Help others this Christmas and boost your brain’s natural feel-good chemistry, writes Katherine Langford

It is in Christmas giving that we receive dopamine hits

In case you have not yet heard, dopamine is all the rage. A feel-good hit naturally produced in the reward centre of our brains, creating an incentive to repeat certain behaviours.

From an evolutionary perspective, dopamine is the reward for behaviour essential to our survival – hunting, certain foods, sex, and social relationships are some obvious activities.  

You may also have heard that social media companies have learned how to control our dopamine responses – think of the little explosions of strategically presented colours and emojis when we hit a like button, or when we receive likes for a post.  

The ultimate aim of such control is to modify our behaviour so that we buy more stuff, or any other outcomes that social media’s actual clients pay them to do.  

This has become known as “human hacking”, and it works.  

Acts of selfless giving, or having genuine personal interactions with other human beings, do not produce any financial or political outcomes for anyone, so this type of behaviour is not really encouraged or rewarded on social media, which is where folks, especially our rangatahi, spend an awful lot of their time these days.  

This kind of dopamine competes with the kind that benefits the interests of paying clients and is being actively stifled with an aggressive push for AI friends and companions.

This is a shame, because it is scientifically proven that giving, and helping others without expectation of reward, generates dopamine that is actually healthy for us, and that benefits us in so many ways.  

For example, it has been found across cultures all over the world that helping others and being kind is central to a sense of happiness – not only does it release dopamine and oxytocin and create social bonds, it also creates a sense of meaning and benefits both the giver and the receiver.  

Christmas provides an opportunity for us to think about values beyond the short-lived frenzy of material and gastric indulgence.  

There are more New Zealand families than ever who are struggling to even buy food. Some cannot afford Christmas presents at all.  

Some of these people might be our neighbours, or live in our street, or be elderly and alone, or visit our shops, or spend a lot of time on the streets of Opotiki.  

Small kindnesses, or large ones, are chances for us to think beyond our immediate circle to those who may not be as fortunate this Christmas.  

Here are just some ways, among many, to make a difference this Christmas:

■ Whakaatu Whanaunga Trust would love to receive food donations for their community Christmas hampers this Christmas. They also take and distribute toys (clean and usable).

■ Manna Kai toy donations – take your unwanted toys to The OneRois Barn second-hand shop located at 111 Church Street, between 9am and 6pm Tuesday to Friday. These toys will be given out to tamariki at the Manna Kai Christmas lunch on December 22.

■ Opotiki Repair Café – if you have broken toys, get them fixed at the next Repair Café on Saturday, November 29 (10am to noon at the Community Arts Centre in King Street), so they can be taken to OneRois Barn (details above).  

Thinking of others less fortunate, and going out of our way to make their Christmases just a little bit more special gives us a gift as well.  

Go ahead and try, because everyone wins.