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“To me, the smell of fresh-made coffee is one of the greatest inventions.”
(Hugh Jackman)

How did you find the Happy Living community?

I first heard about Happy Living after a friend recommended that I read the book Turning Inspiration Into Action. At the time, I found myself anxious and questioning my purpose in life. But through reading this book, I learned to ask myself three questions that helped me face my issues head on:

  1. What inspires me?
  2. Why is it important to me?
  3. How will I bring change into my life?

Matt shares his personal ups and downs in the book, and in the end, he taught me the most important lesson: The ‘downs’ will come and go, so it’s important to focus on the ‘ups.’

Although a ‘Coffee Blogger’ like myself may seem like a random person to want to share their voice with Happy Living, I was excited to have the opportunity to share some of my industry knowledge with the readers of this site.

When I began to follow the Happy Living community, I was immersing myself in coffee and coffee culture. This community helped me find a greater purpose in my work, and it was one of my deciding factors in creating a blog about coffee.

Coffee is something I care deeply about not just because it’s a delicious beverage, but because it can be used as a tool to build meaningful connections with friends, colleagues, family, and even strangers.


I love converting people to the caffeinated side of life. About 83% of American adults consume coffee, so with each new convert, I’m making slow but steady progress in taking over the world when it comes to coffee fiends.

There is an old saying that irkily comes to mind when I’m addressing the final percentage of those resistant to coffee’s allure: “Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean that I should.” I mean, realistically, yeah, that’s a pretty accurate point to make in a lot of instances, and it may even apply to your decision to drink (or not drink) coffee. For certain, when it comes to coffee, you probably shouldn’t drink it if you have a sensitivity to caffeine or if it disrupts your sleep or negatively impacts your pulse. And most definitely, you’ll want to moderate your caffeine intake if you’re carrying child. As with all decisions around what you put into your body, be smart and pay attention to how you feel.

However, if coffee doesn’t produce any negative side effects for you and you’d like to add a deliciously rich brew to your daily diet, there are a lot of reasons to get on board the coffee train. Coffee has been said to reduce dry eye, to reduce the likelihood women getting skin cancer, to combat the effects of the war alcohol wages on your liver, and to lessen the risk of type 2 diabetes. What’s more, coffee boasts a dazzling array of disease-fighting antioxidants.

Coffee is literally a cup of goodness, in my humble, addicted opinion…and not just for the reasons listed above. The health benefit that I really want to talk about today is a simply expressed one: coffee makes you happier.

Once Upon a Time, Inside Your Nose…

How can coffee make you happier? Well, coffee is an experience, and it begins long before the cup warms up your hands, long before the first sip, and long before it perks you up.

The health benefits of caffeine begin from the moment you take your first smell. Quite literally, that first deep inhalation and continued tickling of the olfactory senses alone can reduce your stress, and this is the beginning of the happiness. I don’t know about all of you, but for me, less stress means less tension in my shoulders, and that makes me all kinds of merry.

While that particular study about the olfactory effect–done by a group of international scientists–was performed on rats, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that the reaction is even stronger in humans. After all, we’ve been consuming this caffeinated beverage for more than 1,000 years.

Now For the Actual Sip

After you’ve taken several deep whiffs, your shoulders are now relaxed (hopefully), and your beverage has cooled to something below “boiling lava.” That means it’s time. Now, take a nice, long sip and let’s chat about what happens as the coffee makes it way down your gullet.

This part of the story begins inside your brain, specifically in the neural membrane. In the brain, there are receptors that adenosine, a neuromodulator, binds to, unless those receptors are otherwise bonded. While this adenosine bonding is totally normal and helps you hit a state of deeper, more placid sleep for the ever-crucial beautyrest, it can be terribly inconvenient at 10 o’clock in the morning when you have seven hours of work looming ahead you.

Enter caffeine, which may as well be dressed as a brawny knight in shining armor. Coffee can contain anywhere between 30-300 mg of caffeine, depending on how you take your java. Caffeine is what fends off the tyrannic villainy of unwanted drowsiness by binding to the receptors, which now have no room for adenosine. From here, a marvelous chain of events is catalyzed: your pituitary gland makes a sound like, “what uuuuup?” and releases a bunch of hormones; those hormones affect the adrenal gland, which is where adrenaline comes from, meaning adrenaline rush; airways open; and blood is redirected from organs to muscles.

This is all excellent news anytime you need some extra something-something to get through the latest project. Or need to keep your eyes open for the meeting that 100 thousand percent could’ve—and should’ve—been an email.

Let’s Take This One Step Further

So, you’ve had your caffeine fix. It’s been 45 minutes and you’re now really awake. The next question is, how long does that caffeine boost really last? Caffeine has a life of about 4-6 hours, and during this time, there are three crucial hormones that are released:

  • Dopamine
  • Serotonin
  • Noradrenaline

These hormones, which you’ll likely recognize these from a biology lesson long past,  play a number of roles in your body. Serotonin is a natural mood stabilizer, reducing depression and anxiety. Dopamine, a chemical messenger, also helps improve working memory, while noradrenaline increases the blood output from the heart. In all of this mix is also the release of endorphins, which help reduce general pain. This is why many painkillers boast a dash of caffeine for good measure.

So, for 4-6 hours after drinking a cup of coffee, your body is going through the same series of reactions you’d experience during a “fight or flight” moment, which keeps you alert.

In Conclusion: Coffee is Great

This all together–the intoxicating smell, the soothing sips of this rich brew, and subsequent bodily response to the hormones–all end on one very beautiful note: happiness.

Don’t believe me? A study conducted by the  Harvard School of Public Health has found a direct correlation between drinking two or more cups of coffee a day and the reduction of suicide by about 50%. No rats in that study, my friend. 


Hey there, my name is Greg and I’m the creator and editor of Coffee or Bust. I provide definitive buying guide for coffee makers, espresso machines, grinders, beans, etc.

I’ve been in the coffee business for over a decade, and my goal is to help you make the best cup of coffee with recommended tips, tools, and tricks!

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