hello and welcome to worlds apart and if you want to be happy just be placed macsyma mistakingly attributed to leo tolstoy whom by the way was a very unhappy person has nonetheless it's supported in your science far from it the physics the feel good why is it a result of our daily actions and expectations how to maximize it in a world that seems to be so prominently on the ads and on depressants well to discuss that i'm now joined by a lawyer at the burning professor emeritus of management that state university and author of the habits of the happy brain dr burning it's so great to talk to you thank you very much for your time. thanks so much for having me now and the pursuit of happiness is stated as a reasonable right in the years declaration of independence and it is defined there

as a free striving towards joy as long as a. violated the rights of others so even the american founding fathers to have centuries ago defined it as something for us actionable and 2nd time to an individual. i gathered from your blog that modern day neuroscience approaches it pretty much the same way. actually my work is not representative of modern neuroscience i took early retirement to do my own thing separate from academia so i can't speak for nurse science and i think they see it differently because of modern medical model suggests that happiness is the natural default state and if you're not happy all the time then that's a disease and they can fix you and i absolutely disagree because when i study research about research on the animal brain from the past it shows that animals

have the same happy chemicals that we have and they're not just signed to be on all the time they're designed to alert you to specific opportunities and that's what makes. and this is such a great point because many philosophers many writers have long approached happiness as a kind of a metaphysical category but what's interesting about it and what's practical about this approach is that it treats it as essentially a regulatory system that if what informs you on the things that either threaten oprah mold to your survival there is nothing philosophical about it as far as i can get it's pure chemistry right. you've summarized it perfectly. however to add one more thing everyone is wired differently because despite the fact that it's pure chemistry which turns the chemicals on and off is what ever turn them on and off in your unique individual youth which is just

a random collection of experiences so one child in one family might have totally different experiences from another so whatever turn on my dope i mean insert tone and when i was young that i had gives me a pathway and that's how i seek it in the future but those pathways as far as i understand there are no old sad and stoned they're pretty strong especially when they're formed in. very young. but it's still within the power of an individual to either reshape them or perhaps substitute than but some other pathways yes exactly and i equate it to learning a foreign language in the sense that your old health waves are like your native language which you would not warrant if you built it from a huge amount of repetition but you don't remember that so your native language comes to you effortlessly so it's a same with your emotional responses they got wired in from a huge amount of repetition now they feel so effortless that you just take them as

the truth and you don't realize that you actually built them and you have power to build new ones but it's as hard as learning a new language and we all know that it's possible to learn a new language but it takes so much repetition most people joe absolute am the best example of a by the way illyria tolstoy whom i mentioned in the beginning or was a good example too and he famously said that all happy families are happy in the same way but all i'm happy families have their own special where from happiness as far as i understand when we apply that to individuals their verse is true and happened this has the same taste for everybody if the taste of course has all but when it comes to this good feel by it's actually derived from or different sources and each one of them has its own distinct function without those loretta. so the ones i talk about are joe pany and sarah tell an oxy towson and endorphin

and i'll give a very quick summary of what turns each of them on in animals and then my website and my books and videos go into a lot more detail so don't i mean is the good feeling of meeting a need so if you imagine a monkey waking up hungry in the morning it needs food when it sees food in the distance it's like oh wow i can get that and that's what we like is that feeling of oh i can get that and because our stomach just fall we're not constantly searching for food so we need other things to give us this oh i can get that feeling in our telling. oxy towson in animals is the good feeling of social support so animal sick hurt for safety in numbers and protection from predators and humans often romanticize this and think that they're always supporting each other but when you think about it in a herd there will always hiding so that someone else gets eaten so if you feel

frustrated about your hurt place do not romanticize this and it's the fact that our brains are the record when we are isolated because an isolated animal is threatened by predators and when an animal goes to the her it feels like it and let down its guard and that's when an animal eats though we want that feeling i can let down my guard because i'm safe with these people now i'm related to that is sara tone in which is also a social hormonal right yes exactly and so we have 2 different social urges one of us acceptance and belonging and serotonin is different it reflects the real competitiveness among animals which has become quite tepid where i live in northern california everyone likes to think that they're not competitive but then they're belting others for pink who have it. the fact is all animals are competitive not just the top ones because when the top one disappears another one quickly and

