John interviews Dr. Loretta Breuning, Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, Author of Habits for a Happy Brain and The Science of Positivity. Dr. Loretta Breuning explains why humans are wired to promote survival over happiness, good and bad brain chemicals, breaking bad habits, and valuable advice on how not to take things for granted and understand how our inner mammal brain really works to live a happier life. 

Episode Highlights:

• Dr. Loretta Breuning introduces herself. 
• What are some of the prevailing thoughts that she once held to be true?
• What were some of her early days like in her work? 
• Dr. Loretta Breuning shares ways we are wired to promote survival over happiness. 
• What are some of the good and bad chemicals in our brain that we should be aware of and their effects?  
• Why does Dr. Loretta Breuning call serotonin the ‘one up feelling?’
• What do we do to ourselves when we don’t understand our own brain?
• What are endorphins, which are triggered by real pain? 
• What does it take to break a bad habit to rewire our brain?
• Dr. Loretta Breuning  shares ways to not taking things for granted.

3 Key Points:

1. ‘Niceism’ is the idea that if you are nice to other people they will be nice to you...which is not true. 
2. We are designed to promote survival over happiness.
3. A habit is the expectation of a reward and an expectation is a real physical pathway.   

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I settled on the brain chemistry of animals because it was so surprising to me that our good feelings, our motivations, come from brain chemicals that are the same in animals and are managed by the same brain structures.” – Dr. Loretta Breuning
• “If you put on iron in the fire, then you know in 100 days you will have 100 irons in the fire. And everyday one of them will heat up but you can't predict which one.” – Dr. Loretta Breuning
• “We’re all wired by our past pain and what makes us different from animals is the human cortex can anticipate future consequences. So, anything that hurt us in the past, we anticipate that so we can avoid it.” – Dr. Loretta Breuning

Resources Mentioned:

• Linkedin: John Chapman
• Dr. Loretta Breuning: Linkedin | YouTube
• Inner Mammal Institute: innermammalinstitute.org
• Book: Habits for a Happy Brain by Dr. Loretta Breuning
• Book: The Science of Positivity by Dr. Loretta Breuning