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“Serotonin—improves willpower, motivation, and mood. Norepinephrine—enhances thinking, focus, and dealing with stress. Dopamine—increases enjoyment and is necessary for changing bad habits. Oxytocin—promotes feelings of trust, love, and connection, and reduces anxiety. GABA—increases feelings of relaxation and reduces anxiety. Melatonin—enhances the quality of sleep. Endorphins—provide pain relief and feelings of elation. Endocannabinoids—improve your appetite and increase feelings of peacefulness and well-being.”
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
“Fortunately, suppressing an impulse doesn’t always have to decrease your dopamine—it can actually feel good. The key is the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for pursuing long-term goals and has the ability to modulate dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. So suppressing an impulse can be rewarding, as long as it’s in service of your larger values.”
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
“Shift your focus to what’s occurring right now. This is why Buddhist monks and yogis practice nonjudgmental awareness—the process of being aware of the present, without attaching emotional reactivity to it. This mindfulness practice cuts off worry and anxiety at the source.”
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
“You can change dopamine and the dorsal striatum with exercise. You can boost serotonin with a massage. You can make decisions and set goals to activate the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. You can reduce amygdala activity with a hug and increase anterior cingulate activity with gratitude. You can enhance prefrontal norepinephrine with sleep.”
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
“Stay in the now. Pay attention to the things that are happening now, and don’t pay attention to the things that aren’t happening now. Focusing on the present helps reduce anxiety and worry, because it decreases emotional, self-focused processing in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Attention to the present also increases dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal activity, allowing these regions to calm the amygdala.15 Improving your ability to stay present, a practice known as “mindfulness,” helps enhance these activations and leads to long-term improvements in anxiety and worrying.”
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
― The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time
Senior Nomads
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— last activity Oct 16, 2025 07:47AM
A place for members of the Senior Nomads Facebook group to share favorite books, reading lists, travel guides and more. We’re trying to simplify the ...more
Dashakol’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Dashakol’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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