This episode is just me because I want to explain my skepticism about the research we get from academic psychology. Get the full text here: https://innermammalinstitute.org/theproblem/ or watch it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emsI9pxYWUQ

Check out my new video course, Train Your Inner Mammal to Feel Good Now https://innermammalinstitute.org/course
Get 10% off with the code ReaderDiscount at the checkout. You will learn to rewire your happy chemicals with small simple steps!

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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.o...

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 https://InnerMammalInstitute.o....

Music from Sonatina Soleil by W.M. Sharp. Hear more of it at https://InnerMammalInstitute.o...