This is how being cheerful in your body influences
Do you want to jump for joy? What happens inside your body when you're happy?
The joy, that happy and optimistic emotion that can be caused by a big event like the announcement of the birth of a baby or something as simple as finding the perfect fruit in the ecological market, has a great impact on our body.
On an emotional level, we can feel joy in a variety of ways: with euphoria, with crying, with a deep sense of satisfaction and many more.
At a scientific level, we feel joy in our neurotransmitters, which are small "messenger" chemical cells that transmit signals between neurons and other cells in the body. These neurotransmitters are responsible for the processes and feelings in almost all aspects of the body, from blood flow to digestion.
Benefits of being cheerful
- Promote a healthier lifestyle
- Improves the immune system
- Combat stress and pain
- Increases longevity
Every emotion that you feel affects your brain and vice versa, and is that the brain does not have a single emotional center, but that the different emotions involve different structures.
For example, the frontal lobe (commonly known as the "control panel" of the brain) monitors our emotional state, while the thalamus (an information center that regulates consciousness) participates in how emotional responses are executed.
We feel joy in our bodies due to the release of dopamine and serotonin, two types of neurotransmitters in the brain. Both chemicals are strongly associated with happiness (in fact, people with clinical depression often have lower levels of serotonin).
Thus, when something makes us happy, the brain receives the signal to release these chemicals in the central nervous system, which causes reactions in other systems of the body, for example, the circulatory system.
Have you ever noticed that when you feel especially happy, your face blushes or your heart races?
This is due to the effect of joy in the circulatory system. Of course, joy is not the only emotion that influences this system: fear, sadness and other emotions can also cause reactions.
The autonomic nervous system is also influenced by feelings of joy and euphoria. It is the body system responsible for everything that our body does without conscious effort, such as breathing, digestion and dilation of the pupils.
For example, breathing may increase when we are doing something particularly fun (like riding a roller coaster) or slow down when we participate in a more relaxing activity (such as walking in the woods).
"Smile can trick your brain by elevating your mood, decreasing your heart rate and reducing your stress." The smile does not have to be based on real emotion because pretending-or smiling reluctantly-also works, "explains Diana Samuel, from Columbia University Medical Center (USA)
It is well known that your pupils dilate when you are sexually aroused, but they can also increase or decrease with other emotional states.
Other autonomous aspects that can be affected by joy are salivation, sweating, body temperature and even metabolism.
Any type of emotional arousal can also affect the smooth muscles that are found in the walls of hollow organs (such as the stomach, intestines, and bladder).
These involuntary muscles are responsible for functions such as blood flow and the movement of food through the digestive tract, so it could be a reason why the appetite increases or decreases when we feel positive emotions.
So, what comes first, the emotion or the body response?
It is difficult to say what comes first because feelings and physiology are inextricably linked.
