Loretta Graziano Breuning, PhD is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, which helps people re-wire their brain chemistry naturally. She’s the author of ‘“Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels” Beyond Cynical: Transcend Your Mammalian Negativity’; and ‘ I, Mammal: Why Your Brain Links Status and Happiness’.  These books explain what turns on the happy chemicals in the state of nature, and how we can wire ourselves to get more of them. Research on animals makes it clear that our happy chemicals are not meant to flow all the time: they come in short spurts and you have to do more to get more. For a free 5-day happy-chemical jumpstart, go to InnerMammalInstitute.org.

Loretta is Professor Emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay. She began studying the brain chemistry of animals because she was not convinced by prevailing theories of human motivation. Before teaching, she was a United Nations Volunteer in Africa. Now she volunteers as a Docent at the Oakland Zoo, where she gives family-friendly tours on the social behavior of mammals. She’s graduate of Cornell and Tufts, and the mother of tax-paying adults.