a meal/drink: Not only does eating with someone else help to form a bond, but it signals to the brain that we can relax and trust them. This causes oxytocin to be produced.
- Listen actively: When you listen with all of your senses, you signal to your brain that this person can be trusted. The influx of oxytocin will help you to feel connected to them, and will increase the feelings of “love”.
- Be active on social media: When you connect with others and make friends via social media, oxytocin is released to help you form bonds with the “new friends.” This doesn’t exclude normal face-to-face interaction, but it can help to increase oxytocin levels.
READ MORE: 5 Easy Ways To Relax
- Give a gift: Studies have proven that receiving gifts is a highly effective way to increase oxytocin levels. The best way to receive gifts: give them to others, and they’ll be far more likely to return the favor! Here are our favorite gifts under $30.
- Meditate: But don’t block out the world around you. Instead, use meditative techniques that help you to focus on your partner or a special person. The mindful meditation will enable you to form a bond with that person and increase oxytocin levels.
- Hug: Physical contact is the key to increasing oxytocin levels. Adding more hugs to your day will help you to form bonds with the people around you, and will raise both your own oxytocin levels and those of the people you hug.
- Have sex: Why do you think sex makes you feel so connected to someone? It’s because orgasms cause oxytocin to flood your body, helping to form a bond between you and your sex partner. If you want to raise oxytocin levels the natural way, have sex!
- Tell someone you love them: Using the “L word” sends signals to your brain that you have formed a bond with the person, and that you trust them. Telling people you love them will trigger the release of oxytocin in your body, helping you to feel more relaxed and trusting.
- Laugh: Laughter relaxes you, but it also causes oxytocin to be released. It’s why your dates usually go so much better when you watch a comedy or rom-com!
- Shoot guns: For some unexplained reason, shooting guns helps to release oxytocin. If you want to feel closer to someone, take them on a date to the shooting range and get those oxytocin levels rising. It’s a real thing—read this for proof.
