Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, & Endorphin Levels

This is the second time I’ve read this book. I love the practical action steps and detailed yet entertaining explanations of brain function.

This book is written just the way I prefer - concise, direct and clear to understand with a wry sense of humor (perhaps unintentionally) which makes this an enjoyable read through and through. I rarely write reviews but though thought this book especially deserving. I found this book life changing because it actually gives the reader new, more revealing lenses through which to observe human behavior and therefore one's own sometimes inexplicable behavior. By going through her very clear descriptions and anecdotes I found myself understanding my own and others' drives, tendencies and behaviors in a new and obvious way! Reflecting on her descriptions of how superhighways are built early have helped me to hone in on my "passions" in life as an adult, by identifying what early childhood and adolescent experiences give my brain happy surges and building off of those naturally, while managing expectations and understanding that "happy" surges to fade. The clarity and wisdom that shines through this presentation of what could be a very clinical approach to scientific understanding is a credit to the way in which the author has integrated years of research and study into her own experience of life and is able to share this practical application and uplift net with her readers. Great book, highly recommended.

Loved this book! It was thrilling. I couldn’t put it down and finished it without hours of getting it. It goes through what your happy chemicals are, why we have them, how we stimulate them, why that stimulation sometimes actually decreases our overall happiness, and how to build patterns to stimulate them in new ways. The author does not presume to know how you want to stimulate your happy chemicals, just gives a guide for how to do it. I’m still searching for a book that can apply this to some relatable life experience and give me concrete ways of breaking patters. For example, how do I get out of the habit of comparing myself to people. It’s human, sure, but it’s decreasing my overall happiness how do I make it stop. How can I use this info to deepen my relationships with my loved ones. I know I need to stimulate my oxytocin and serotonin but how can I do that in a healthy way? How do you maintain romantic relationships when the dopamine wears off? Can you stimulate dopamine in a long term partnership? I need a follow up that gives me guides for improving my life.One note. The author kinda shows a side of herself at the end that, even she admits, goes against the grain. She had calculated the risk of not being part of the herd and has probably found some small group of people that feel the same way she does to stimulate her own totally human serotonin. But for people who care about political and social movements, maybe skip the last chapter. There’s kind of this idea presented that each individual is in charge of their own happiness (I agree) and that the world today is not broken at all (hmm ok) and that we indoctrinate people into believing the system is rigged (??). Going so far as to put the word privileged in quotes (yikes). The book absolutely ignores learned helplessness, abuse, oppression, and all the ways our mammal brain hurts people. It’s a fend for yourself world in this book. That’s fine. Personally I feel like there can be balance. You can acknowledge that you won the genetic lottery and that it doesn’t make you happier. Just that it gives you more access to resources that will. She states that in today’s world, there’s no use for cortisol to alert you to existential dangers like death, pain, and starvation so we focus that cortisol on social dangers like rejection, betrayal, and shame. Completely ignoring that for a LOT of people on this planet, that’s not the reality. Even going so far as to put a little shame on some people for prioritizing the happiness of many over their own. I’m aware as I type this that I’m getting a little serotonin bump from feeling like I’m making the better herd choice. So human. But yeah. That part made me bristle but not enough to ruin the book.

Easy to read, sensible, simple, structured and to the point. (Repeats the point quite a lot in fact! But for good reason)This book opened my eyes in a big way to the motivating factors of human beings and all mammals. It suddenly makes sense to me why there seem to be so many stupid idiots in the world and why I often behave like one of them! I understand what causes people to look down on each other, why we fish for compliments, why we are never satisfied with what we have even if it seems good on the surface.Once you read this, you may feel like the Matrix of life has been revealed to you. Take the red pill. Humanity is not what you thought it was.The second half of the book teaches us how to bypass those instinctive deep-brain habits, and create new habits that are actually helpful to us. It's based on a 45 day habit creation process which makes so much sense its almost dumb.The first half made me depressed, thinking that I was a slave to my neurochemistry, a prisoner of my monkey-ancestors survival mechanisms which I am unable to avoid, notice or escape once caught up in them, but the second half gives hope, and a technique to create new habits. I base this 5 star review on the first half alone, although after reading it I feel like humankind is not really as clever or free at it thinks it is.At least we have some wiggle room to change a few things!

So much valuable information clearly explained. Empowering. Optimistic. A straightforward plan to make changes in your life. You can create a different reality.

I was less than happy with this book. Although it did describe the different ways that your brain gets happy, it really was less than satisfactory in telling how to help your brain get happy in those ways, especially in regards to seratonin. There was a lot of repetition. When I finished the book, I still felt like I needed more information. It is good for a for a general introduction to the different things that affect your brain, but if you are looking for a way to move forward, this may not be your best choice. On the other hand, I haven't found anything better, so maybe I am looking for something that doesn't exist.