You can manage your happy brain chemicals when you know how they work in the state of nature

The Inner Mammal Institute offers free resources, books and training to help you make peace with your inner mammal.

Dopamine

Dopamine is the good feeling that a reward is at hand.

Oxytocin

Oxytocin creates the good feeling of social trust.

Serotonin

Serotonin is the good feeling of social power.

Endorphin

Endorphin masks pain with a euphoric feeling.

About the
Inner Mammal Institute

The Inner Mammal Institute was founded in 2013 by Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD. As a Professor of Management, and a parent, she was disappointed by prevailing models of human emotion. So she went back to basic biology and found that our happy brain chemicals are inherited from earlier mammals.

Our dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin evolved to motivate survival behavior, not to make you happy. Suddenly, everything made sense and she started creating resources to help people build their power over their mammalian brain chemicals.

The Inner Mammal Method

Your happy brain chemicals are controlled by neural pathways built from past experience. You can build new pathways by feeding your brain a new experience, repeatedly. If you don’t, you’ll keep defaulting to old impulses because those pathways are so efficient.

I accept the brain I have, including my mammalian limbic system which talks to me in chemicals rather than words.

My brain evolved to promote survival, not to make me happy.

My dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin evolved to do a job, not to flow all the time for no reason.

Happy chemicals pave neural pathways that turn them on faster in similar future contexts.

I can build new paths to my happy chemicals by feeding my brain new experiences.

The Inner Mammal Method

Your happy brain chemicals are controlled by neural pathways built from past experience. You can build new pathways by feeding your brain a new experience, repeatedly. If you don’t, you’ll keep defaulting to old impulses because those pathways are so efficient.

I accept the brain I have, including my mammalian limbic system, which talks to me in chemicals rather than words.

My brain evolved to promote survival, not to make me happy.

My dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin evolved to do a job, not to flow all the time for no reason.

Happy chemicals pave neural pathways that turn them on faster in similar future contexts.

I can build new paths to my happy chemicals by feeding my brain new experiences.

Problems the Method
can help you with

Anxiety

You will learn to redirect your threat response into a new neural pathway that you design and build in simple steps.

Addiction

You will wire in a new “happy habit” that’s more sustainable than the happy habit you learned from early experience.

Parenting & Teaching

You will learn to reward behaviors you want instead of behaviors you don’t want. And you’ll use mirror neurons to help.

Relationships

Love is a neurochemical roller coaster, and managing your own chemicals works better than blaming your partner for them.

Career & Business

Your brain rewards you with happy chemicals when you take a small step toward a goal. Small steps are enough if you repeat.

Problems the Method
can help you with

Anxiety

You will learn to redirect your threat response into a new neural pathway that you design and build in simple steps.

Addiction

You will wire in a new “happy habit” that’s more sustainable than the happy habit you learned from early experience.

Parenting & Teaching

You will learn to reward behaviors you want instead of behaviors you don’t want. And you’ll use mirror neurons to help.

Relationships

Love is a neurochemical roller coaster, and managing your own chemicals works better than blaming your partner for them.

Career & Business

Your brain rewards you with happy chemicals when you take a small step toward a goal. Small steps are enough if you repeat.

What people say about
Inner Mammal Institute

Our books

Habits of a Happy Brain

Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels

Your happy chemicals are inherited from earlier mammals. When you know how they work in the state of nature, you can design sustainable ways to turn them on today. Here's a plan to do it in 45 days, tailored to your unique brain. Free yourself of unwanted habits and find healthy ways to enjoy dopamine, serotonin, & oxytocin.

READ MORE

Status Games

Why we play and how to stop

People seek status because animals seek status, and we've inherited the brain system that does this. It rewards you with serotonin when you see a way to raise your status, and alarms you with cortisol when you see a threat to your status. When you understand these ups and downs, you can rewire them. This book makes it fun.