they're always fighting to get more opportunity because of serotonin rewards them with a good feeling but it's not a question it's a good feeling that i can meet my needs because i'm strong and i'm respected if it's reflective of your place in a social hierarchy and the 4th one is indoor fit which is and this is something that really surprised me we all think of indoor him as this you know slasher hormone but you lay out in your book that it's actually a natural painkiller it's not exactly it's not giving your pleasure as much as it is masking the pain. yes we could call i call it a euphoria that masks pain which is the way humans experience it but in the animal world it's only trigger when they're actually in pain and if you see a wildlife maybe open an animal has its flesh ripped open by

a predator but it's still able to run because for 15 minutes endorphin masks pain and then enables you to act to save your life so if a caveman broke his leg been for a short time he could go get help but then we're not meant to have pain all the time and mask it with endorphin we're meant to protect our injury and not cause ourselves pain and i don't know if you would agree with me but i think we rely on and or friends and way too much i mean i dictions are a big problem in mahmoud's developed countries and what struck me when reading your book is that. almost all at dictions are ultimately undergirded by endorsements which relieve the pain in the short term by force to find it in the long term should it even be categorized as a happy chemical because it seems to be such a double faced side kick to court is all. i see what you're saying ok i

think you're confusing 3 different things to opening endorphin and they're dremel and so if you don't mind a so into orphan what people say runner's high but runners don't get it every time they run but only if they run to the point of pain but a tic sion so if you're addicted to opioids that's enjoy our fun and also heroin but not cocaine cocaine is. dope meet with dope and mean it's also whether a person over eats or smokes or is always looking for another romantic opportunity it's the i want more i want more i want more so that part of every addiction regardless of what you're addicted to so it could go together don't mean an endorphin now finally adrenaline is excitement so some people love excitement some people hate it some people love to climb mountains and watch horror movies and

others hate it so it's that. little bit of threat and now let's talk a little bit about cortisol because we're in the stressful times we all want. the last of it but as you make the case in your book act heart is always neither good or bad in fact it can be very useful when you understand how it works and how to process it not only a metabolically but also mentally how do you go about it. so 1st is to understand that it's the chemical that tells an animal that a predator is about eat it and in the state of nature there was a lot of pain in daily life as you were you know maybe climbing through thorn bushes 'd to get berries to be or running after an animal but in the modern world we're so safe we have this huge alarm system and we have nothing to do with it so

if you don't get would bite it to a party. which you were hoping like or if you don't get a promotion so every time you're hoping for a good feeling and you don't get what you hoped for you turn on nature's emergency broadcast system and then you get a little bit of corn azzam and cortisol does its job by telling you to look for danger because when a gazelle smells a predator has to find the predator so you're always looking for danger in that turns on more quarters so when you know that you're doing that you can know that you created this sense of danger instead of believing that the world really is so dangerous as i was actually at a major revelation for me that while the in the nature of threats to our survival hast changed our signalling has stayed the same so whether you are stuck in traffic or out whether you have let's say allocation with you with your colic it still

feels like danger danger i'm about to die do something about it and in your book you're actually recommend resisting that to do something and sort of getting used to that discomfort now that's easier said than done isn't it. yes so i have a new book called taking your anxiety and then there was an in-between book called the science of positivity so the idea is that if you're already wired a quarter. it's all is designed to make you not have to touch a hot stove twice so everything that ever hurt you in your past that's what your brain is looking for if you want to focus on the positive you have to build those new pathways if you want to not run when you when you smell a predator you have to build new pathways so i give a simple plan to do that and i make it easy i think well dr burning let's take a very short break now but we will be back with the discussion in just

a few moments. is you'll be a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe from. the isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. what is true what is. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us

in the depths. for a mate in the shallowness. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race based on often scary dramatic developments only really i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down. tom. welcome back to worlds apart with that selling author a letter at the burning dr bringing just before the break and we're talking about your advice some of it is. valid you would difficult to follow i have to say but

one piece of advice that i found very helpful and easy to follow is essentially that consciously putting those 4 chemicals into a balance so for example as a cell driven manic like myself may benefit from strategically looking at oxytocin cultivation and being more mindful of the other people while for example a people pleaser would be. made that i said more from setting goals and working the dual command pathway and more i guess what you're talking about here is simply be diversification of the tap in this production and you don't have to call it happiness happiness just such a general world but sort of cultivating your wellbeing and your sense of wellbeing . yes so a big part of it is to recognize that our brain is designed to sequence chemicals to seek these good feelings because there's an h.

