by breuning loretta | Jul 9, 2017 | brain chemicals
Winning doesn’t matter, we’re told, but something deep inside suggests otherwise. “Our society” creates the urge to win, we’re taught, yet monkeys have been trying to one-up each other for fifty million years. Natural selection built a brain that rewards you with a...
by breuning loretta | Jul 9, 2017 | brain chemicals
And the choice to live without partisan goggles. I am surrounded by political anger. Everyone expects me to be on their side because they are the good guys, and they label me a bad guy if I don’t. But I can’t bring myself to join up and wear partisan goggles. I’ve...
by breuning loretta | Aug 17, 2015 | brain chemicals
You need to express yourself to feel safe. We are born with no survival skills except the ability to express pain. When you withhold your urge to be heard, you feel helpless and endangered. A human infant is the most fragile bit of protoplasm on earth. A newborn...
by breuning loretta | Jun 23, 2014 | brain chemicals
Patronage works in the Baboon World Every baboon troop is led by an alpha who holds power until ousted by a challenger. Brute force makes you alpha among small-brained mammals like bovines, but in the primate world, power is won by trading favors. Baboons have...
by breuning loretta | Jun 23, 2014 | brain chemicals
“When I’m good no one remembers. When I’m bad no one forgets.” This lament rings true for most people. How can we learn the skill of feeling good when we’ve learned to feel bad? You ca feed your brain with appreciation for yourself in...
by breuning loretta | Jun 23, 2014 | brain chemicals
Reaching a goal triggers dopamine. That feels great, but the spurt soon ends. Then you become who you were before the spurt. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can get caught up in endless efforts to stimulate more dopamine with more goal-seeking. We’re...
