Dopamine makes you feel good when you anticipate a reward. It evolved to promote survival, not to make you happy. But our brain defines survival in quirky ways, so we do quirky things to stimulate it. Fortunately, you can rewire yourself to turn on the good feeling of dopamine in new ways.

1. Your Power Over
Dopamine
Dr Loretta Breuning
Inner Mammal Institute
dopamine endorphi
n
oxytoci
n
serotonin

2. Me in 1969

3. Dopamine rewards you with a good
feeling when you meet a survival need.

4. So why do we do
things that are
bad for survival
to stimulate
dopamine?

5. Here are 3 ways that the natural
urge for dopamine leads to
harmful habits

6. and 3 ways to
build new,
healthier
dopamine-
seeking habits.

7. #1
Relieving a threat boosts dopamine,
so we seek things that relieved a
threatened feeling for us before.

8. Our brain evolved to promote
survival, not to make you feel good.

9. The brain rewards you with a good
feeling when you do something good
for your survival.

10. Escaping a threat is VERY good for
survival, so it gets a big reward.

11. When there’s no real threat, escaping
a threatened feeling
gets a big reward.

12. Hunger is a big threat in the state of
nature, and the brain rewards you with
dopamine when you relieve hunger.

13. The good feeling flows
before you reach the food.

14. It motivates steps toward
rewards.

15. Small steps toward rewards
stimulate dopamine as long as you
see the reward getting closer.

16. escaping threat = dopamine
finding food = dopamine
threat = cortisol

17. If climbing a
tree brought
relief before,
your brain gets
wired to look for trees.

18. Relief is a
dopamine
surge that
wires you
to anticipate more relief
in that way in the future.

19. When your
belly is full,
threat-relief
seems
especially
rewarding

20. Relief:
1. effective problem-solving
2. distraction
3. unnatural rewards

21. #2 Our dopamine is
controlled by
neural
pathways
built from
past experience.

22. Early experience builds
the biggest pathways
thanks to myelin.

23. Myelin peaks in
adolescence.

24. Myelinated neurons are up
to 100 times more efficient.

25. By the time you understand the
survival consequences of your relief
habit, it is already myelinated

26. Neurons connect when dopamine
flows, which wires you to expect
reward where you got it before.

27. The electricity in your brain flows
like water in a storm, finding the
paths of least resistance.

28. In adulthood,
we use the
pathways
myelinated in youth
without conscious
intent.

29. Each brain sees the world
through the lens of its
adolescent rewards.

30. Dopamine motivates you to
seek what
brought relief in youth.

31. #3
Our brain
cares
about the
survival of
its genes.

32. It rewards you with
dopamine
when you do
something
good for the
survival of your genes.

33. No conscious interest in your genes is
necessary- for animals, teens, or us.

34. Natural selection built a brain
that rewards risk-taking.

35. Something
bad for your
body can be
good for the
survival of
your genes.

36. Social acceptance is good for your
genes, so your brain rewards it even
when not good for your body.

37. Social dominance is good
for your genes, and your
limbic brain rewards it.

38. The social rewards of your youth
built pathways that turn on your
reward expectations today.

39. In short: our brain defines survival
in a quirky way, so we do quirky
things to stimulate dopamine.

40. Dopamine pathways
build from:
1. threat relief
2. early rewards
3. social rewards

41. How can we re-wire
these pathways?

42. Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition
Repetition

43. Seek a new reward repeatedly
and a pathway will build.

44. It’s
HARD

45. Conundrum #1
When you don’t expect a reward,
you’re not motivated to repeat.

46. Conundrum #2
Your old pathway turns on
effortlessly.

47. Conundrum #3
The new pathway looks dangerous.

48. Fortunately, small steps
trigger dopamine, each time the
reward appears closer.

49. Here are 3 ways to
wire in a
new self-
soothing
circuit.

50. • not kale
• build on existing
happy circuits
• small steps
repeated
1. Design a new self-soothing behavior
with positive associations for you

51. 2. Build an exit ramp to get
from old road to new one
• Notice your urge for self-soothing by
marking it with an awkward gesture
• Consciously think: “I am looking for a way
to feel good,” and then choose the new
feel-good road
• Expect a reward as you exit the old road

52. • accept your natural urge for rewards
• consciously distinguish your new choice
from your old reward circuits
• remember your billions of extra neurons
waiting to build new pathways
3. Distinguish real rewards
from old pathways

53. Animals live with constant threat,
but positive expectations about their
next step trigger good feelings.

54. dopamine
=
the expectation of reward

55. An expectation is a real
physical pathway

56. A reward is a real
physical chemical

57. You can build a new reward
pathway by feeding your brain
new expectations repeatedly.

58. Your electricity will have
a new place to flow.

59. On Day 46,
design and build another
new pathway

60. Focus on
what you
want rather
than what
you don’t
want.

61. Habits of a Happy Brain
Retrain your
brain to boost
your serotonin,
dopamine,
oxytocin and
endorphin levels

62. books
podcasts
videos
infographics
training certification
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