there nature signal that you connect your survival needs so when they're not on you have this illusion that your survival is threatened with they're not designed to be on all the time so they're designed to push just to keep going going in that's why everyone has this treadmill feeling and everyone blames society for this treadmill feeling but it's not society at all i mention around sisters looking for food all the time in a harsh world that's what our brain is designed for a while as if they ran out supposed to be happy all the time but we are also not supposed to be and happy all the time and if you look if you look at the broad span of history really when the most prosperous the most accurate simple time in human history and the other one would not be able to say that by watching the news and i think part of that is the nature of news of course is all driven information but another part is how we process that information how does one stay

informed without succumbing to the emotional charge that comes with it. great question so 1st i want to talk about common enemies so in the animal world errol's would really rather spread out because if you look for food in a tight group you're poking each other and competing for food but as soon as they spread out then somebody is near a predator as soon as they smell a predator and they group together so humans have always grouped by imagining a common enemy so a lot of the newest is to worry you about a common enemy so that you stick with the group and then you just worried all the time this is the subject of my book the signs of positivity so the question is you said how to stay informed without having this distress level. i don't worry about people judging me for not being warm that's one thing it's like if they

want to think i'm stupid because i don't know what was in today's head like it's fine let them think they are driving themselves down down a spiral while i'm investing my time productively and another part of that i say that because i read books i really 5 years ahead because books give you an idea of how things will be in the future and stick books in if you read history books will have better insight but you speaking about history wrote recently that. everyone who has ever leave had this sense that they were leaving at a turning point in history precisely because the human brain is constructed in a way to interpret history with reference to its own needs and i think for many people it's extremely difficult and i'm easy to accept that because in our societies we are sort of accustomed to or

demonstrative lee here for others but when you focus on yourself it isn't that active social isn't that true self. i'll admit that there is a cost so if your with a group of people and they're all in a rage about today's news or they're all so worried about the fear of the day and if you don't share their fear they may act like what's wrong with you then i frankly don't even enjoy being in that so i need very careful decisions about how much time i spend pursuing my own goals vs how much time i listen to other people's group worrying and. it's very individual depending on their childhood and how they got to enjoy either context but you don't have to believe any of these philosophies that tell you which way is better well as you still have to be part of the society i assume and you know at least for oxytocin production

but bringing it closer to the news of the day. racial tensions are in the in the headlines a lot a lot and as an outsider and i think as a russian i can say that when i look at the data statistically the black community is much better off now than at any other point in history including a matter is of police brutality even though the public clearly doesn't believe that to be the case and what strikes me about the us events is that most of the reaction is not about dope i'm in let's do something let's set the goal and let's fix it it's more about oxytocin and sarah tone and let's get together and rage and despair each year clapping act out i was wrong on that. absolutely true so there's 2 things one is that humans have always felt this way animals monkeys

test and so i got started doing this i read so many books about monkeys and that's what they do they get together to fight another monkey and that's how they raise their status and that promotes their genes and natural selection builds a brain that motivates us to do this so the bigger question is 0 people always done this why is it but i cannot say this in public now i am saying it in public but an american with never invite me to say this in public because they would be worried that they would be ruined so it's a sad thing and i always focus on taking responsibility rather than blaming others so if i were to take responsibility i would say that i was a college professor for 25 years and i was part of the system that indoctrinated all of these young people with a marxist mindset and it's tragic it's horrible and i wish i had

a simple answer look i am not an american and russian who was born into a society 0 that have tried to implement some of their marxist maxims in real life it didn't succeed but. i think people could tell i mean they even the natural response to your argument would be that we are not monkeys we have much more complex societies and we should not give up on trying to improve the society is giving up would be a dereliction of a citizen's duty jast as much as blaming everything on the system would be an abdication of personal response a bit of responsibility where is the gold in the middle there. oh thank you that's the topic of my new book it's called status games why we play and how to stop and it will be out not for a year from now but i'm working it on now so you're right that the answer is the golden middle but it has to come from inside because as i mentioned our emotions

