The Science of Happiness: How to Hack Your Brain & Become A Happier Person

My boss was yelling. And my brain responded on its own. (I gave no permission). But it happened anyway.

Cortisol took over my brain. (The stress hormone. It’s worse than negative thinking.) So when the boss yells at me, I feel like crying or running out of the building.

And I’m not the only one who’s suffered from this.

Loretta Breuning is a doctor (!) who used to work on Wall Street. And when her boss yelled, she cried. “It wasn’t even something big,” she said. But she cried anyway. She couldn’t help it. Cortisol was controlling her.

And that’s the scary part… when our chemicals take over our motive.

So I asked Loretta, “What can I do to get my dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin back up to par OR even better?”

“You have to make a decision,” she said. You have to ask, “Am I going to try to rewire myself?”

And if the answer is yes, then she has the steps. It starts with “personal agency.” (Which I kept calling “positive agency because it correlated in my almost alzheimer-ithmic brain).

“Pair your negativity with personal agency and realistic expectations,” she said.

“Okay, what does that mean?”

Then she gave me action. And explained an exercise from her book, “The Science of Positivity: Stop Negative Thought Patterns by Changing Your Brain Chemistry”

ACTION: 3 times a day, stop and look for something good in your life

Do this 3 times a day (to create the habit) for 6 weeks. If you mess up, start over. Create the habit of creating positive habits.

Then you’ll reduce stress.

And soothe your inner mammal.

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