Our "happy chemicals" (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins) are biological reward mechanisms designed to promote survival by reinforcing beneficial behaviors, rather than to provide constant happiness.
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when you feel good your brain is
releasing one of the happy chemicals
dopamine serotonin oxytocin or endorphin
we want these good feelings all the time
but they are not meant to be on for no
reason they're designed to reward you
with a good feeling when you do
something good for your survival our
brain defines survival in a quirky way
alas which is why we all do quirky
things to feel good our happy chemicals
are inherited from earlier mammals and
we control them with brain structures
that all mammals have in common the
mammal brain can't tell you in words why
it turns on the chemicals because it
doesn't process language when you know
what turns them on in animals everything
makes sense dopamine surges in a monkey
when it sees a fruit it can reach each
step closer to a reward stimulates more
dopamine but the joy and excitement of
dopamine stops when you get what you see
because it has already done its job then
you have to do more to get more the
dopamine spurts of your youth built
neural pathways that tell you how to
turn it on today these pathways helped
our ancestors survive in a harsh world
and today they help you find rewards in
ways that work for you before you can
build new dopamine pathways to turn it
on in new ways but it takes a lot of
repetition serotonin oxytocin and
endorphin have their own jobs to do each
surge builds the neural pathway that
tells you to expect more good feelings
in the same way each spurt is so short
that you always have to do more to get
more our brain evolved to promote
survival not to make you feel good
nothing is wrong with you you're happy
chemicals are not designed to be on all
the time ups and downs are natural but
you can build new pathways to enjoy more
happy chemicals in new and healthy
waise find out all about it at the inner
mammal Institute we have plenty of free
resources to help you make peace with
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