There are 4 chemicals that control happiness, pride, joy, love and fulfillment. Chemicals drive our behavior. All our desires and feelings are affected by these scientific processes. In way, chemicals control us, but we can also control them in a way. I’ll explain in a little bit.
As humans, we are basically survival machines. And we are built and wired to work together so that our species can continue. We’re stronger as a community than we are as individuals. This is our strength and why we dominate other animals on this planet that are much stronger than we are.
There are 4 main chemicals that drive these communal behaviors:
1. Endorphines
2. Dopamine
3. Seratonin
4. Oxytosin
The first 2 are what we might call selfish chemicals, meaning we don’t need any help to get them going. Endorphines give you that runner’s high when you’re exercising. Dopamine rewards getting stuff done, but is also triggered by anything addictive.
The last 2 are social chemicals, meaning they come from couple or group activity. These are:
seratonin, which is pride, status, recognition; and oxytosin, which is for love, trust, and friendship. If you hug someone, that good feeling you get is oxytosin.
They also act against each other sometimes. For example, in 12-step programs they know that helping others (seratonin,oxytosin) is necessary in order to keep their addictions (dopamine) at bay.
I’ll go into the individual chemicals in more detail in future episodes, and I also have a Brain Chemicals playlist on the YouTube channel.
But if you want a really good look at the whole story on this topic, check out Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk called Why Leaders Eat Last. There’s a link down below.
So in summary, this helps me understand why I do things and how to change my behavior. If I feel like getting a large pizza and eating it but i know it’s bad for me and i don’t want to pay the cost of that pleasure, I know there is dopamine at work, and the antidote is seratonin or oxytonin. So I hope that I can look at these things and try to use the knowlege to build some balance into my life.
The Speech
The Book
https://amzn.to/2WqCsWT
Recorded March 26, 2019.
Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 212 (-62)
Workout time: 0 Minutes
Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): 0 Miles (464.04)
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Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 26%
Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 6 hours
2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat
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