The Happy Brain

My guest, Victoria Puzach, helps digital nomads be more productive…but are nomads happy? worktravelsummit.com

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can turn on your happy chemicals in healthy new ways.

Your host, Loretta Breuning PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.” Details at: https://innermammalinstitute.org

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals. Your mammal brain controls the chemicals that make you feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. These chemicals are released for reasons that don’t make sense to our verbal human brain. When you know what these chemicals do in animals, your ups and downs make sense!

Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behavior, not to make you feel good all the time. Each happy chemical has a special job. When it turns on, it paves neural pathways that turn it on more easily in the future. That’s why we repeat behaviors that we’d rather do without. Fortunately, you can re-wire yourself to stimulate them in sustainable ways.

But it’s hard. It’s like learning a foreign language: it takes a lot of repetition. Yet people do it every day. You can be one of them! You can design a new path to your happy chemicals and repeat it until it’s strong enough to turn on easily. The Inner Mammal Institute shows you how.

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s books explain the big picture and help you plot your course step by step. No matter where you are right now, you can enjoy more happy chemicals in healthy ways. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

I learn about an app that holds your personal health data (Andaman7) from its creator, Vincent Keunan, whose personal experience with health records was sad but illuminating.

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can turn on your happy chemicals in healthy new ways.

Your host, Loretta Breuning PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.” Details at: https://innermammalinstitute.org

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals. Your mammal brain controls the chemicals that make you feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. These chemicals are released for reasons that don’t make sense to our verbal human brain. When you know what these chemicals do in animals, your ups and downs make sense!

Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behavior, not to make you feel good all the time. Each happy chemical has a special job. When it turns on, it paves neural pathways that turn it on more easily in the future. That’s why we repeat behaviors that we’d rather do without. Fortunately, you can re-wire yourself to stimulate them in sustainable ways.

But it’s hard. It’s like learning a foreign language: it takes a lot of repetition. Yet people do it every day. You can be one of them! You can design a new path to your happy chemicals and repeat it until it’s strong enough to turn on easily. The Inner Mammal Institute shows you how.

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s books explain the big picture and help you plot your course step by step. No matter where you are right now, you can enjoy more happy chemicals in healthy ways. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Mediator and dispute resolution expert Arabella Tresilian explains her method of cooling down entrenched conflicts. (arabellatresilian.com)

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can turn on your happy chemicals in healthy new ways.

Your host, Loretta Breuning PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.” Details at: https://innermammalinstitute.org

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals. Your mammal brain controls the chemicals that make you feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. These chemicals are released for reasons that don’t make sense to our verbal human brain. When you know what these chemicals do in animals, your ups and downs make sense!

Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behavior, not to make you feel good all the time. Each happy chemical has a special job. When it turns on, it paves neural pathways that turn it on more easily in the future. That’s why we repeat behaviors that we’d rather do without. Fortunately, you can re-wire yourself to stimulate them in sustainable ways.

But it’s hard. It’s like learning a foreign language: it takes a lot of repetition. Yet people do it every day. You can be one of them! You can design a new path to your happy chemicals and repeat it until it’s strong enough to turn on easily. The Inner Mammal Institute shows you how.

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s books explain the big picture and help you plot your course step by step. No matter where you are right now, you can enjoy more happy chemicals in healthy ways. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

I learn about the nervous system from fire-walking chiropractor, Dr. Josh Handt.

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can turn on your happy chemicals in healthy new ways.

Your host, Loretta Breuning PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.” Details at: https://innermammalinstitute.org

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals. Your mammal brain controls the chemicals that make you feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. These chemicals are released for reasons that don’t make sense to our verbal human brain. When you know what these chemicals do in animals, your ups and downs make sense!

Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behavior, not to make you feel good all the time. Each happy chemical has a special job. When it turns on, it paves neural pathways that turn it on more easily in the future. That’s why we repeat behaviors that we’d rather do without. Fortunately, you can re-wire yourself to stimulate them in sustainable ways.

