Loretta Breuning, PhD is Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and author of Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin and Endorphin Levels. She’s Professor Emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay. I am Professor Emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay. As a teacher and a mom, I was not convinced by prevailing theories of human motivation. Then I learned about the brain chemistry of animals, and everything made sense. I knew this information could help people, so I set about creating resources. I’m thrilled that they’ve helped thousands of people around the world, and have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French and Turkish.

Before teaching, I was a United Nations Volunteer in Africa, where I learned about the mammalian custom of bribery. Now I volunteer as a Docent at the Oakland Zoo, where I give family-friendly tours on the social behavior of mammals. I’m a graduate of Cornell and Tufts, and the proud mother of tax-paying adults. And every day I appreciate the similarity between the field notes of a primatologist and the lyrics to a love song.

I grew up around a lot of conflict and struggled to make sense of it. When I learned about the conflict within an animal herd or pack or troop, I could accept the frictions of life instead of getting frustrated. Learning about the brain chemistry behind mammalian social drama gave me peace.

I escaped to college, where I learned that capitalism is the cause of conflict. I escaped to Africa after grad school, where I noticed that Africa has conflict too. I learned that everyone expected me to agree with their view of conflict. I handled that by reading and writing.

I became a zoo docent, and studied animal conflict in depth. Animals cooperate too of course. Their brains are always choosing which option best promotes survival in each moment. Most people around me think nature is all good, and "our society" is the cause of all bad. But the facts don't support this, and we are free to follow the facts. Happy chemicals evolved to do a job, not to be on all the time. When you know the job each chemical does in the state of nature, your ups and downs make sense. You can build new neural pathways to turn on your happy chemicals in new and natural ways. Here's a step-by-step plan to do it in 45 days! Life is complicated because each happy chemical spurt is quickly metabolized and you have to do more to get more. This is why we are tempted to overdo a happy habit to the point of unhappiness. But you can wire in new habits that stimulate your happy chemicals without harmful consequences. Here's how!