READ MORE

Why You're unhappy

Biology vs Politics

Unhappiness is our brain’s natural default state, yet we’re told that happiness is “normal.” This brings unnecessary suffering. It makes your natural ups and downs seem like a disorder. It makes you think others are effortlessly happy and you are missing out.
It distracts you from building the skills you need to spark your happy brain chemicals. Why are we getting such bad information about our biology?

READ MORE

14 Days to Sustainable Happiness

A workbook for every brain

Sustainable happiness means triggering your happy chemicals in ways that don’t hurt you in the long run. It’s harder than immediate and familiar pleasures, but it’s easier when you track down your old dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin circuits and update them. Here’s how to do that in 14 daily lessons.

READ MORE

Tame Your Anxiety

Rewiring Your Brain for Happiness

Anxiety is natural. Calm is learned. If you didn’t learn yesterday, you can learn today. Animals stay calm in a world of potential threats because they focus on their next step. Humans have a big cortex designed to anticipate threats. It terrifies your inner mammal. Instead, you can focus your big cortex on the joy of your next step. Here's how.

READ MORE

The Science of Positivity

Stop negative thought patterns by changing your brain chemistry

Negativity is natural because our brain evolved to scan for threats. Past frustrations wired your brain to find new frustrations. You can rewire yourself to find positives to balance this natural negativity. You can do it in 6 weeks with just 3 minutes a day, no matter where you are in life. You will train your brain to find the good as skillfully as it now finds the bad.

READ MORE

Inner Mammal Institute Highlights

Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics

Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics

Unhappiness is a natural brain function, but we’re taught to see it as a disorder. They say THE Science proves this, so it's hard to question. My new book shows that unhappiness is natural biology, and politics has transformed it into a disease. Details at Why You’re...

read more
Personal Responsibility and Mental Health

Personal Responsibility and Mental Health

Personal responsibility is the spark that allows “help” to help. It’s time that we fix a flaw in our mental health model: its denial of personal responsibility. Mental health is not hard-wired at birth; it’s a set of learned skills. Help is nice, but it only helps if...

read more
Five Ways to Boost Your Natural Happy Chemicals

Five Ways to Boost Your Natural Happy Chemicals

You can trigger more happy chemicals naturally. Here's how.  You can stimulate more happy chemicals with fewer side effects when you understand the job your happy chemicals evolved to do. Here's a natural way to stimulate each, and to avoid unhappy chemicals....

read more
Why It’s Always High School In Your Brain

Why It’s Always High School In Your Brain

Your teen self is still the core of who you are Does life sometimes seem like a high school cafeteria? It's not your imagination. Our brain is designed to wire itself in adolescence. Our emotional brain is inherited from earlier mammals, who struggle for status in...

read more

Inner Mammal Institute Highlights

Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics

Why You’re Unhappy: Biology vs Politics

Unhappiness is a natural brain function, but we’re taught to see it as a disorder. They say THE Science proves this, so it's hard to question. My new book shows that unhappiness is natural biology, and politics has transformed it into a disease. Details at Why You’re...

read more
Personal Responsibility and Mental Health

Personal Responsibility and Mental Health

Personal responsibility is the spark that allows “help” to help. It’s time that we fix a flaw in our mental health model: its denial of personal responsibility. Mental health is not hard-wired at birth; it’s a set of learned skills. Help is nice, but it only helps if...

read more
Five Ways to Boost Your Natural Happy Chemicals

Five Ways to Boost Your Natural Happy Chemicals

You can trigger more happy chemicals naturally. Here's how.  You can stimulate more happy chemicals with fewer side effects when you understand the job your happy chemicals evolved to do. Here's a natural way to stimulate each, and to avoid unhappy chemicals....

read more
Why It’s Always High School In Your Brain

Why It’s Always High School In Your Brain

Your teen self is still the core of who you are Does life sometimes seem like a high school cafeteria? It's not your imagination. Our brain is designed to wire itself in adolescence. Our emotional brain is inherited from earlier mammals, who struggle for status in...

read more