⚫︎Happiness Is a Matter of Whether Brain Chemicals Are Being Released
—How do you understand "a rich inner life"?
Kabasawa: In my book The Three Kinds of Happiness, I analyzed what happiness is from a neuroscientific perspective. When we feel "happy," "this is fun," or "I'm glad," three main substances are being released in the brain: serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine.
—What kind of happiness does each correspond to?
Kabasawa: Serotonin is the "happiness of health." It's when you take a morning walk and feel "this feels good, how refreshing," when stray thoughts vanish during zazen or meditation, when you step into a sauna and think "ah, that feels good." Next, oxytocin is the "happiness of connection." It's the substance released through communication with others—chatting with friends or a partner, playing with your children. And dopamine is the "happiness of achievement"—the intense exhilaration when you produce results at work, win a sports match, or get a raise. Feelings of happiness fall into roughly one of these three categories.
—Is there an order among the three?
Kabasawa: This is a crucial point, and I call it the "pyramid of happiness." At the base is serotonin—that is, physical and mental health. Above it is oxytocin, connection with others. Only when those two are satisfied does dopamine-type work achievement come. Most people ignore this order and cut their sleep to work. The top of the pyramid grows large with no base beneath it, so it collapses. That collapse is the onset of mental illness, and it leads to heart attacks and strokes.
⚫︎Whether You're Happy Today Determines Your Life
—Is the idea that working hard will make you happy in the future mistaken?
Kabasawa: There's an idea I really want to convey—"the differentiation of happiness." Say you want to be able to say, at age 80, "My life was happy." If you keep tracing that back, you ultimately arrive at "whether you are happy today." Seven days of today's happiness becomes "this was a happy week"; four of those becomes "this was a fun month"; twelve of those becomes "it was a good year." Conversely, from a repetition of "today was dull," you will never arrive at "it was a happy life" at age 80.
—Concretely, how can we accumulate "today's happiness"?
Kabasawa: What I recommend is the "three-line positive diary." Before bed, write down three fun things that happened today, one line each. That's all. According to the "peak-end theory," the peak and the end of a day remain strongly in human memory. By recalling fun things just before sleep, the day gets filed in memory as "today was a fun day."
—So most people are doing the opposite.
Kabasawa: Exactly. They recall being scolded at work or their failures just before bed and store those away in memory. Neuroscience has shown that what you think about right before sleep is what sticks most firmly in memory. Simply thinking about fun things as you fall asleep also improves your sleep quality. Thinking about worries excites the brain and keeps you awake, but thinking about fun things lets you drift off easily. Write the diary, then get straight into bed. This alone improves both your daily sense of happiness and your sleep quality.
—Does the diary also serve as training for metacognition?
Kabasawa: Precisely. Writing a diary means looking back on the day, and that in itself is time for self-insight. Modern people are so busy that they have almost no time to face themselves. About the only time they can take is before bed. By making a daily habit of looking back, you gradually become able to monitor yourself in everyday life as well.
⚫︎An Organization Where "Thank You" Flies Back and Forth Gets Everything Right
—I'd like to ask about how organizations should be, too. Companies inevitably tend toward results-based—that is, dopamine-leaning—cultures.
Kabasawa: Lately, the idea of "well-being management" has been spreading. Because employees work in a happy state, sales rise too, and management and customers alike become happy. It's the idea that everyone becomes happy. There's a mountain of research backing it up. What's drawing particular attention is "collective gratitude." A company where words of thanks—"thank you," "thanks for helping me"—fly back and forth in abundance gets everything right.
—Concretely, what effects does it have?
Kabasawa: There's research that examined the ratio of positive words to negative words. Companies where positive words are at least three times the negative ones do very well, and once it exceeds five times, management improves dramatically. Engagement rises, turnover falls, absences and sick leave decrease, and concentration and productivity go up. In reality, though, in many companies this ratio is probably reversed.
—So the key is for leaders to increase positive feedback.
Kabasawa: "You're working hard." "That document the other day was good." "You were here until ten last night—impressive." All you have to do is put facts like these into words and convey them. The person on the receiving end feels, "They're watching," "They're looking out for me." When you build up positive words in ordinary times, a relationship of trust develops, so when you do point out something to improve, they'll listen with an open mind.
—How can this be explained neuroscientifically?
Kabasawa: When you're kind to someone, oxytocin is released in both you and the other person. And when you exchange words of thanks—"thank you"—serotonin and dopamine are released too. In other words, kindness and gratitude alone complete all three happiness substances. What's more, serotonin and oxytocin don't diminish. A morning walk feels good even after hundreds of times, and you feel just as happy holding your baby the hundredth time as the first. Dopamine-type happiness, on the other hand—money and material pleasures—diminishes quickly. You need ever larger amounts to obtain the same pleasure. That's why a pyramid of happiness built on a foundation of serotonin and oxytocin doesn't collapse.
⚫︎Building Up "Peak Condition"
On top of health, there is connection. On top of connection, there is achievement at work. Keeping this order, Dr. Kabasawa says, is the path to creating "a rich inner life" for individuals and organizations alike. Its starting point lies in the small actions of daily life. Write down three fun things before bed. Reach out a hand to someone in trouble. Say "thank you" out loud. Each one is a small thing, but their accumulation shapes richly fulfilling days—and a life in "peak condition."
Profile
Shion Kabasawa (Psychiatrist, Author, Film Critic)
Born in Sapporo in 1965. Graduated from the School of Medicine at Sapporo Medical University in 1991 and joined the university's Department of Neuropsychiatry. From 2004, he studied for three years at the psychiatry department of the University of Illinois in Chicago. After returning to Japan, he founded the Kabasawa Psychology Institute in Tokyo. Under the vision of "preventing mental illness through the dissemination of information," he shares knowledge of psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience in accessible terms through internet media. With more than twenty years of communication experience, he has built a combined following of over one million across multiple online platforms, including his email newsletter, X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Known as "Japan's most prolific output psychiatrist," he has written 55 books (as of 2026), including The Power of Output and The Power of Input (Sanctuary Publishing), a series that has sold more than 2.7 million copies in total.
