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 your inner mammal
