You can aid the happiness of your brain by taking on activities that generate key experiences and chemicals:
- Dopamine for motivation, learning and pleasure.
- Oxytocin for trust and building relationships.
- Serotonin for significance and importance.
- Endorphins for euphoria and elation.
Without endorphins, we can struggle to cope with pain and stress. We also need endorphins when we want to push ourselves beyond our discomfort in chosen activities. They are also needed to help with sleep, particularly when there is anxiety or worries on our minds.
Along with getting outside for exercise, eating well and nurturing conversations, video games can also help. Games that help create endorphins are those that let us experience excess emotions. Video games that make us laugh or cry do this. Also, games that let us feel the exhilaration of creating something beautiful or being part of that creative process help generate endorphins. Horror games can do this for some, offering the stress of fear and jump-scares before the euphoria of escape and mastery of both the situation and our fears. Extreme racing games can also generate endorphins as you narrowly escape a catastrophic crash, or if you take on a super long challenge like Le Mans 24 Hours.
This list includes 19 games from the last 8 years, with 162 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to generate endorphin.
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