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Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta Graziano Breuning

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

"Each time you have an experience, your senses take in the world and trigger electricity in your brain.  That electricity flows in your brain like water flows in a storm--it finds the path of least resistance.  The paths you've already built give your electricity a place to flow, and that shapes your response to the experience...Some of your neural trails develop into superhighways because you've activated them repeatedly and neurochemically."  p. 20

"When you understand your brain, you realize [disappointments] come from you rather than from the thing itself."  p. 90

"We humans have the power to shift our attention from a circuit activated by the outside world to a circuit we activate internally."  p. 125

"Electricity flows through your neural pathways, but you always have the power to redirect the flow.  This is the core of your free will."  p. 126

"Celebrating small steps triggers more dopamine than saving it up for big achievement...learn to be happy with your progress.  [Give] yourself permission to have a feeling of accomplishment."  p. 144

"Some people have no experience making themselves happy because they grew up in a world in which others took responsibility for their happiness.  Some parents live to please their children...Their children learn to expect others to please them, and another generation learns to take unhappiness as a sign that others messed up instead of learning to please themselves."  p. 181

"Error is not a sign of incompetence; it's a sign that you are facing an unknown that must be explored before it can be mastered."  p. 188

"When you put yourself in charge of your own happiness, you have power."  p. 191



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