Do You Want to Share Your Pain or Relieve It? Inner Mammal Institute Loretta Breuning, PhD Guided Neuroplasticity
Do You Want to Share Your Pain or Relieve It?
Inner Mammal Institute
Loretta Breuning, PhD
Guided Neuroplasticity
Our braincreatesendless painbecause
• it confuses social pain with physical pain • it equates disappointment with pain• it blends anticipated pain with actual pain
You can escape this loop when you know how your brain works
You can turn on yourhappy brain chemicals in
new and sustainable ways
dopamine endorphin oxytocinserotonin
You can build new neural pathwaysto give the electricity in your brain
a new place to flow
This presentation shows you:
1. what turns on the pain chemical (cortisol)
2. what turns on the happy chemicals (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, endorphin)
3. how to build new neural pathways to enjoy more happy chemicals andavoid more pain chemicals
Then you will choose a new behavior or thought pattern to stimulate the chemistry you want.
You’ll repeat it every day for 45 days without fail.
It’s not easy, but on Day 46you’ll be so thrilled that you’ll want to start your next rewiring project
Pain = Cortisol1.
Cortisol is found in all mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and mollusks
Cortisol is triggered by bodily harm (and the anticipation of harm)
Neurons connect when cortisol flows
This wires us to turn it on faster in similar situations
Anticipating harmpromotes survival
This monkey escaped a lion by climbing a tree. Now his brain is good
at scanning for trees.
Whatever turned off your cortisol saved your life, from your mammal
brain’s perspective
Brains with more neurons can wire in more danger signals, and
more ways to escape danger
We humans prevent harmby anticipating it and taking action
But we can end up witha lot of cortisol
Cortisol works by making you feel bad so you do
what it takes to make it stop
This zebra would rather be eating, but smelling a lion triggersmore cortisol than hunger
It scans for evidence of threat soit can do what it takes to relieve the bad feeling and go back to grazing
Cortisol is nature’s emergency broadcast system
Your cortisol makes you feel bad when you get a whiff of
anything that hurt you before
It alertsyour brainto scan for potential threat
A big brain is good at finding threat when it looks
When there’s no immediate threat,you scan out for
distant, subtle threats that fitthe neural pathways you have
The electricity in your brainflows like water in a storm.
It finds the paths of least resistance.
You can end up feeling threatened all the time
To make matters worse,we mammals feel social pain
as well as physical pain
Social pain is the cortisol that surges when you see a potential
threat to your social needs
In the state of nature,social pain = physical pain
because separation from the herd is an immediate survival threat
Your genes are annihilatedif you don’t meet
social needs
Natural selection built a brain that makes social
disappointment feel urgent
Any social pain in your past connected neurons that flow
to your cortisol today
To complicate things further,happy brain chemicals mask
cortisol, but only for a moment
Happy chemicals distract you from cortisol
dopamine oxytocin endorphinserotonin
But their natural spurts are brief and they’re soon
metabolized
When a happy chemical spurt ends, you might confuse that with pain
This is why we keep looking for ways to stimulate our
happy chemicals
But many ways ofstimulating them have
bad consequences
You can end up with more cortisol
To make things even worse,disappointmenttriggers cortisol
It’s easy to see why from the lion’s perspective
This lion will starve to death if it keeps chasing a zebra that got away
Cortisol surges when your expectations are not met, which motivates you to stop investing
energy in a failed pursuit
This is nature’s operating system
Happy chemicals motivate you to approach rewards andunhappy chemicals warn you to avoid harm
Nature’s operating system motivated our ancestors to do what it takes to survivein theharshestconditions
But we all end up withsome pathwayswe’d ratherdo without
It’s not easy being a mammal
But you can buildnew neural pathways to turn on
your happy chemicals in new ways
You can feel goodwhen you do things that are
good for you
You can give your electricitya new place to flow
Let’s lookcloser at what turns on the happy chemicals
2.
Good feelings arebrain chemicals we’ve
inherited from earlier mammalsdopamine endorphinoxytocinserotonin
It would be nice if they flowed all the time, but they are there to do a job
Your brain rewards you with
a good feeling when you do
something good for your survival
Butour braindefines survival in quirky ways
1. It cares about the
survival of your genes
(even putting your body at riskto promote “reproductive success”)
2. It relies on neural pathways
built in youth
(even though early experienceis rarely a reliable survival guide)
This is why happy chemical spurts can be hard to make sense of
Your brain turns on a happy chemical when it
sees a way to meet a need
But the spurt is soon over and you have to do more
to get more.
This makes life frustrating for everyone
Our brain evolved to seekhappy chemicals because
in the state of nature,what feels good is good for you
dopamine endorphin oxytocinserotonin
Let’s see why they spurt in nature, and why they droop after they spurt
Dopamineis the great feeling
that a reward is at hand
Dopaminereleases energy for the chase
Dopaminedroops
once you get the
reward, until
you set your sights on another
reward
Oxytocinis often called
the “love chemical”
Oxytocin is stimulated bytouch and trust
Oxytocin droops when you’reseparated from the herd,
which makes you feel like your survival is threatened
Serotoninis the pleasure of social dominance
Serotoninis not
aggression but a calm sense that
“ I will get the
banana ”
Serotoninis soon reabsorbed, so we are always looking for ways to stimulate more
Endorphin masks pain so you can do whatit takes to survive
Endorphin is triggered by pain. You get a little bit from vigorous exertion.
