Your ups and downs are caused by brain chemicals inherited from earlier mammals.
 
What's exciting about that is, you can enjoy more happy chemicals if you learn how to manage your mammal brain.
 
Loretta writes a fantastic blog on her website Inner Mammal Institute where she digs deep into human emotions and the chemistry behind them.
 
She and James talk today about some of our happy chemicals: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin.
 
"Reaching a goal triggers dopamine. That feels great, but the spurt soon ends. Then you become who you were before the spurt. If you're not comfortable with that, you can get caught up in endless efforts to stimulate more dopamine with more goal seeking."
 
"Unhappy chemicals evolved to alert you to survival threats. They feel bad because that gets your attention. Sometimes we can relieve unhappy chemicals by fixing the underlying problem, like eating when you're hungry or sleeping when you're tired. But some unhappy chemicals will always be there to remind you that life is finite and you're not the boss of the world."
 
 
In this a fascinating interview, James and Loretta open up and talk about their own real-life experiences.