Brain Chemistry: What Your Mood Depends On.

Brain Chemistry : What Your Mood Depends On.

Emotions appeared in the course of evolution not so that you would be happy all the time, but to motivate you to take actions that support survival.

Positive emotions - motivate you to take steps to meet your needs.

DOPAMINE.

Creates a feeling of pleasant excitement when you find a new way to satisfy a need.

When your brain releases dopamine, it signals that a reward is near.

This wonderful feeling motivates you to make an effort to reach your goal.Under the influence of dopamine, new neural connections are formed, so that you will again experience pleasant emotions when you find yourself in a similar situation. When you take steps toward meeting your needs, you feel joy thanks to a burst of dopamine.

SEROTONIN.

Starts being produced when you feel your social importance.

Serotonin gives you positive emotions when you gain status or recognition in society.

To survive, our ancestors had to defend their status while avoiding conflict.

Because of this, we inherited a brain that constantly makes us compare ourselves to others and rewards us with a pleasant sense of pride when we find ourselves at the top of the social ladder.

ENDORPHINS.

Soften physical pain, masking it with a feeling of euphoria.

Endorphins are released in response to pain.

They mask the pain for a few minutes so that a wounded animal can reach safety.

Then production stops, because pain is valuable information.

Evolution gave you endorphins for emergency situations, not so that you would deliberately hurt yourself.

Fortunately, laughter and physical exercise also stimulate the production of this hormone.

OXYTOCIN.

The trust hormone that helps you feel safe among other people.

Oxytocin is released when we form trusting relationships with someone, and also during physical touch. It motivates mammals to unite in groups for the sake of safety.

Under the influence of oxytocin, new neural pathways are formed, which later make us more trusting toward others.

Our brain makes careful decisions about when to reward us with this pleasant feeling, because trusting absolutely everyone does not support survival.

Negative emotions- motivate you to avoid what threatens your survival.

CORTISOL.

Warns you about potential threats.

Cortisol directs your attention to an internal or external danger.

Feelings of anxiety or fear motivate you to act quicklyto eliminate the threat.

Every surge of cortisol creates neural path ways that cause negative emotions to “switch on” fasterin similar situations in the future.

Cortisol is also produced when you feel disappointed.If you fail to get what you want, cortisol sends you a signal: “Stop wasting energy on futile attempts.”

MYELIN.

Builds neural super-highways.

Some of your neural pathways conduct electricity at very high speed because they are coated with myelin.

This is why certain thought sand behavioral reactions become automatic.

The maximum amount of myelin is produced up to about age 8and again during puberty. That’s why, unfortunately, we tend to see the world through the lens of the experiences we had in childhood.

The mammal brain (limbic system) works on two principles:

1. It is concerned with the survival of your genes.

2. It relies on neural pathways formed on the basis of past experience.