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Loretta Graziano Breuning – Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin (2012)You can enjoy more happy chemicals if you know what turns them on. In the state of nature, happy chemicals turn on to meet survival needs. Whatever met your needs in youth triggered happy chemicals and paved your neural pathways. You are wired to seek more of whatever felt good before. You can re-wire yourself by repeating a new behavior for 45 days. This book helps you choose healthy ways to stimulate dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin. Dopamine is the good feeling you get when you approach a reward. Serotonin is the good feeling of getting respect. Oxytocin is the feeling of trust, and endorphin is the euphoria that masks physical pain. These happy chemicals were not meant to surge all the time. They fall back to neutral so you’re ready to respond to new information. You can accept your natural droops instead of rushing to fix them. You have power when you know how your brain works, and it feels good.About the Author:Loretta Graziano Breuning is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, which helps people manage the ups and downs of their mammalian brain chemicals. As a professor and a mom, she was not convinced by prevailing theories of human motivation. She learned that our brain chemicals are inherited from earlier animals, and they evolved to reward survival action, not to make you happy all the time. The world suddenly made sense, and she wanted to help others make peace with their inner mammal. She created a wide range of resources, all available at http://www.InnerMammalInstitute.org.Reviews:”I’m very happy I purchased this book, the author writes with insight, intelligence, and it’s very accessible and easy to read. It’s helped me better understand myself and the neurochemical basis of my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Especially helpful were the suggestions given for focusing on past achievements, celebrating small accomplishments, and making an effort to appreciate what we have. It’s one of the best books I’ve read on neurochemicals and I highly recommend it.” ~ Happy (Amazon)”This is the first review I have ever posted; I tend not to share my feelings publicly. I have spent more than half a century trying to understand why I do the things that are contrary to my own well being; this book has filled in the missing pieces. This doesn’t mean my journey will be easier but it does give explanations to why I do them and I am sure that armed with this knowledge will only help break free of persistent confusion. I highly recommend this book to anyone and will be buying more to give as gifts to those whom I care about.”~ Kathy Newell (Amazon) “Having a clearer understanding or how we do what we do as a result of reading this book has been priceless. The author does an incredible job of simplifying the facts and then laying them out in a way that is understandable for those of us who don’t practice anything that resembles neuroscience. Brava, Loretta. I think it may have been Einstein who quipped something like ‘any fool can complicate a matter, it takes genius to make something simple.’ Very, very helpful. I recommend this book to anyone that is serious about wanting to change something in their life.”~ Steve Scanlon (Amazon)—–search for Skye71 to see my other uploads