Do You Want to
Share Your Pain or Relieve It?
Inner Mammal Institute
Loretta Breuning, PhD
Guided
Neuroplasticity

Our brain
creates
endless pain
because
• it confuses social pain with physical pain
• it equates disappointment with pain
• it blends anticipated pain with actual pain

You can escape this loop when
you know how your brain works

You can turn on your
happy brain chemicals in
new and sustainable ways
dopamine endorphin oxytocinserotonin

You can build new neural pathways
to give the electricity in your brain
a new place to flow

This presentation shows you:
1. what turns on the pain chemical (cortisol)
2. what turns on the happy chemicals
(dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphin)
3. how to build new neural pathways
to enjoy more happy chemicals and
avoid more pain chemicals

Then you will choose a new behavior or thought
pattern to stimulate the chemistry you want.
You’ll repeat it every day for 45 days without fail.

It’s not easy, but on Day 46
you’ll be so thrilled that you’ll want
to start your next rewiring project

Pain = Cortisol
1.

Cortisol is found in all mammals,
reptiles, birds, fish and mollusks

Cortisol is triggered by bodily harm
(and the anticipation of harm)

Neurons connect when
cortisol flows

This wires us to turn it on
faster in similar situations

Anticipating harm
promotes survival

This monkey escaped a lion by
climbing a tree. Now his brain is good
at scanning for trees.

Whatever turned off your cortisol
saved your life, from your mammal
brain’s perspective

Brains with more neurons can
wire in more danger signals, and
more ways to escape danger

We humans prevent harm
by anticipating it and taking action

But we can end up with
a lot of cortisol

Cortisol works by making you
feel bad so you do
what it takes to make it stop

This zebra would rather be eating,
but smelling a lion triggers
more cortisol than hunger

It scans for evidence of threat so
it can do what it takes to relieve the
bad feeling and go back to grazing

Cortisol is nature’s
emergency broadcast system

Your cortisol makes you feel
bad when you get a whiff of
anything that hurt you before

It alerts
your brain
to scan for
potential
threat

A big brain is good at finding
threat when it looks

When there’s no immediate threat,
you scan out for
distant, subtle threats that fit
the neural pathways you have

The electricity in your brain
flows like water in a storm.
It finds the paths of least resistance.

You can end up feeling
threatened all the time

To make matters worse,
we mammals feel social pain
as well as physical pain

Social pain is the cortisol that
surges when you see a potential
threat to your social needs

In the state of nature,
social pain = physical pain
because separation from the herd is an
immediate survival threat

Your genes are annihilated
if you don’t meet
social needs

Natural selection built a
brain that makes social
disappointment feel urgent

Any social pain in your past
connected neurons that flow
to your cortisol today

To complicate things further,
happy brain chemicals mask
cortisol, but only for a moment

Happy chemicals distract
you from cortisol
dopamine oxytocin endorphinserotonin

But their natural spurts are
brief and they’re soon
metabolized

When a happy chemical spurt ends,
you might confuse that with pain

This is why we keep looking
for ways to stimulate our
happy chemicals

But many ways of
stimulating them have
bad consequences

You can end up with more
cortisol

To make things
even worse,
disappointment
triggers cortisol

It’s easy to see why from the
lion’s perspective
This lion will starve to death if it
keeps chasing a zebra that got away

Cortisol surges when your
expectations are not met, which
motivates you to stop investing
energy in a failed pursuit

This is nature’s operating system
Happy chemicals
motivate you to
approach rewards
and
unhappy
chemicals warn
you to avoid harm

Nature’s operating system
motivated our ancestors
to do what it takes
to survive
in the
harshest
conditions

But we all end up with
some pathways
we’d rather
do without

It’s not easy being a mammal

But you can build
new neural pathways to turn on
your happy chemicals in new ways

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

You can give your electricity
a new place to flow

Let’s look
closer at what
turns on the
happy
chemicals
2.

Good feelings are
brain chemicals we’ve
inherited from earlier mammals
dopamine endorphinoxytocinserotonin

It would be nice if they flowed all the
time, but they are there to do a job

Your brain
rewards you with
a good feeling
when you do
something good
for your survival

But
our brain
defines
survival in
quirky ways

1. It cares
about the
survival
of your
genes
(even putting your body at risk
to promote “reproductive success”)

2. It relies
on neural
pathways
built in
youth
(even though early experience
is rarely a reliable survival guide)

This is why happy chemical spurts
can be hard to make sense of

Your brain turns on a
happy chemical when it
sees a way to meet a need

But the spurt is soon over
and you have to do more
to get more.

This makes life frustrating
for everyone

Our brain evolved to seek
happy chemicals because
in the state of nature,
what feels good is good for you
dopamine endorphin oxytocinserotonin

Let’s see why they spurt in
nature, and why they
droop after they spurt

Dopamine
is the great feeling
that a reward is at hand

Dopamine
releases energy for the chase

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

Oxytocin
is often called
the “love chemical”

Oxytocin is stimulated by
touch
and
trust

Oxytocin droops when you’re
separated from the herd,
which makes
you feel like
your survival
is threatened

Serotonin
is the pleasure of
social dominance

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

Serotonin
is soon
reabsorbed,
so we are
always looking
for ways to
stimulate more

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

Endorphin is triggered by
pain. You get a little bit
from vigorous exertion.

