Your Neurochemical Self

Getting real with a 200-million-year-old brain

Loretta G. Breuning Ph.D.

The Man Who Drew Neurons

The man who discovered the synapse wrote a book of career advice a century ago. His advice helps you stimulate your happy chemicals (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin).

What Lens Do You Choose?

You can put on the glasses that let you see the world as a supportive place instead of a dangerous one. Why wouldn't you?

Fashion Trends and Primal Urges

Dopamine motivates us to seek novelty. Oxytocin motives us to fit in. Serotonin to be special. Fashion trends are natural for us mammals and you may find them in grandma's closet.

Compassion Failure: A New Paradigm

It's easy to blame problems on "our society," but the blame habit leads to hate, greed, and disempowerment. Invest yourself in a new paradigm instead.

A Post-Traumatic Growth Story

A brain-injury patient recovered his consciousness in a way that illuminates your consciousness. A true tale of triumph!

The Neurochemistry of Love

Love is a powerful motivator because it stimulates all your happy chemicals at once. But our brain evolved to motivate reproduction, not to make you feel good all the time. Alas.

Nourish Your Brain in Five Minutes a Day

Your quality of life depends on the circulation in your brain.

Self-Soothing Skills Learned in Childhood

Here are some curious childhood stress relievers that will help you identify your own. Your early habits are pathways in your brain that you can build onto today.

Why Is My Phone So Addictive?

Your phone triggers dopamine and oxytocin and relieves cortisol.

Why Flowers Make Us Happy

Flowers trigger the dopamine of excitement and the oxytocin of social trust. A wildflower hike triggers all the happy brain chemicals at once!

Animal Anger

Anger is the impulse to go toward a threat instead of running from it. A surge of testosterone overrides the cortisol. Here's how to relieve those threatened feelings.

Your Power Over Addiction

You can train your brain to feel good when you do things that are good for you. Follow these 3 simple steps and you will wire in a healthy comfort habit to replace an unhealthy one

The Sadness of Partisan Polarizing

We mammals evolved to seek the safety of social alliances. Political partisanship makes your inner mammal feel good in the short run but has unpleasant consequences in the long run

Chronocentrism

You can end up feeling battered by the tide of history until you know how your brain creates its neurochemical response to public events.

Social Comparison: Don’t Let It Ruin Your Holiday

Social comparison often triggers cortisol, which taints a good life with a bad threatened feeling. Fortunately, you can re-direct this natural impulse. Here's how.

Why Politics Makes People Crazy

Political alliances help us meet social needs, which stimulates our happy chemicals. But your survival-seeking brain sees political disappointments as survival threats.

You Have Power Over Your Brain Chemistry

Your brain has an operating system inherited from earlier animals. It rewards you with "happy chemicals" when you step toward meeting needs and alarms you with "unhappy chemicals.

Shift the Sadness of Losing Summer

Our brain brain is good at scanning for negatives, but you can wire yourself to focus on positives.

Stop Anxiety by Adjusting Expectations

Your brain relies on the pathways it has, so it will keep reactivating your anxiety pathways unless you create a new place for your electricity to flow.

Living With Intention

Intention is the power to redirect your thoughts. This power is limited. Here's how to grow it instead of wasting it.

Why Winning Feels Good

The facts of our brain’s natural competitiveness have been submerged by a warm and fuzzy view of nature. The truth can help us manage our quirky neurochemical operating system.

7 Habits of a Happy Brain

You can build new neural pathways by feeding your brain new experiences. Here's how to choose experiences that stimulate each happy chemical.

3 Reasons Why You Should Cuddle More

Cuddling can help you rewrite your history of trust, and enable you to enjoy feeling safe more often.

4 Ways to Calm Yourself When You’re Anxious

The human brain is good at creating anxiety, and we all feel threatened by tiny cues that were relevant long ago. You can undo your anxiety when you know how you created it.

Enjoy More Happy Brain Chemicals This Summer

These simple steps will help you avoid common drags on your mood so you can make the most out of your summertime fun.

3 Ways to Feel Better When a Coworker Gets on Your Nerves

When someone gets on your nerves, it’s a real thing. You can recover quickly from co-worker stress if you know these three facts about your brain chemistry.

5 Ways to Boost Your Mood When You Are Feeling Down

Ups and downs are natural, but you can have more ups when you know how your brain works. You are managing your dopamine and cortisol all the time. You can manage them in new ways!

How to Make Peace With Something You Cannot Control

When the world disappoints your expectations, your brain releases cortisol and it feels like an emergency. You can re-wire your brain to feel safe when you’re not in control.

How to Deal With People Who Drain Your Energy

Natural selection built a brain that seeks safety in numbers. Instead of spending all of your energy on the needs of others, you can start feeling good about focusing on yourself.

Get a Grip on Guilt in Three Simple Steps

Guilt is natural because your brain is designed to scan for threats, and social threats are survival threats to the brain we’ve inherited from earlier mammals.

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