It would be nice if our happy chemicals just flowed all the time, but that's not how they're designed to work. When you know the job they do in animals, you know why they turn on in humans, and why they're not on all the time. Here's how to rewire yourself to stimulate happy chemicals and avoid stress chemicals. And more important, how to accept the brain you've got. It's not easy being a mammal!

1. You Can Manage Your
Brain
Chemicals
Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD
Inner Mammal Institute

2. The psychology I learned in school
didn’t explain the brain chemicals
that cause our ups and downs

3. “Nature is good.
Our society is bad.”
We learned that

4. This takes
happiness as
a default state
that comes effortlessly
unless something goes wrong.

5. This wasn’t working for me so
I searched for a better explanation
of human ups and downs.

6. I learned that happiness
comes from brain chemicals
inherited from earlier mammals.
Dopamine Serotonin Oxytocin Endorphin

7. When you know how these
chemicals work in animals, the
ups and downs of life make sense.

8. Dopamine
is the great feeling
that a reward is at hand

9. Dopamine
releases energy for the chase

10. Oxytocin
is the good feeling we call “trust”

11. Oxytocin
is stimulated by touch
and by safety in numbers

12. Serotonin
is the pleasure of
social dominance

13. Serotonin
is not
aggression
but the
calm sense
that “I will
get the
banana”

14. Endorphin masks pain
so you can do what
it takes to survive

15. Endorphin
trickles with laughing,
crying, and exercise

16. Our happy chemicals are not
meant to be on all the time

17. They are controlled by
brain structures
inherited
from
earlier
animals

18. Your mammal brain rewards you with
a good-feeling chemical when you
see a way to meet a survival need

19. It alarms you with a bad feeling
when you see a survival threat

20. But it defines survival in a quirky way
It cares about the survival of your genes, and
it relies on neural pathways you built in youth

21. Ups and downs are
inevitable

22. Happy chemicals droop after they
spurt. You have to do more to get more.
dopamine oxytocin endorphinserotonin

23. Dopamine
droops once you get the reward
until
you set
your sights
on another
reward

24. Oxytocin droops when you’re
separated from the herd
and it feels
like your
survival is
threatened

25. Serotonin is reabsorbed quickly so
we seek another social advantage
to stimulate more

26. Endorphin is
“endogenous morphine”
It droops 20 min.
after an injury
because pain
is vital info

27. A droop is
nature’s reset button
A return to neutral makes you ready for
the next opportunity to meet your needs

28. But we end up frustrated

29. Dopamine Frustration
Dopamine quickly habituates to old rewards,
so you have to keep finding new rewards to enjoy it.

30. Oxytocin Frustration
Following the herd is annoying but leaving
the herd for greener pasture feels unsafe.

31. Serotonin Frustration
Your mammal brain cares about your status
as if your life depended on it, so a
status threat feels like a survival threat.

32. Endorphin Frustration
Inflicting more pain on yourself to enjoy
more endorphin is a very bad survival strategy.

33. It helps to know that monkeys had
similar frustrations 50 million years ago

34. Frustration is cortisol, the brain’s
emergency broadcast system

35. Cortisol
alerts you
to scan for
evidence of
potential
threat.

36. We can end up with a lot
of cortisol
because:

37. 1.
A big brain anticipates future threats instead
of just responding to immediate threats.

38. 2.
Disappointed expectations trigger cortisol

39. 3.
Disappointed social expectations trigger cortisol

40. Cortisol motivates us to do what it
takes to stimulate happy chemicals
hence the
excesses
well known
to us all

41. You can
turn on your
happy chemicals
in new, more
sustainable ways

42. Your happy
chemicals are
controlled by
neural pathways
built from early
experience

43. You can wire in
a new circuit if
you repeat a
new behavior
every day for
45 days

44. It helps to
know how
your brain
builds its
pathways

45. You were born with billions of neurons
but
very few connections between them

46. You built the connections
from life experience

47. Each time something felt good or bad,
your brain made a connection

48. Your good and bad feelings are brain chemicals
that pave your neural pathways.

49. We all get
wired to
feel good in
ways that
felt good
before

50. And
feel bad
in ways that
felt bad
before

51. The electricity in your brain
flows like water in a storm,
finding the paths of least resistance

52. Your electricity keeps flowing down your
old paths unless you build new ones

53. Your old paths support
your valuable skills

54. But we each have some paths
we’re better off without

55. You can wire
in a new
behavior or
thought
pattern
to replace
an old one

56. It feels bad at first

57. It’s like slashing a new
trail in the forest

58. It feels unsafe because electricity has
trouble flowing along unconnected neurons

59. And after much effort,
the new trail disappears quickly

60. But if you use it every day for 45
days, a new trail gets established

61. Every day without fail

62. This is hard to do because the
brain’s super-highways are paved
in youth when
myelin
is
abundant

63. And because primal behaviors trigger
more happy chemicals in the short run

64. And because frustrating trade-offs
are part of a mammal’s life
•When you step toward
greener pasture (dopamine),
you move away from the safety
of social bonds (oxytocin).
•When you step toward
social importance (serotonin)
you may get disappointment (cortisol)
or a strain on social bonds (oxytocin).

65. It’s nice to know that making
tough choices is the job our
brain evolved to do

66. It’s nice to know
your survival is
not actually
threatened when
cortisol makes it
feel that way

67. You can feel good
when you
do things
that are
good
for you

68. If you choose a new pattern
carefully and
repeat it
until a
new circuit
is built

69. Dopamine
Serotonin
Oxytocin
Endorphin
Plan your new circuits:

70. free resources from the Inner Mammal Institute
learn more about
your happy chemicals
podcasts
videos
infographics
training certification
slide shows (incl this)
5-day Happy-Chemical Jumpstart
www.InnerMammalInstitute.org

71. Habits of a Happy Brain
Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin,
dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin
Beyond Cynical
Transcend Your Mammalian Negativity
I, Mammal
Why Your Brain Links Status
and Happiness
Books by L. Breuning, PhD

72. Loretta@InnerMammalInstitute.org
contact me

73. one more thing

74. Don’t compare
yourself to others

75. Don’t compare
yourself to others

76. Don’t compare
yourself to others

77. Don’t compare
yourself to others

78. Don’t compare
yourself to others

79. Don’t compare
yourself to others

80. Don’t compare
yourself to others