But it’s hard. It’s like learning a foreign language: it takes a lot of repetition. Yet people do it every day. You can be one of them! You can design a new path to your happy chemicals and repeat it until it’s strong enough to turn on easily. The Inner Mammal Institute shows you how.

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s books explain the big picture and help you plot your course step by step. No matter where you are right now, you can enjoy more happy chemicals in healthy ways. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Early experience shapes your relationship with money in surprising ways, explains “Anatomy of Money” founder Deborah Fryer. (DeborahFryer.com)

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can turn on your happy chemicals in healthy new ways.

Your host, Loretta Breuning PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.” Details at: https://innermammalinstitute.org

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals. Your mammal brain controls the chemicals that make you feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. These chemicals are released for reasons that don’t make sense to our verbal human brain. When you know what these chemicals do in animals, your ups and downs make sense!

Our happy chemicals evolved to reward survival behavior, not to make you feel good all the time. Each happy chemical has a special job. When it turns on, it paves neural pathways that turn it on more easily in the future. That’s why we repeat behaviors that we’d rather do without. Fortunately, you can re-wire yourself to stimulate them in sustainable ways.

But it’s hard. It’s like learning a foreign language: it takes a lot of repetition. Yet people do it every day. You can be one of them! You can design a new path to your happy chemicals and repeat it until it’s strong enough to turn on easily. The Inner Mammal Institute shows you how.

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s books explain the big picture and help you plot your course step by step. No matter where you are right now, you can enjoy more happy chemicals in healthy ways. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Video confidence coach Janie Peters chats with me about overcoming fear of speaking live on video.

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can blaze new trails to your happy chemicals too.

Your host, Loretta Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels."

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand your inner mammal. Good feelings come from brain chemicals we've inherited from earlier mammals. They evolved to do a job, not to make you feel good all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. More important, you can re-wire yourself to enjoy more of them in sustainable ways.

It’s not easy, alas. Our brain is designed to release happy chemicals when you take steps that promote survival. But our brain defines survival in a quirky way: it cares about the survival of your genes and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. To make things even harder, our brain habituates to the rewards it has so you always have to do more to get more happy chemicals.

We are not born with survival skills like our animal ancestors. Each newborn human wires itself from its own early experience. Happy chemicals are like paving on your neural pathways, wiring you to repeat behaviors that made you feel good before. This is why our urgent motivations don’t make sense to our verbal brain. It’s not easy being mammal!

When you know how your brain works, you can find healthier ways to enjoy happy chemicals and relieve unhappy chemicals. You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. But you have to design the new experiences carefully and repeat them— a lot!

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s many books illuminate the big picture and help you plot your course. You can feel good in new ways, no matter where you are right now. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Great questions on cortisol, adrenaline, sex, bonding and 14 Days to Sustainable Happiness, with reader Kristen Helmstetter.

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can blaze new trails to your happy chemicals too.

Your host, Loretta Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels."

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand your inner mammal. Good feelings come from brain chemicals we've inherited from earlier mammals. They evolved to do a job, not to make you feel good all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. More important, you can re-wire yourself to enjoy more of them in sustainable ways.

It’s not easy, alas. Our brain is designed to release happy chemicals when you take steps that promote survival. But our brain defines survival in a quirky way: it cares about the survival of your genes and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. To make things even harder, our brain habituates to the rewards it has so you always have to do more to get more happy chemicals.

We are not born with survival skills like our animal ancestors. Each newborn human wires itself from its own early experience. Happy chemicals are like paving on your neural pathways, wiring you to repeat behaviors that made you feel good before. This is why our urgent motivations don’t make sense to our verbal brain. It’s not easy being mammal!

When you know how your brain works, you can find healthier ways to enjoy happy chemicals and relieve unhappy chemicals. You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. But you have to design the new experiences carefully and repeat them— a lot!

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s many books illuminate the big picture and help you plot your course. You can feel good in new ways, no matter where you are right now. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Juleus Ghunta wrote a children’s book to help build literacy in children with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) like his own (Rohan Bullkin and the Shadows).