Endorphin droops afterit spurts because pain is
urgent survival information
Dopamine rewards you for the effort of steps toward your needs.
Serotonin rewards you for getting respect from others.
Oxytocin rewards you for finding the safety of social support.
Endorphin rewards you for action that relieves pain.
3. Let’s see how your brain builds the pathways that control your happy chemicals
You were born with billions of neurons but very few connections between them
Connections got built each time something felt good or bad
Your pathways got built from lived experience
Each dopamine spurt connected neurons that turn on thegood feelingin similar circumstances
Each serotonin or oxytocin spurtwired you to seek more
good feelings in similar ways
Your electricity flows effortlessly where it
flowed before
You got wired by the accidents of your past experience
Reptiles are born hard-wired with the experience of their ancestors.
They leave home at birth because they already have survival skills.
Mammal brains get wired from life experience
The bigger a creature’s brain,the more helpless it is at birth and the more it
relies on neural pathways built from experience
Experience includes mirror neurons,which turn on when
we see others get rewards or pain
Mirroring wires a little monkeyto do what it takes to meetits survival needs
It must master the skillin order to eat
Mirror neurons can wire you to reproduce pain you observe
even when you face no real threat
Each mammal gets wired to seek happy chemicals in ways that
worked before
Building new pathways later onis not easy because old pathways
feel normal and natural
Electricity flows effortlessly down old pathways because they got pavedby a substancecalled myelin
Myelination peaks before age 8, and again in puberty
This is why old patterns may repeat despite our best intentions
You can blaze a new trail through your jungle of neurons
But it takes a lot of effort to activate a new pathway
And after all that, your new trail will disappear into the jungle unless you blaze it every day
The new trail may feel wrong even when you know it’s right
But it will feel natural in 45 days if you repeat your new pattern
without fail
Your old path will still be there, but your electricity will have a new place to flow
You can wire in behaviors that turn on your happy chemicals in new ways
For example, you can stimulate the joy of dopamine by taking steps toward a goal
Results are unpredictable but you can always adjust your expectations and take another step
You can stimulate the pleasure of oxytocin with small acts of trust
It’s not safe totrust always and everywhere.We’re designedto make careful decisions about when to trust.
You can stimulate the pleasure of serotonin by finding the good in what you have
You can feel important without putting others down or waiting for them to put you up
You can enjoy endorphin through laughter and exercise
We are NOT designed to inflict pain on ourselves. Small endorphin drips are enough.
Habits of aHappy BrainRetrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Endorphin
$11.00
Detailed suggestions for each chemicaland a step-by-step plan are in:
by Dr. Loretta Breuning
Don’t just share your pain it. Relieve it!
You’ll be glad you did
Free resources for rewiring your
happy chemicals at InnerMammalInstitute.org
• Youtube video:Your Ups and Downs Are Natural …and also learned
• 5-day Happy Chemical Jumpstart
• infographics: You Have Power Over Your Brain
• PsychologyToday.com blog: Your Neurochemical Self
• a training program
DopamineSerotoninOxytocinEndorphin
Plan your new circuits:
Dopamine
Dopamine makes you jump for joy when you reach a goal or get a toy. In nature, it helps find food when you need it. “Eureka, I got it!” A memory gets created. Dopamine causes expectations. Correct predictions bring good sensations. Dopamine feels great so you try to get more. It rewarded our ancestors trudging through gore. Cocaine triggers dopamine. Caution to all: Joy without goal-seeking leads to a fall. Dopamine flows when you feel like “I’ve done it.” When others do it for you, your dopamine will shun it.
Serotonin swells your chest with pride When you get respect and needn’t hide. Your brain feels good when you boost yourself higher. But when others do this, it provokes your ire. “I don’t care about status. It’s other who do.” But you spurt serotonin when the limelight’s on you. You are quite modest and don’t like to boast. But no serotonin flows when you coast. Status doesn’t depend on money. You can be clever or helpful or funny. But when others one-up you, your mind agitates. ‘Cause serotonin droops ‘til you lift your own weights.
Serotonin
Oxytocin
Oxytocin makes you trust your mates. We love the bonds that it creates. Oxytocin flows when you stick with the herd. “Not me!” you may say, “I’m no bovine or bird.” But without social bonds, your brain feels alarm. This protected our ancestors from all kinds of harm. Though the herd will annoy you, the pack hurt you so. When you run with a pack, oxytocin will flow. “My pack is great and the other is nuts.” This thinking prevailed since the first mammal struts. You’re above all this foolishness, obviously. But it feels good when I trust you and you trust me.
Endorphin
Endorphin helps you mask the pain Of injuries that you sustain. Your ancestors escaped from predator attack ‘Cause endorphin felt good while they ran back. Endorphin feels great when it eases your pains. But only real pain makes it flow in your veins. Exercise triggers it, experts alert you. But first you must do it ‘til body parts hurt you. Endorphin receptors let opium in. So you feel like you’re safe without lifting a shin. Laughing and crying can trigger it too. But just for a moment– then the job’s through.