Unhappy? You’re Normal

Cultural messaging and suggests you should be happy all the time. But your “happy chemicals”—dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin—evolved to motivate survival behavior, not make you happy.

In fact, unhappiness is your brain’s default state.

On today’s show Dr. Loretta Breuning argues that you can manage your happy chemicals when you know how they work in the state of nature, and she’s here to show us how.

Here’s a preview:

[9:00] Serotonin is about social dominance. Enter comparison and competition

[13:00] Want a dose of oxytocin? Be part of a herd

[15:30] Endorphin is the brain’s natural opioid. But you can habituate to it!

[18:00] Just got something you want? That flood of happiness is dopamine’s doing, but dopamine runs out

[25:00] We are living in an era of immense abundance. So why aren’t we happy?

Resources mentioned:

• Why You’re Unhappy: Biology Versus Politics
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