are wired in like our native language so when children are reinforced for that certain ideas and patterns it's hard to change every will later on so schools really need to not glorify this opposition to authority is the only valuable skill and i think that's what they're teaching now and a lot of parents are also in this idea that opposition to authority is the valuable skill and i don't think it's a healthy thing but i was a parent i was sucked into that trend like other people you know when i talk to you know angry black people or angry women are any other group that reserves the right to be collectively angry their argument always comes down to that compounding nature of the disadvantage and even if that's the case i think you're an individual always has a choice between seeing himself or herself as

a victim in this circumstance or as a challenge or of those 'd circumstances what is the difference in terms of harmonial pathways that they spew different frames activate. question so they idea that that based on you mentioned the beginning antidepressants forgot the words you used so the idea that everybody else has an easy life and everybody feels good all the time and i'm getting left out this is the basic thought paradigm that's built into the modern mental health system and modern psychology and academia and it's not true at all other people are not getting free happy chemicals all the time so from a certain perspective it's the idea that other people have status easily it's just given to them they don't have to do anything white males have an easy life everything just comes to them it's so not true white males have as hard

a time as they're ever everybody else and everyone's indoctrinated to think other people have an easy life i'm left out so i'm going to demand and fight for an easy life. as you point out in the book we wait fracs more than the we secret wars and i think the danger of indoctrinating this. victimhood narrative is that if you perceive yourself as a victim if you see the world outside as fundamentally unfair and friendly and out to get your it only promotes learned how to listless and rage rather than. conservative deliberate action what do you think. great i'll iraq totally crazy i write a lot about social comparison so we have inherited a brain that is constantly comparing itself to others so before a monkey reaches for a bit of food it compares itself to others and if it sees that it's weaker then it

doesn't reach for the banana because it's afraid of getting bitten if it sees that it's stronger saira tone and is released and it goes for it and it feels good so we built patterns when we were young of comparing ourselves to others and making decisions about when we feel one up and when we feel one down and it's easy to feel one down all the time if you're into alternate to think that way and then you end up with this court has all of the time and that's the root of depression but if you think oh i'm going to feel what up all the time i'm ok that was that way they would get into fights and they would get bitten and they would get into trouble so as you said the golden mean is the complexity and again that's happening but it's difficult. when i look around from my side of the what's happening i think it's you know the knocking down of monuments which is probably the most unproductive thing you're going to ever do to improve your life that's what happened in the soviet

union when the soviet union fell people went 1st for the monuments absolutely but they've. now go had a letter kissed have leaders with a handbook and they're using the same hymn book but i find this so i'm characteristic of the united states because america has always been more individualistic of them act collectivist it was more are always more about dope and men doing something than courts is all you know fuming about something and when did it change. so before world war 2 a lot of europeans came to the united states they came to new york and they say. if a cli targeted teacher education and journalism this is the history of cultural marxism grew up right near new york city with teachers who were educated in that mindset and so within the last 100 years they've been able to have that mindset through the media and teacher education and i grew up not just with you know

because the word marxism was taboo you would never admit that that was it but the idea that every european is better you know maybe no but america always had that and then we'll have that balance where people tried to take pride in things american but the real if you were really one up and high status you were european. well i'm surprised and almost sorry to hear that because their 2nd quality is that the rest of the world at myer's about being out of faith and that is you know this . may drive and i think it would be a shame to lose it and to lose a lot of cultural heritage along the way anyway dr burning we have to leave it there it's been great pleasure talking to you. you too thank you so much and thank you for watching and hope to see her again next week but of all the part.

time after time corporations repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important to accelerate the transition to sustainable transport sustainability. a more equitable and sustainable well. they claim the. production is completely harmless. and. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away this is just don't even and i mean look. you

missed me didn't. understand it looked so good and. said be a thief the 5th day of violent protests over the government's decision to re-impose a covert curfew. your response shows delays to count for treatment of you kate your typical road virus could cause an extra 6000 deaths we speak to a man who only discovered he had the wrong concept when he finally got so much to lay down. so that i was to the north of those i can see the new words to put to you. no words can describe.