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Sustainable Happiness.pdf
The document discusses the concept of sustainable happiness, focusing on how to rewire the brain to maintain positive emotions through healthier habits. It emphasizes understanding the roles of various brain chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and cortisol, and building new pathways to stimulate them sustainably. The author, Loretta Breuning, provides a workbook to guide readers through this process over 14 days.
Sustainable Happiness.pdf
- 1. Loretta Breuning, PhD InnerMammal Institute innermammalinstitute.org Sustainable Happiness Rewire your brain to feel good in ways that are good for you
- 2. 14 Days toSustainable Happiness a workbook for every brain based on the book by Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD • Professor Emerita, California State U. • Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute • author of • Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels • Tame Your Anxiety: Rewiring Your Brain for Happiness • YouTube series: You Have Power Over Your Brain $9 paper, $7 ebook, $9 audio Spanish, Chinese and French editions coming soon
- 3. There are manyways to feel good Some are sustainable Some are not
- 4. Some things feelgood in the short run but hurt you in the long run That’s NOT sustainable!
- 5. You can probablythink of 10 unsustainable happy habits in 10 seconds
- 6. It’s a badloop: When you feel bad, you want to do whatever makes you feel better. But the bad consequences trigger bad feelings, which send you back to the unsustainable habit again.
- 7. Fortunately, there are sustainableways to feel good
- 8. It’s harder tothink of them. Why?
- 9. We humans have2 brains: the animal brain that controls our emotions the human cortex that controls our speech human cortex animal brain
- 10. The limbic brainwe’ve inherited from animals controls the chemicals that make you feel good or bad
- 11. Your animal braincannot process language, so it cannot tell you in words why it’s releasing a chemical
- 12. Our two brainsare literally not on speaking terms. When you talk to yourself, it’s all in your cortex.
- 13. Fortunately, you canteach your two brains to work together like a horse and rider
- 14. You can trainyour brain to turn on good feelings in ways that are good for you in the long run
- 15. You can fi nd safeways to give your inner mammal what it needs
- 16. You have powerover your happy brain chemicals
- 17. But it’s limited,so let’s look closely at how it works:
- 18. Our brain evolvedto promote survival, not to make you happy
- 19. It rewards youwith happy chemicals when you see a way to promote your survival
- 20. It alarms youwith threat chemicals when you see a potential threat to your survival
- 21. But it de fi nesrewards and threats in a quirky way
- 22. Neurons connect whenyour chemicals fl ow, which wires you to respond to the rewards and threats of your past
- 23. Whatever felt goodin your past wired you to seek that
- 24.
- 25. Whatever felt badin your past wired you to avoid that
- 26.
- 27.
- 28. You can learnto notice your old pathways and build new ones
- 29. You can buildnew dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and cortisol pathways cortisol dopamine oxytocin serotonin
- 30. You can blazea new trail thru your jungle of neurons
- 31. You will givethe electricity in your brain a new place to fl ow
- 32. 1. Know thejob of each chemical in the animal world 2. Notice your old paths for stimulating them 3. Build a new pathway by repeating a new choice 3 Simple Steps
- 33. Let’s try asimple example
- 34. Ice cream makesme happy
- 35. But if Ieat ice cream whenever I feel bad, it’s NOT sustainable!
- 36. 1. Know thejob of each chemical in the state of nature dopamine endorphin oxytocin serotonin
- 37. My dopamine isstimulated by ice cream because fat and sugar are scarce in the state of nature
- 38. My oxytocin isstimulated by ice cream because my herd bonded around it when I was young
- 39. My serotonin isstimulated by ice cream because it was the reward for achievement when I was young
- 40. My cortisol isrelieved by ice cream because I don’t think about threats while I’m eating it
- 41. 2 . Recognizeyour old pathways
- 42. I enjoy dopamineas soon as I think about getting an ice cream because a pathway for positive expectations was built in my past
- 43. When I wantsocial support (oxytocin), my mind fl ows to ice cream because past experience built that pathway
- 44. When I wantsocial importance (serotonin), I take action & reward myself w. ice cream
- 45. When I wantto relieve cortisol, I think of ice cream because it distracted me from threatened feelings in my past
- 46. 3. Build anew pathway by repeating a new choice
- 47. Sustainable ways tostimulate my dopamine: any step toward a reward, if I expect to reach it
- 48. Sustainable ways tostimulate my oxytocin: any step toward social trust, if I expect protection
- 49. Sustainable ways tostimulate my serotonin: any step I take pride in, without putting down others fast lane sustainable slow lane
- 50. Sustainable ways toavoid cortisol 30 minutes of down time to metabolize it, then 5 minutes of problem-solving action
- 51. Happy chemicals comefrom realistic expectations, not idealized theories about what life should be
- 52. Ups and downsare natural because happy chemicals are only released in short spurts
- 53. But you canhave more ups by giving your inner mammal what it needs in safe ways
- 54. You will builda pathway that expects good feelings
- 55. Does this seemhard?
- 56.
- 57. 1. There isno free happy chemical, so everyone faces the same dilemma. No one gets them effortlessly. Accept the inner mammal in yourself and others.
- 58. 2. Small stepstrigger happy chemicals Only a bit, but your next step triggers more. You can feel good by taking small steps continually instead of questing for big surges.
- 59. 3. The InnerMammal Institute can help. We have dozens of free resources + many books to help you make peace with your inner mammal. Inner Mammal Institute you have power over your mammalian brain chemicals
- 60. 14 Days toSustainable Happiness a workbook for every brain Day 1 Your Power Over Your Brain Day 2 Th e Joy of Dopamine Day 3 Th e Safety of Oxytocin Day 4 Th e Pride of Serotonin Day 5 Th e Challenge of Endorphin Day 6 Th e Pain of Cortisol Day 7 Your Dopamine Past Day 8 Your Oxytocin Past Day 9 Your Serotonin Past Day 10 Your Cortisol Past Day 11 Your Dopamine Future Day 12 Your Oxytocin Future Day 13 Your Serotonin Future Day 14 Design Your Sustainable Path $9 paper, $7 ebook, $9 audio contents
- 61. Habits of a HappyBrain Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Endorphin $11
- 62. books podcasts videos infographics training certi fi cation slide shows(incl this) 5-day Happy-Chemical Jumpstart all free except the books innermammalinstitute.org The Inner Mammal Institute has the resources you need to make peace with your inner mammal
- 63.