Download or read book Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain written by Lucia Perillo and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning debut from an award-winning poet. Populating a small town in the Pacific Northwest, the characters in Lucia Perillo’s story collection all resist giving the world what it expects of them and are surprised when the world comes roaring back. An addict trapped in a country house becomes obsessed with vacuum cleaners and the people who sell them door-to-door. An abandoned woman seeks consolation in tales of armed robbery told by one of her fellow suburban housewives. An accidental mother struggles to answer her daughter’s badgering about her paternity. And in three stories readers meet Louisa, a woman with Down syndrome who serves as an accomplice to her younger sister’s sexual exploits and her aging mother’s fantasies of revenge. Together, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain is a sharp-edged, witty testament to the ambivalence of emotions, the way they pull in directions that often cancel one another out or twist their subjects into knots. In lyrical prose, Perillo draws on her training as a naturalist and a poet to map the terrain of the comic and the tragic, asking how we draw the boundaries between these two zones. What’s funny, what’s heartbreaking, and who gets to decide?
Download or read book Meet Your Happy Chemicals written by Loretta Graziano Breuning and published by Loretta Graziano Breuning. This book was released on 2012-02-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "happy chemicals" are controlled by tiny brain structures that all mammals have in common. Your brain rewards you with good feelings when you do something good for your survival. But we struggle to make sense of our neurochemical ups and downs, and can trigger vicious cycles such as alcohol, junk food, risk-taking. Learn how to make real-world choices that will help you break the cycles.
Download or read book Habits of a Happy Brain written by Loretta Graziano Breuning and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-12-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers simple activities that help you understand the roles of your "happy chemicals"--serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins. You'll also learn how to build new habits by rerouting the electricity in your brain to flow down a new pathway, making it even easier to trigger these happy chemicals and increase feelings of satisfaction when you need them most.
Download or read book The Molecule of More written by Daniel Z. Lieberman and published by BenBella Books. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are we obsessed with the things we want only to be bored when we get them? Why is addiction perfectly logical to an addict? Why does love change so quickly from passion to indifference? Why are some people die-hard liberals and others hardcore conservatives? Why are we always hopeful for solutions even in the darkest times—and so good at figuring them out? The answer is found in a single chemical in your brain: dopamine. Dopamine ensured the survival of early man. Thousands of years later, it is the source of our most basic behaviors and cultural ideas—and progress itself. Dopamine is the chemical of desire that always asks for more—more stuff, more stimulation, and more surprises. In pursuit of these things, it is undeterred by emotion, fear, or morality. Dopamine is the source of our every urge, that little bit of biology that makes an ambitious business professional sacrifice everything in pursuit of success, or that drives a satisfied spouse to risk it all for the thrill of someone new. Simply put, it is why we seek and succeed; it is why we discover and prosper. Yet, at the same time, it's why we gamble and squander. From dopamine's point of view, it's not the having that matters. It's getting something—anything—that's new. From this understanding—the difference between possessing something versus anticipating it—we can understand in a revolutionary new way why we behave as we do in love, business, addiction, politics, religion—and we can even predict those behaviors in ourselves and others. In The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, George Washington University professor and psychiatrist Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD, and Georgetown University lecturer Michael E. Long present a potentially life-changing proposal: Much of human life has an unconsidered component that explains an array of behaviors previously thought to be unrelated, including why winners cheat, why geniuses often suffer with mental illness, why nearly all diets fail, and why the brains of liberals and conservatives really are different.