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can blaze new trails to your happy chemicals too.

Your host, Loretta Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels."

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand your inner mammal. Good feelings come from brain chemicals we've inherited from earlier mammals. They evolved to do a job, not to make you feel good all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. More important, you can re-wire yourself to enjoy more of them in sustainable ways.

It’s not easy, alas. Our brain is designed to release happy chemicals when you take steps that promote survival. But our brain defines survival in a quirky way: it cares about the survival of your genes and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. To make things even harder, our brain habituates to the rewards it has so you always have to do more to get more happy chemicals.

We are not born with survival skills like our animal ancestors. Each newborn human wires itself from its own early experience. Happy chemicals are like paving on your neural pathways, wiring you to repeat behaviors that made you feel good before. This is why our urgent motivations don’t make sense to our verbal brain. It’s not easy being mammal!

When you know how your brain works, you can find healthier ways to enjoy happy chemicals and relieve unhappy chemicals. You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. But you have to design the new experiences carefully and repeat them— a lot!

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s many books illuminate the big picture and help you plot your course. You can feel good in new ways, no matter where you are right now. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

These addictions are status problems in the opinion of my guest, masculinity coach Mark Queppet.

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can blaze new trails to your happy chemicals too.

Your host, Loretta Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels."

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand your inner mammal. Good feelings come from brain chemicals we've inherited from earlier mammals. They evolved to do a job, not to make you feel good all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. More important, you can re-wire yourself to enjoy more of them in sustainable ways.

It’s not easy, alas. Our brain is designed to release happy chemicals when you take steps that promote survival. But our brain defines survival in a quirky way: it cares about the survival of your genes and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. To make things even harder, our brain habituates to the rewards it has so you always have to do more to get more happy chemicals.

We are not born with survival skills like our animal ancestors. Each newborn human wires itself from its own early experience. Happy chemicals are like paving on your neural pathways, wiring you to repeat behaviors that made you feel good before. This is why our urgent motivations don’t make sense to our verbal brain. It’s not easy being mammal!

When you know how your brain works, you can find healthier ways to enjoy happy chemicals and relieve unhappy chemicals. You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. But you have to design the new experiences carefully and repeat them— a lot!

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s many books illuminate the big picture and help you plot your course. You can feel good in new ways, no matter where you are right now. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp

Is it new? Is it you? I discuss social awkwardness with “Focus on the Forty” founder, Anthony Poponi. (The 40% of happiness he believes we control.)

THE HAPPY BRAIN PODCAST helps you blaze new trails to your dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. My guests are pioneers in retraining the inner mammal. I love learning from them! Listen in and subscribe so you can blaze new trails to your happy chemicals too.

Your host, Loretta Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of "Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels."

Life is more peaceful and satisfying when you understand your inner mammal. Good feelings come from brain chemicals we've inherited from earlier mammals. They evolved to do a job, not to make you feel good all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. More important, you can re-wire yourself to enjoy more of them in sustainable ways.

It’s not easy, alas. Our brain is designed to release happy chemicals when you take steps that promote survival. But our brain defines survival in a quirky way: it cares about the survival of your genes and it relies on neural pathways built in youth. To make things even harder, our brain habituates to the rewards it has so you always have to do more to get more happy chemicals.

We are not born with survival skills like our animal ancestors. Each newborn human wires itself from its own early experience. Happy chemicals are like paving on your neural pathways, wiring you to repeat behaviors that made you feel good before. This is why our urgent motivations don’t make sense to our verbal brain. It’s not easy being mammal!

When you know how your brain works, you can find healthier ways to enjoy happy chemicals and relieve unhappy chemicals. You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. But you have to design the new experiences carefully and repeat them— a lot!

The Inner Mammal Institute has free resources to help you make peace with your inner mammal: videos, blogs, infographics, and podcasts. Dr. Breuning’s many books illuminate the big picture and help you plot your course. You can feel good in new ways, no matter where you are right now. Get the details at InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at InnerMammalInstitute.org/musicbywmsharp