5 Mood Enhancing Ingredients to Lift You Up (All Natural!)

 I had never heard of the term Nootropics until until Eric emailed me. Eric is a co-founder of Pure Nootropics… and what are Nootropics you ask? I had the exact same question 🙂

Let’s just say this is an interesting post to help you understand more about some great ingredients you can put into your body that will make you feel amazing.

I’ll pass over to Eric to take you through this one.

Brendan

Enter Eric

Seeking happiness requires much self-reflection and improving your mindset, but at a scientific level your neurotransmitters and hormones can significantly alter your mood. While diet, exercise, and relaxation are the first lifestyle changes to improve neurotransmitters and hormones, there are natural mood enhancing extracts that date back thousands of years.

Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic Indian remedies helped millions of people to become more relaxed over the past few thousand years. Modern science is validating their claims and extracts can increase the effects manifold.

Improved Mood and Happiness

Without knowing it, you’re probably already taking a variety of different nootropics. Most of the world uses caffeine in order to get through the day and this is one of the most well-known nootropic compounds that improves mood and productivity. Additionally, the L-theanine in green tea can help to calm you as well. Combine the two and you have a recipe for one of the best beginner combinations.

Below are 5 nootropics that you can implement into your life to help lift your mood.

Bacopa monniera

One of the most famous of the Ayurvedic herbs is found in North India and and regions of Kerala. It has been used to improve mood, but it also helps cognitive abilities as well. Numerous tests show bacopa to be a natural memory enhancer by reducing anxiety and stress. Today you can still find rural Indian villages that utilize bacopa monniera with ghee (traditional Indian fat source) for children.

Cocoa flavanols

Have you ever wondered why chocolate makes you so happy? Cocoa flavanols are well known mood enhancers so the darker the chocolate you eat, the better you will feel. There are many potential health effects of cocoa flavanols ranging from improved short-term memory to attention and focus. Chocolate isn’t the only place to find these, however; tea variants and coffee often have structurally similar compounds as well.

Asian ginseng (panax)

Asian ginseng is probably one of the most well-studied natural extracts available for cognitive enhancement. It is considered a potent nootropic for improving attention, focus, and enhancing your mood. It has a long history in traditional Chinese medicine for better cognition and mood enhancing capabilities.

Aniracetam

This is an odd one from the bunch. Aniracetam is actually not a natural extract, but it is a derivative of the neurotransmitter GABA. Aniracetam is well known to reduce anxiety and mitigate nervousness for people that have social discomfort. It has been tested to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and a variety of other anxiety related illnesses. Anyone who is interested in using aniracetam may consider pairing it with choline for the maximum effects and protection.

Spanish sage

Sage is a common plant, but the Spanish sage variation has mood enhancing capabilities as well. The extract seems to inhibit enzymes in the brain that degrade the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. With more acetylcholine you can remember a lot better, but you will also feel better and happier as well. This is a great natural extract to use for people that do not eat many eggs or meat!

Risks and Benefits of Nootropics

As with anything that can change your physiology, it is good to know both the risks and the benefits. With these mood enhancing compounds, there are often risks associated only with the dosages that you choose. If you maintain a close eye on the recommended dosages and you listen to your body, there is a good bet you will be safe. Some substances like piracetam have been tested in rats with 400 times the recommended dosage without any adverse effects. While not all of these compounds are so innocuous, many are natural remedies used over thousands of years.

Nonetheless, there may not be benefits that make it worthwhile to take the drugs and add needless strain to your inner organs. You must make sure to measure your results because there is a severe element of individuality between all of these compounds. Tracking and constantly testing whether your memory has improved is a good way to see whether the benefits are outweighing any possible risks.

The biggest mistake with nootropic compounds is taking too many at one time. If you think that a certain herbal extract might be best for your problems, make sure to try that by itself for a while. Once you start mixing and matching compounds, that is where some of the real dangers are. There are few studies with such mixtures and this concoction is never healthy.

Start Enhancing Your Mood

When dealing with neurotransmitters and hormones, there are plenty of ways to safely induce a greater mood and sense of happiness. If you haven’t changed major lifestyle practices, like maintaining a healthy diet and getting enough sleep, those are your first priorities. Then you can consider utilizing many of the healthful compounds utilized by people for thousands of years.

“Eric Balaster is a nootropics expert and self-tinkerer. He is the co-founder of Pure Nootropics where he writes extensively on their blog.” (aka Mans)

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