55 Oxytocin Boosters

What is Oxytocin?

Oxytocin is a powerful hormone and neurotransmitter involved with bonding, trust and calm. It requires action-oriented methods to connect with self and others.

Feel Good Neurochemical and Hormone

Oxytocin plays a key role in feeling good and at ease. It is involved with feeling love, self-love, connection, positive social interactions, feeling full (literally from food), and feeling a sense of belonging. Oxytocin also:

Calms our nervous system
Modulates serotonin and dopamine - this trio of neurotransmitters is referred to as the “happy hormones”
Deactivates stress and anxiety
Enhances pro-social behaviors, including trust, empathy and positive memories
Thanks to oxytocin, we get a toasty, tranquil feeling when we’re with the people we care about, including self-care activities and self-love!

"Oxytocin is in opposition to stress hormones. Oxytocin feels good. Stress hormones and anxiety do not feel good."

Patricia Churchland

Help Oxytocin Help You

Intentional Self-Care and Caring Methods

The more oxytocin you produce on a daily basis, the more it produces naturally, as it involves neuroplasticity. When our 'oxytocin bucket' is full we feel more fulfilled and balanced. It is also involved with feeling trust for yourself and others

More oxytocin, more trust and connection. More trust and connection, more oxytocin and loving feelings. It's an upward positive trajectory.

Effects of Low Oxytocin Levels

Low levels of oxytocin are associated with several conditions, including low self-worth, inner critical core beliefs, depression and anxiety disorders, heartbreak, OCD, ADHD, PTSD, aggression and conduct disorders, eating disorders, relationship dysfunction, codependency patterns, personality disorders, substance and process addictions, and chronic inflammatory conditions.

Low oxytocin can be the result of not having enough

Caring action towards yourself
Caring action towards others
Mutually beneficial social interactions
Gratitude and appreciation for activities and moments
Time outside in nature
Intentionally fulfilling or planning on fulfilling Connection Needs, including: Sense of Belonging, Sense of Purpose, Sense of Gratitude, Sense of Inspiration, and Feeling Valued by Loved-Ones

Improving your oxytocin levels is something you can influence in each moment of your life through intentional, action-oriented practices.

55 OXYTOCIN BOOSTERS

Kind eye contact - even with strangers
Random creativity - paint, drum, doodle, etc.
Surprise someone with a gift
Being trusted by being trustworthy
Listening with curiosity
Do nothing, daydream for 5 mins, sit under a tree, etc.
Speak your genuine wants and desires with someone you trust (vulnerability)
Laugh, watch comedies, tell jokes, etc.
Play, like how kids play! Being spontaneous and silly releases oxytocin; but don't force happy when your sad - faking happy has opposite impact (See #10)
Cry when you feel like crying (suppressing emotions lowers oxytocin, experiencing them increases it)
Pet your pet for at least 5 minutes
Receive gifts and kindness with gratitude
Daily gratitude journal
Conscious deep breathing (shallow breathing ignites fight/flight response and stress chemicals)
Breathing Exercises, like Square Breathing
Quality time with friends or loved ones
Share a meal with friends or loved ones
Words of encouragement to yourself
Words of encouragement to another
Receive words of encouragement
Daily allowance of Magnesium, Vitamins C and D (these work together for higher absorption)
Lactobacillus reuteri increases oxytocin
Daily melatonin supplement 500 mcg
Massage, giving and receiving
Inner Child meditations
Inner Bonding journaling
Mindful Self-Compassion practices
Meditate for others, Metta Meditation
Pray and pray for others
Walk outside
Tell those you love, you love them
Enjoy a warm bath or shower
Hug for 20 seconds 8 hugs a day is ideal
Random acts of kindness or give to a charity
Creative focus, garden, read, etc.
Watch a movie or show (we bond with the characters, increasing oxytocin)
Jasmine and lavender essential oil scents
Exercise in warm temperatures, sweating increases oxytocin
Yoga stimulates the vagus nerve for oxytocin
Sing for 30 minutes
Prepare and eat brightly colored food
Taste your food, receptors in your mouth stimulate oxytocin
Mindfully experience feeling full - when food reaches your gut, a hormone is released from the intestines that activates the vagus nerve, stimulating oxytocin
Being outside in nature
Listen to slow-tempo music
Cuddle with someone you care about
Hold hands with someone you care about
Do something exciting with someone, like a road trip, shooting guns at a gun range or riding a rollercoaster
Tandem skydiving - a 200% oxytocin spike!
Acts of service for yourself or others
Say thank you, give appreciation
Simple comforts and action-oriented self-care (worksheets below)
Allow, feel and honor your emotions in present moment so they may gently process
Kissing, the more passionate the better hehe
Sexual intimacy amongst those who have the bond associated with feeling in love

"It turns out that we literally don't empathize unless we're physically present - that the oxytocin the 'tend and befriend' hormone is not produced unless we're present with all five senses."

Gloria Steinem