Habits of a Happy Brain Quotes

“Each happy chemical triggers a different good feeling. Dopamine produces the joy of finding what you seek– the “Eureka! I got it!” feeling. Endorphin produces the oblivion that masks pain– often called “euphoria.” Oxytocin produces the feeling of being safe with others– now called “bonding.” And serotonin produces the feeling of being respected by others–“pride.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“When a monkey loses a banana to a rival, he feels bad, but he doesn't expand the problem by thinking about it over and over. He looks for another banana. He ends up feeling rewarded rather than harmed. Humans use their extra neurons to construct theories about bananas and end up constructing pain.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“A lizard never thinks something is wrong with the world, even as it watches its young get eaten alive. It doesn't tell itself "something is wrong with the world," because it doesn't have enough neurons to imagine the world being other than what it is. It doesn't expect a world in which there is no predators, so it doesn't condemn the world for falling short of expectations. it doesn't condemn itself for failing to keep its offspring alive. Humans expect more, and we do something about it. That's why we end up focused on our disappointments instead of saluting our accomplishments.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“If you want to be happy with your music all the time, start exposing yourself to unfamiliar music now, so it will be in the sweet spot by the time you’ve worn out the old pleasures.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“Blaming others for your unhappiness is a habit that’s hard to give up because it triggers some happy chemicals. You feel important when you battle perceived injustice (serotonin), and you bond with others who feel similarly deprived (oxytocin). You get excited when you seek and find evidence that you have been denied your fair share of happiness (dopamine). You may even trigger endorphins by welcoming physical pain into your life as evidence of your deprivation. You keep building a circuit for seeking happiness by feeling wronged.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“Music gives pleasure because your mind keeps predicting what comes next. Each correct prediction triggers dopamine. You can't make good predictions for unfamiliar music, so you don't get the dopamine. But when music is too familiar, something strange happens. You don't get the dopamine either because your brain predicts it effortlessly. To make you happy, music must be at the sweet spot of novelty and familiarity.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“FOUR HAPPY CHEMICALS Dopamine: the joy of finding what you seek Endorphin: the oblivion that masks pain Oxytocin: the comfort of social alliances Serotonin: the security of social importance”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Identifying a potential threat feels curiously good. You’re like a gazelle that smells a lion and can’t relax until it sees where the lion is. Seeing a lion feels good when the alternative is worse. We seek evidence of threats to feel safe, and we get a dopamine boost when we find what we seek. You can also get a serotonin boost from the feeling of being right, and an oxytocin boost from bonding with those who sense the same threat. This is why people seem oddly pleased to find evidence of doom and gloom. But the pleasure doesn’t last because the “do something” feeling commands your attention again. You can end up feeling bad a lot even if you’re successful in your survival efforts.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Many people stimulate that good serotonin feeling by trying to rescue others. Feeling like a hero is a reliable way to stimulate your serotonin. But the good feeling soon passes and you have to rescue again. Sometimes rescuers reward bad behavior in others because they are so eager to rescue.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“more rewards (dopamine), more physical security (endorphin), more social support (oxytocin), more respect (serotonin).”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“The feeling we call “happiness” comes from four special brain chemicals: dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin, and serotonin.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“When you feel wronged by life, you give yourself permission to have another cookie, or another drink, or another pill, or another sulk. After all you’ve been through, why deprive yourself anymore? This is a vicious cycle. You keep feeling wronged in order to enjoy more of your consolation prize.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“You don’t notice your neural guidance system because you built it without conscious intent. That’s why it’s hard to build new trails: You don’t know how you built the old ones.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“A mouse who fails to get the cheese tries again without kicking herself for being an idiot.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Repetition takes time, but it builds behaviors with fewer side effects. If you expose yourself to something over and over, it can “grow on you.” You can get to like things that are good for you, even if you don’t like them instantly. But who wants to repeat something over and over if it doesn’t feel good? Usually, people don’t, which is why we tend to rely on the circuits built by accidents of experience. You will be shaped by accident unless you start repeating things by choice.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“You can increase your pleasure if you’re willing to do things that don’t feel good at first.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“Reality can’t live up to your expectations because you keep building new expectations.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“When dopamine dips, your unhappy chemicals get your attention. You get that “do something” feeling, and you have to decide what to do. One option is to accept the unhappy chemicals and figure out what’s triggering them. Another option is to quickly distract yourself from them with a behavior you expect to trigger more dopamine.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“HAPPY SURVIVAL MOTIVES Dopamine: seek rewards Endorphin: ignore physical pain Oxytocin: build social alliances Serotonin: get respect from others”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“Of course, dopamine didn’t evolve for crossing arbitrary lines on the ground. It evolved to release energy when you’re about to meet a survival need. If an ape climbs a high tree for a delicious mango, dopamine spurts as he nears the reward. That tells his body to release the reserve tank of energy, which helps him do what it takes to meet his needs. He doesn’t say “I did it!” in words, but neurochemicals create that feeling without need for words.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin

“Mammals seek the one-up position because serotonin makes it feel good. One study showed this by separating an alpha vervet monkey from his troop with a one-way mirror. (An alpha is the individual to whom group mates routinely defer.) The alpha monkey made the dominance gestures typical of his species, but his subordinates did not respond with the expected submission gestures because the one-way mirror blocked their view of him. The alpha got agitated and his serotonin level fell. Each day the experiment continued, his serotonin kept dropping and his agitation grew. He needed their submission to keep up his serotonin.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Dopamine motivates you to get what you need, even when it takes a lot of effort. Endorphin motivates you to ignore pain, so you can escape from harm when you’re injured. Oxytocin motivates you to trust others, to find safety in companionship. Serotonin motivates you to get respect, which expands your mating opportunities and protects your offspring.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“You are always looking for a way to feel good, deciding whether to act on it, and then looking for the next best way of feeling good.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Choosing a chocolate from a box brings the risk of disappointment. To make matters worse, you may see someone else get the chocolate you’d hoped for. You can end up feeling bad even as you’re enjoying intense chocolaty goodness. The difference between your dream chocolate and your disappointing chocolate is extremely small, but that’s what you focus on.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Dopamine produces the joy of finding things that meet your needs—the “Eureka! I got it!” feeling. Endorphin produces oblivion that masks pain—often called euphoria. Oxytocin produces the feeling of being safe with others—now called bonding. Serotonin produces the feeling of being respected by others—pride.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Runner’s high” is a well-known endorphin experience. But you cannot get a daily high from a daily run. Endorphin is only released if you push past your capacity to the point of distress. This is not necessarily a good way to promote survival. Endorphin did not evolve to motivate self-inflicted pain. It evolved to escape pain. Perhaps you’ve seen a zebra wriggle out of the jaws of a lion on a wildlife documentary.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“But as soon as you heard of a bigger world with bigger fish, your serotonin would droop. A “do something” feeling would nag you until you found a way to advance your position.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“CONSIDER THIS When things do go wrong, ask yourself whether you could have prevented it by being unhappy.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

“Как бы не строились нейронные связи в мозге, вы не ощущаете их как многочисленные отростки, похожие на щупальца осьминога. Вы ощущаете эти связи, как истину.”
― Loretta Graziano Breuning, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels