Live a Happier, Healthier Life!

We are always looking for a way to feel good, deciding whether to act on it, and then looking for the next best way of feeling good.

In ‘Habits of a Happy Brain’, Loretta Breuning explains how you can use the power of your brain to change your life for the better.

Drawing on the latest scientific findings, Breuning shows how the brain chemicals in your head really affect your happiness levels.

In addition, she explains how we can use our mind to change our brain, leading to better health, more energy, optimism and a better attitude towards life.

Here are some insights from the book:

1. Each happy chemical triggers a different good feeling:

When you feel good, your brain is releasing dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, or endorphin. You want more of these great feelings because your brain is designed to seek them.

Dopamine produces the joy of finding things that meet your needs. Endorphin produces oblivion that masks pain. Oxytocin produces the feeling of being safe with others. Serotonin produces the feeling of being respected by others.

2. Nothing will make you happy forever:

Even if we could get our hormone system to work perfectly in sync with our rational thinking, that wouldn’t make us permanently happy. Permanent happiness, a continuous state of bliss, is nothing more than a myth.

Sitting around and enjoying the stuff we have doesn’t help us grow or get better, and habituation is what gets us up and exploring, instead of falling into a vicious cycle of high expectations and disappointments.

3. Life is a series of constant choices:

Being alive means constantly choosing whether it’s worth to give up one thing in favor of another. The only real mistake you can make is to not choose at all.

You gain a lot from knowing you’re in control, no matter whether the outcome of any given choice you made was a release of happy chemicals, or unhappy ones.

Would you recommend this book to anyone who is willing to become happier? Would you read it yourself? Please join the conversation and leave your comments below!

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Cheers!

Joe Calasan