Rebel Research Radio

Dopamine creates the feeling of excitement when you anticipate a new way to meet a need, but you have power over the way you define that.This podcast is a live call-in with Loretta Breuning, PhD, author of Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels. Questions? InnerMammalInstitute.org/podcast.Happiness is caused by four special brain chemicals: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. When you know how they work in animals, you can find your power over them in daily life.The happy chemicals are not designed to flow all the time for no reason. They evolved to reward behaviors that promote survival in the state of nature. They are only released in short spurts, so you always have to do more to get more. This makes life frustrating!Our chemicals are controlled by neural pathways built from life experience. Neurons connect when your happy chemicals flow, which wires you to repeat behaviors that felt good before. Fortunately, you can re-wire yo