Endorphin droops after
it spurts because pain is
urgent survival information

Dopamine rewards you for the
effort of steps toward your needs.
Serotonin rewards you for getting
respect from others.
Oxytocin rewards you for finding
the safety of social support.
Endorphin rewards you for action
that relieves pain.

3. Let’s see how your brain
builds the pathways that
control your happy chemicals

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

Connections got built each time
something felt good or bad

Your pathways got built
from lived experience

Each
dopamine
spurt
connected
neurons that
turn on the
good feeling
in similar
circumstances

Each serotonin or oxytocin spurt
wired you to seek more
good feelings in similar ways

Your electricity flows
effortlessly where it
flowed before

You got wired by the accidents
of your past experience

Reptiles are born hard-wired with
the experience of their ancestors.
They leave
home at birth
because they
already have
survival skills.

Mammal brains get wired
from life experience

The bigger a creature’s brain,
the more helpless it is at birth and the more it
relies on neural pathways built from experience

Experience includes mirror neurons,
which turn on when
we see others get rewards or pain

Mirroring wires
a little monkey
to do what it
takes to meet
its survival
needs

It must master the skill
in order to eat

Mirror neurons can wire you to
reproduce pain you observe
even when you face no real threat

Each mammal gets wired to seek
happy chemicals in ways that
worked before

Building new pathways later on
is not easy because old pathways
feel normal and natural

Electricity flows effortlessly
down old pathways because
they got paved
by a substance
called myelin

Myelination peaks before
age 8, and again in puberty

This is why old patterns may
repeat despite our best intentions

You can blaze a new trail
through your jungle of neurons

But it takes a lot of effort
to activate a new pathway

And after all that, your new trail
will disappear into the jungle
unless you blaze it every day

The new trail may feel wrong
even when you know it’s right

But it will feel natural in 45 days
if you repeat your new pattern
without fail

Your old path will still be there, but your
electricity will have a new place to flow

You can wire in behaviors that turn on
your happy chemicals in new ways

For example, you can stimulate the joy of
dopamine by taking steps toward a goal
Results are
unpredictable but
you can always
adjust your
expectations and
take another step

You can stimulate the pleasure of
oxytocin with small acts of trust
It’s not safe to
trust always and
everywhere.
We’re designed
to make careful
decisions about
when to trust.

You can stimulate the pleasure of serotonin
by finding the good in what you have
You can feel important
without putting others
down or waiting for
them to put you up

You can enjoy endorphin
through laughter and exercise
We are NOT designed to inflict pain on
ourselves. Small endorphin drips are enough.

Habits of a
Happy Brain
Retrain Your Brain to Boost
Your Serotonin, Dopamine,
Oxytocin, and Endorphin
$11.00
Detailed suggestions for each chemical
and a step-by-step plan are in:
by Dr. Loretta Breuning

Don’t just share your pain it.
Relieve it!

You’ll be glad you did

Free resources for rewiring your
happy chemicals at InnerMammalInstitute.org
• Youtube video:
Your Ups and Downs Are Natural …and also learned
• 5-day Happy Chemical Jumpstart
• infographics: You Have Power Over Your Brain
• PsychologyToday.com blog: Your Neurochemical Self
• a training program

Dopamine
Serotonin
Oxytocin
Endorphin
Plan your new circuits:

Dopamine
Dopamine makes you jump for joy
when you reach a goal or get a toy.
Innature,ithelpsfindfoodwhenyouneedit.
“Eureka, I got it!” A memory gets created.
Dopamine causes expectations.
Correct predictions bring good sensations.
Dopamine feels great so you try to get more.
It rewarded our ancestors trudging through gore.
Cocaine triggers dopamine. Caution to all:
Joy without goal-seeking leads to a fall.
Dopamine flows when you feel like “I’ve done it.”
Whenothersdoitforyou,yourdopaminewillshunit.

Serotonin swells your chest with pride
When you get respect and needn’t hide.
Yourbrainfeelsgoodwhenyouboostyourselfhigher.
But when others do this, it provokes your ire.
“I don’t care about status. It’s other who do.”
Butyouspurtserotoninwhenthelimelight’s on you.
You are quite modest and don’t like to boast.
But no serotonin flows when you coast.
Status doesn’t depend on money.
You can be clever or helpful or funny.
But when others one-up you, your mind agitates.
‘Cause serotonin droops ‘til you lift your own weights.
Serotonin

Oxytocin
Oxytocin makes you trust your mates.
We love the bonds that it creates.
Oxytocinflowswhenyoustickwiththeherd.
“Notme!” youmaysay,“I’mnobovine orbird.”
But without social bonds, your brain feels alarm.
This protected our ancestors from all kinds of harm.
Thoughtheherdwillannoyyou,thepackhurt you so.
When you run with a pack, oxytocin will flow.
“My pack is great and the other is nuts.”
This thinking prevailed since the first mammal struts.
You’re above all this foolishness, obviously.
But it feels good when I trust you and you trust me.

Endorphin
Endorphin helps you mask the pain
Of injuries that you sustain.
Yourancestorsescapedfrompredatorattack
‘Causeendorphinfelt goodwhile theyranback.
Endorphin feels great when it eases your pains.
But only real pain makes it flow in your veins.
Exercise triggers it, experts alert you.
But first you must do it ‘til body parts hurt you.
Endorphin receptors let opium in.
So you feel like you’re safe without lifting a shin.
Laughing and crying can trigger it too.
But just for a moment– then the job’s through.