Download or read book Happiness written by Modern Psychology Publishing and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you feel like you could be living a happier life? Are you tired of feeling depressed? Frustrated? Or apathetic? Tired of feeling like you are walking around in a fog of negativity? Sick of letting stress getting the better of you? Or maybe you just want to boost your mood and be able to enjoy life a little bit more. Whatever the case, we could all use a little more happiness in our life... And as it turns out, there's an easy but powerful way to go about improving your mood. Did you know, there are over 50 different hormones in your body, each one responsible for a different task and absolutely essential for keeping you alive? ....But that only 6 of these hormones have a huge role in determining how happy you are feeling RIGHT NOW? That's right - 6 little hormones pretty much determine your mood at every moment of your life. And if one is out of balance, it can not only cause you do be depressed, it could also cause mayhem for the rest of your health. So what can you do? Hack your happiness hormones and start experiencing massive positive changes by rebalancing your inner chemistry! Did you know, that the entire hormone process is initiated by a feedback loop that starts in the pituitary gland, and that the pituitary gland in your brain gets its instructions from YOUR OWN THOUGHTS?? That's right! You are the key to your own happiness! By combining the knowledge of how you control your own hormones, and creating habits that encourage an improved balance of those hormones, you really can make huge positive changes your emotional state. You may be surprised at how modifying a few simple behaviors, with consistency, can drastically improve your sense of well-being and overall happiness. In this book you will learn: ✔ The science behind hormones and how they work in your body ✔ Happiness hacks tailored for each happiness chemical ✔ The best foods to eat to boost your happiness - and which ones to avoid! ✔ Specific habits that you can start today that will rewire your brain for happiness ✔ 21 Day personalizable happiness challenge guide to get you on track This book is highly actionable, with step-by-step exercises for building a better, happier life. After reading this book you will be able to: ✔ Understand the symptoms and causes of hormonal imbalance ✔ Increase serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins to improve your mood naturally ✔ Control stress and regulate cortisol levels ✔ Optimize your hormone health & overall mental well-being This book is filled with easy-to-implement habits that will rewire your brain allowing you to create new neural pathways and make it super easy for your brain to trigger these emotions more often - which will help you feel less stressed, more at ease, and even improve your memory and overall health! So what are you waiting for? Pick up a copy of Habits to Boost Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin and Endorphins & Naturally Improve Your Brain Chemistry! today and learn how to create a life of happiness! Click the BUY NOW button at the top of this page!
Download or read book The Happy Brain written by Dean Burnett and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Funny, wise and absolutely fascinating.' Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt *** Do you want to be happy? If so - read on. This book has all the answers* In The Happy Brain, neuroscientist Dean Burnett delves deep into the inner workings of our minds to explore some fundamental questions about happiness. What does it actually mean to be happy? Where does it come from? And what, really, is the point of it? Forget searching for the secret of happiness through lifestyle fads or cod philosophy - Burnett reveals the often surprising truth behind what make us tick. From whether happiness really begins at home (spoiler alert: yes - sort of) to what love, sex, friendship, wealth, laughter and success actually do to our brains, this book offers a uniquely entertaining insight into what it means to be human. *Not really. Sorry. But it does have some very interesting questions, and at least the occasional answer.
Download or read book The Science of Positivity written by Loretta Graziano Breuning and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-12-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Science of Positivity teaches you how cynical thought habits are formed, and how you can rewire yourself to go beyond them.
Download or read book Tame Your Anxiety written by Loretta Graziano Breuning and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anxiety is natural. Calm is learned. If you didn’t learn yesterday, you can learn today. It’s not easy, of course. Once your natural alarm system is triggered, it’s hard to find the off switch. Indeed, you don’t have an off switch until you build one. Tame Your Anxiety shows you how. Readers learn about the brain chemicals that make us feel threatened and the chemicals that make us feel safe. You’ll see how your brain turns on these chemicals with neural pathways built from past experience, and, most important, you discover your power to build new pathways, to enjoy more happy chemicals, and reduce threat chemicals. This book does not tell you to imagine yourself on a tropical beach. That’s the last thing you want when you feel like a lion is chasing you. Instead, you will learn to ask your inner mammal what it wants and how you can get it. Each time you step toward meeting a survival need, you build the neural pathways that expect your needs to be met. You don’t have to wait for a perfect world to feel good. You can feel good right now. The exercises in this book help you build a self-soothing circuit in steps so small that anyone can do it. Once you learn how it’s done, and how it can help ease your anxiety, you will learn how to handle situations in which you feel threatened or anxious. Understanding the underlying mechanisms will help you stop them before they get ahead of you.
