We’re all trying to be a bit more mindful and take care of ourselves more in this fast paced world.
Whether that be short meditation sessions, yoga or journaling. These things can be small and make massive differences to our daily lives. In your wellness journey, you may have heard about the DOSE Method which focuses on hormones like Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins.
We spoke to Food and Wellness Strategist Aisling Larkin, who is leading Holland & Barrett’s Energy Squad, about how to incorporate the DOSE Method into our daily lives.
What is the DOSE Method?
It is a really simple wellbeing tool. It’s based in neuroscience, and it helps you make small daily choices that support your wellbeing. My whole ethos is that you cannot change your behaviours until you change your mindset; that’s my tagline. Mindfulness is very much based in meditation. I have a very busy mind, so I can’t do long meditations. I use the Calm app to help me. But on the whole, it can be as simple as taking a breath. When you take that breath, you give yourself a chance to relax, pause, create space. When you create that space, it allows you to feel what’s going on in your body.
There’s a lovely thing called RAIN, which is you recognise it, you bring an awareness to it, you investigate it, and you nurture it. It’s okay to have that feeling, it’s not about pushing it down, it’s not about numbing it it’s not about running away from it.
I have five pillars of well-being that I kind of work off. Food, movement, sleep, hydration and mindset. Then you can get into the DOSE method.
What does DOSE stand for
Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins.
Dopamine
Often, we think of that dopamine one as being that energised one, that high-hitting, big impact reward. This year I trained and ran the half-marathon in New York and I’m not a runner like that. So this was like a massive deal for me. The dopamine high was unreal. But I can’t go running off to New York every week doing these things. So how do you get dopamine?
Dopamine is linked to pleasure and reward but you can get dopamine from doom scrolling. Doom scrolling is passive. You’re just absorbing this passiveness, and it can impact you positively or negatively. But when you pick up a book and read, that becomes effort. Dopamine is linked, not necessarily to reward, but to effort.
It’s the achievement. Maybe they’re hard things and maybe they’re just easy things. But it’s about putting in effort and achieving something. And that can be so tiny or as big as you want it to be.
Improve your dopamine with these foods: Turkey, chicken, eggs, oily fish like mackerel, salmon, bananas, green tea, avocados, dark chocolate and fermented foods, so things like kimchi, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha.
Oxytocin
We think of oxytocin as bonding. Giving someone a hug is the big one or petting the dog, they’re the classics you hear about. But it can also be making eye contact with somebody when you’re out and about. If you’re walking into a shop, holding the door for somebody and just saying, “Morning, “Hi, how are you,” “Hello”. I think things like that like make a huge difference.
Oxytocin is basically linked to bonding. It’s that bonding hormone that makes you feel connected, but it also makes you feel calm and emotionally stable. If you don’t feel safe, you can’t function properly let alone thrive in this world so you have to feel safe in every environment that you’re in you have to feel safe.
By making eye contact with people, by smiling at people, by showing kindness, that’s the oxytocin you’re you’re immediately bonding with someone, you immediately feel safe.
Improve your Oxytocin with these foods: Magnesium, Vitamin D, oily fish, eggs, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds. Even having a cup of tea and a slice of cake with a loved one can improve your oxytocin.
Serotonin
Serotonin is the mood regulator. Happy is the word that’s linked to serotonin. But I don’t talk too much about happy. I talk about content. There’s a big, big difference. Happiness comes and goes as does sadness. It’s an emotion. In Irish, we say, “Tá athas orm”, “Tá brón orm”, happiness is on me, sadness is on me. A mood is on you. It’s not inside you. It’s not ingrained in you, in your essence or your core. This too shall pass is a phrase I love – because the low mood will pass.
Serotonin is also linked to sleep. It helps us produce melatonin. So if you don’t get enough sleep, you wake up in the morning, you’re grumpy, you’re low, you’re easily irritated. We’re trying to get ourselves back into this place of regulation. You sleep better, so you wake up more energised. And when you wake up more energised, you’re not so quick to jump to that regulation piece, which is caffeine and sugar. You know, where you just want to go, oh man, I have no energy. I just need, I need coffee here. I need sugar. I need something to give me a pick-me-up and a boost.
Serotonin is also linked to your appetite as well. It’s crazy how it’s attached to so many different parts of us.
Improve your Serotonin with these foods: There is a compound in amino acid called tryptophan that helps to make serotonin. Oats, chicken, turkey, eggs, salmon, seeds, bananas, kefir, kombucha.
Endorphins
Endorphin is connected to thrill seeking. But my word for the endorphins is release. It’s about letting it go. For some people that can be laughing and crying, both release endorphins. You can be the happiest you’ve been or the saddest you’ve been, but both actually release endorphins. Another big, big part of the endorphins is movement.
We’re moving energy. If there’s bad energy, negative energy, we’re not feeling the best – walk it out, run it out, stretch it out, just move it. When you move, it changes inside your body. That’s something really powerful people don’t think about because sometimes we think exercise is something we have to do. We’re forced to do it. We’ve been told to do it. But actually, it’s a really powerful tool to change your mindset.
Improve your Endorphins with these foods: Spicy food, dark chocolate, citrus, protein.
Find out more about Holland & Barrett’s Live Life on Full Charge here.