Joymaxxing: Why people are finally choosing happiness over optimisation

From dancing to Ring My Bell at sunrise to reclaiming dopamine from endless scrolling, joymaxxing is TikTok’s quiet rebellion against productivity culture. Here, balance explores how to joymax…

TikTok is all about self-optimisation these days. How can we look better? How can we live to 110 years old? How can we get the best job and the best house? But the grind of optimisation misses out on one of life's most important factors: joy.

Relentlessly adhering to perfect routines, perfect bodies and productivity is exhausting. And in a bid to push back, the trend of joymaxxing proposes that if you deliberately engineer your life around joy, you will feel more optimised than ever.

The practice of intentionally seeking out and amplifying joy may seem trivial, but it's something that millions on TikTok seem to have forgotten how to do. Psychologists frame it less as escapism and focus more on emotional regulation. During moments of joy or indulging in something that makes you happy, your brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin are released.

These are tied to motivation, connection, and wellbeing, three of the pillars that make for a holistic and fulfilled way of living. Joymaxxing, essentially, isn’t frivolous – it’s functional.

Culturally, joymaxxing also pushes against the ‘perfect’ self-optimising agenda we have seen permeating our feeds for years. Remember ‘dopamine fasting’? In a digital world that wants us to quit dopamine to increase it (literally, what?), we all fell into the idea that pleasure has to be restricted. Maybe some of it was true, in that not all stimulation is good in the long run. But joymaxxing makes this clearer, intentionally setting a framework that pushes more meaningful stimulation.

Have you recently heard the song ‘Ring My Bell’ by Anita Ward literally everywhere? The 1979 disco classic has become the soundtrack to joymaxxers worldwide. People online are waking up to it every morning with a spring in their step, telling others it helps them start their day with a ritual that grounds them and helps them manifest what they want from the day. Hint: it’s usually joy.

Though some claim the frequencies make you achieve success quicker, these aren’t scientifically grounded. However, music does help your mood, increase your confidence, and shift your mindset towards action, which can turn into action and lead to more opportunities.

It’s impressive what a bit of absurd belief, dancing in your bedroom, and prioritising sheer joy can do for a person, too. Its physiological impact taps directly into your brain’s reward and regulation systems. Small, intentional moments of joy trigger the release of dopamine (motivation and reward), serotonin (mood stability), and oxytocin (connection), while also lowering cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone. Over time, this helps regulate your nervous system, improving energy, focus, and emotional resilience. In simple terms, it shifts your body out of a constant low-level stress state and into one where you feel safer, more balanced, and more able to engage with the world.

And when we start to focus on increasing joy and lowering stress levels, we begin to avoid the chaos around us, instinctively. We gravitate to the messier, the more immediate, and the more human. We privilege feeling over performance, and reframe dopamine, which has been misunderstood and overhyped online, as the chemical that we can actively create through natural methods.

So how do you actually do joymaxxing without turning it into another exhausting routine? Well, start with awareness, and notice what genuinely lifts your mood. It is different for everyone, and you have to reject the idea that you are performing, but instead do it for yourself. Think sunshine, music, walking, cooking, ringing an old friend, or maybe even doing something your inner child would love. Trampolining or rollerskating, anyone?

You then build these micro-moments that you can begin to stack. Instead of giant shifts that may feel intimidating, take one small moment every day. Research shows even brief moments of joy can compound into better long-term wellbeing. Next, engage your body. The difference between passive dopamine (doomscrolling) and active dopamine (joymaxxing) is movement. Dancing to ‘Ring My Bell’ can help regulate your nervous system as well as your mood. Then, make sure you reduce friction. Make joy easy for yourself, and use the tools you already have around you. Maybe pin your favourite playlist to your Spotify, leave your shoes by the door in the morning, and fold your go-to PJs on your pillow. Make it easy to access, and you will be inclined to do it.

And then the arguably most important step of them all to joymaxxing is to prioritise connection. Joy is mainly social, from laughter to interactions. Studies show relationships are one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing.

In a culture that has moestised productivity and optimisation with gamified attention, joymaxxing feels almost radical. So wake up well, press play on ‘Ring My Bell’, and joymax!