Happiness. Joy. Calm. Peace. These emotions are like the holy grail. Everyone wants it but so damn hard to find. But the truth is, you have access to these emotions without having to go to the doctor, pop a pill, or go on a spa bender. I know, sounds like a fairytale, right? The more and more I read/hear how many adults are taking anti-depressants these days, the more I’m convinced that we need to talk about this.

As a friend, I’m encouraging you to look inside yourself for what you are looking for. No, really. This isn’t some hippy dippy personal development rah-rah. You really can get mentally healthy by looking inside yourself, specifically in the area of your gut.

Yes, the path to happiness lies in your tummy. Let me explain.

Ninety percent of the serotonin we have in our bodies is produced in our gut. Let me back up for a second and explain what serotonin is. It’s a neurotransmitter that our brain utilizes to regulate mood, sleep, metabolism, and appetite.

It basically does ALL THE THINGS for our body.

How did we do we know if our serotonin is low? If you are may have symptoms like anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, obesity, fibromyalgia, eating disorders, chronic pain, migraines, and alcohol abuse. Also, negative thoughts, low self-esteem, obsessive compulsive thoughts and behaviors, PMS, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome are also symptoms of low serotonin.

There’s a laundry list of factors that can contribute to low serotonin levels:

• Alcohol

• Artificial sweeteners (aspartame)

• Caffeine

• Cigarette Smoking (does anyone actually smoke anymore?)

• Diabetes

• Medications (i.e. antibiotics)

• Genetic predisposition

• Hormone imbalances (thyroid, adrenal, estrogen)

• Hypoglycemia

• Insulin resistance

• Inflammation

• Infections

• Nutrient poor diet

• Lack of exercise

• Lack of sunlight

• Problems converting tryptophan to serotonin

• Stress

• High cortisol levels

How’s that for wake up call? But, let’s circle back to is the gut, shall we? A lot of these factors listed above affect the microbiome in your gut and cause Leaky Gut. Yes, it’s a thing. Go ahead. Google it…I’ll wait.

If you went to check it out, you probably read that Leaky Gut is when the integrity of the lining of the intestinal tract is compromised and acts more like a sieve than a steel trap. Believe me, you want the steel trap. If we have a sieve for a gut, bacteria from the gut leaks out into our bloodstream causing all sorts of havoc. If the serotonin producing bacteria is out there floating around, then it’s not in the gut where it’s supposed to do its work. Also, antibiotics kill this very important serotonin-producing bacteria in our gut, therefore, increasing our chances for anxiety, depression, OCD and the like. It takes months for our gut to get back to normal after a round of antibiotics so think about what happens when you have more than one round in a 12-month period. Now add in poor diet, sugar, high-glycemic carbs, alcohol, stress, yada, yada, yada and getting a healthy gut doesn’t stand a chance.

So what to do:

1. Cut out as many of the above factors in your life.

2. Give your gut a boost.

-Take a quality probiotic and/or eat fermented foods to build up your good bacteria.

-Stop being a germaphobe. It’s actually doing more harm than good.

-Drink bone broth to rebuild the lining of intestinal tract.

-Eliminate foods that may be triggers for inflammation or irritating to the gut (dairy, eggs, corn, and gluten are most common)

-Look into utilizing Oregano essential oil to promote intestinal integrity (or a product like this)

3. Eat more of these foods to boost serotonin levels naturally:

• complex carbohydrates

• chicken

• turkey

• tuna

• salmon

• kidney beans

• rolled oats

• lentils

• chickpeas

• pumpkin seeds

• sunflower seeds

• baked potato with skin

• tahini (sesame butter)

• walnuts

• avocado

• almond butter

• eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables (organic if possible)

• drink 6-8 glasses of water daily

4. Consider taking supplements such as B6, Inositol, 5-HTP (helps convert amino acid tryptophan into serotonin), and St. John’s Wort.

5. Use essential oils in a diffuser like lavender, melissa, bergamot, lemon, wild orange, neroli, clary sage, and copaiba to calm inflammation while boosting serotonin. (I provided a link to purchase my favorite brand of essential oils but can adjust the cart to your liking.)

Happiness. Joy. Calm. Peace. They are right there waiting for you…just have to go with your gut.