Download or read book 14 Days to Sustainable Happiness written by Loretta Breuning and published by . This book was released on 2021-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You have power over your emotions.It's limited, so you need to understand your power.Here is a simple explanation of the chemicals that make us feel good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin. You'll find out what turns them on in animals, and how you manage them with the animal part of your brain. Then you'll learn to rewire your happy chemicals by feeding your brain new inputs in a new way. We'll do the same for the unhappy chemical, cortisol, too.It's a step-by-step method with no jargon, based on the work of the Inner Mammal Institute. A more complete presentation of the science is in the companion book, Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels.With one lesson a day for fourteen days, you will discover your power over your happy brain chemicals. This is not a checklist of activities. It's a guide to the way your brain got wired long ago, and the way to add on new wiring. We humans get wired by early experience, so we all need updates. You can learn to blaze a new trail through your jungle of neurons to reach your happy chemicals in natural, healthy ways.Realistic expectations are the key. Our happy chemicals are not designed to flow all the time for no reason. They evolved to reward you for taking a step that meets your needs. Our brain defines "needs" in a quirky way, alas. You will learn about these quirks so you can design realistic steps toward your happy chemicals.You cannot rewire your whole brain in 14 days. You can build one new neural pathway at a time. You will learn to target the new pathway you want and the steps that will build it. It will build with repetition, so you will flow there as smoothly as you now flow into your old happy-chemical pathways. You can replace an unsustainable habit with a new habit designed by you. You'll be glad you did!
Download or read book Joy Ology The Chemistry of Happiness written by Turker Bas and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We wake up every morning hoping to be happy and, by conventional wisdom, we should be! If we work hard, we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, we will be happy. If we can just find that great job, get that next promotion, or lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But happiness is far more than a positive feeling that comes and goes. Neuroscience has now proven that keeping happy is a skill you can develop! In JOY.OLOGY, Professor Turker Bas delves into this, revealing fascinating new insights into the science of happiness and taking us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and the four chemicals that drive the way we feel. JOY.OLOGY presents an unprecedented view of the intersection of neurology, psychology, and contemplative practice, and is filled with practical tools and skills that you can use every day to tap into the unused potential of your brain and rewire it for greater happiness. Each chapter will help you understand the role of one the "happy chemicals" in your brain-serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphin-focusing on exactly what that chemical is and how it can boost your happiness. Read this practical, easy-to-understand, and often entertaining book, and you'll know exactly how to trigger your happy chemicals, nourish your mind, balance your brain, and help others do the same.
Download or read book Overloaded written by Ginny Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW SCIENTIST BOOK OF THE YEAR From adrenaline to dopamine, our lives are shaped by the chemicals that control us. They are the hormones and neurotransmitters that our brains run on, and Overloaded looks at the roles they play in all aspects of our experiences, from how we make decisions, who we love, what we remember to basic survival drives such as hunger, fear and sleep. Author Ginny Smith explores what these tiny molecules do: what roles do cortisol and adrenaline play in memory formation? How do hormones and neurotransmitters affect the trajectory of our romantic relationships? Ginny meets scientists at the cutting-edge of brain chemistry research who are uncovering unexpected connections between these crucial chemicals. An eye-opening route through the remarkable world of neuro-transmitters, Overloaded unveils the chemicals inside each of us that touch every facet of our lives.
Download or read book Dopamine Nation written by Dr. Anna Lembke and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.
Download or read book Leaders Eat Last written by Simon Sinek and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestseller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of Start With Why and Together is Better. Now with an expanded chapter and appendix on leading millennials, based on Simon Sinek's viral video "Millenials in the workplace" (150+ million views). Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why? The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care. Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a "Circle of Safety" that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside. Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.
Download or read book The Psychology of Gratitude written by Robert A. Emmons and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-02-26 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gratitude, like other positive emotions, has inspired many theological and philosophical writings, but it has inspired very little vigorous, empirical research. In an effort to remedy this oversight, this volume brings together prominent scientists from various disciplines to examine what has become known as the most-neglected emotion. The volume begins with the historical, philosophical, and theoretical foundations of gratitude, then presents the current research perspectives from social, personality, and developmental psychology, as well as from primatology, anthropology, and biology. The volume also includes a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of research on gratitude. This work contributes a great deal to the growing positive psychology initiative and to the scientific investigation of positive human emotions. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers and students in social, personality, and developmental, clinical, and health psychology, as well as to sociologists and cultural anthropologists.
Download or read book The Women s Brain Book written by Dr Sarah McKay and published by Hachette Australia. This book was released on 2018-03-27 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For women, understanding how the brain works during the key stages of life - in utero, childhood, puberty and adolescence, pregnancy and motherhood, menopause and old age - is essential to their health. Dr Sarah McKay is a neuroscientist who knows everything worth knowing about women's brains, and shares it in this fascinating, essential book. This is not a book about the differences between male and female brains, nor a book using neuroscience to explain gender-specific behaviours, the 'battle of the sexes' or 'Mars-Venus' stereotypes. This is a book about what happens inside the brains and bodies of women as they move through the phases of life, and the unique - and often misunderstood - effects of female biology and hormones. Dr McKay give insights into brain development during infancy, childhood and the teenage years (including the onset of puberty) and also takes a look at mental health as well as the ageing brain. The book weaves together findings from the research lab, case studies and interviews with neuroscientists and other researchers working in the disciplines of neuroendocrinology, brain development, brain health and ageing. This comprehensive guide explores the brain during significant life stages, including: In utero Childhood Puberty The Menstrual Cycle The Teenage Brain Depression and Anxiety Pregnancy and Motherhood Menopause The Ageing Brain
Download or read book Switch On Your Brain written by Dr. Caroline Leaf and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 900,000 copies sold! According to researchers, the vast majority--a whopping 75-98 percent--of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about truly affects us both physically and emotionally. In fact, fear alone triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses in our bodies, activating more than thirty different hormones! Today our culture is undergoing an epidemic of toxic thoughts that, left unchecked, create ideal conditions for illnesses. Supported by current scientific and medical research, Dr. Caroline Leaf gives readers a prescription for better health and wholeness through correct thinking patterns, declaring that we are not victims of our biology. She shares with readers the "switch" in our brains that enables us to live happier, healthier, more enjoyable lives where we achieve our goals, maintain our weight, and even become more intelligent. She shows us how to choose life, get our minds under control, and reap the benefits of a detoxed thought life.
Download or read book Why Good Things Happen to Good People written by Stephen Post, Ph.D. and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2008-04-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A longer life. A happier life. A healthier life. Above all, a life that matters—so that when you leave this world, you’ll have changed it for the better. If science said you could have all this just by altering one behavior, would you? Dr. Stephen Post has been making headlines by funding studies at the nation’s top universities to prove once and for all the life-enhancing benefits of caring, kindness, and compassion. The exciting new research shows that when we give of ourselves, especially if we start young, everything from life-satisfaction to self-realization and physical health is significantly affected. Mortality is delayed. Depression is reduced. Well-being and good fortune are increased. In their life-changing new book, Why Good Things Happen to Good People, Dr. Post and journalist Jill Neimark weave the growing new science of love and giving with profoundly moving real-life stories to show exactly how giving unlocks the doors to health, happiness, and a longer life. The astounding new research includes a fifty-year study showing that people who are giving during their high school years have better physical and mental health throughout their lives. Other studies show that older people who give live longer than those who don’t. Helping others has been shown to bring health benefits to those with chronic illness, including HIV, multiple sclerosis, and heart problems. And studies show that people of all ages who help others on a regular basis, even in small ways, feel happiest. Why Good Things Happen to Good People offers ten ways to give of yourself, in four areas of life, all proven by science to improve your health and even add to your life expectancy. (And not one requires you to write a check.) The one-of-a-kind “Love and Longevity Scale” scores you on all ten ways, from volunteering to listening, loyalty to forgiveness, celebration to standing up for what you believe in. Using the lessons and guidelines in each chapter, you can create a personalized plan for a more generous life, finding the style of giving that suits you best. The astonishing connection between generosity and health is so convincing that it will inspire readers to change their lives in ways big and small. Get started today. A longer, healthier, happier life awaits you.
