Rewire your brain to avoid the trap of comparison and status-seeking to achieve more contentment and satisfaction from life

People care about status despite their best intentions because our brains are inherited from animals who cared about status. The survival value of status in the state of nature helps us understand our intense emotions about status today. Beneath your verbal brain, you have the brain common to all mammals. It rewards you with pleasure hormones when you see yourself in a position of strength, and it alarms you with stress hormones when you see yourself in a position of weakness.

But constant striving for status can be anxiety-provoking and joy-stealing. Nothing feels like enough to our mammal brain. It releases those stress chemicals when you think others are ahead of you.

Here, Loretta Breuning shines a light on the brain processes that encourage us to seek higher status. She teaches us how to rewire those connections for more contentment and less stress. No more worrying about keeping up with the Joneses. Your new way of thinking will blaze new trails to your happy hormones and you will RELAX.

Loretta G. Breuning, PhD, is founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and professor emerita of management at California State University, East Bay. She is the author of many personal development books, includingHabits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin and Endorphin Levels andTame Your Anxiety: Rewiring Your Brain for Happiness. Dr. Breuning's work has been translated into ten languages and is cited in major media. Before teaching, she worked for the United Nations in Africa. The Inner Mammal Institute offers videos, podcasts, books, blogs, multimedia, a training program, and a free five-day happy-chemical jumpstart. Details are available atInnerMammalInstitute.org. She lives in Oakland, CA.

Preface: How I Stopped Selling

Introduction: Why We Care About Status

Part 1: Why Status Games Are Relentless

1. Status Games in Animals

2. Social Rivalry Among Early Humans

3. Status Games Around the World

Part 2: How Our Brain Creates Status Games

4. Serotonin and the Pleasure of Social Dominance

5. Cortisol and Status Stress

6. Why Its Always High School in Your Brain

Part 3: Healthy Alternatives to Status Games

7. A Healthy Serotonin Mindset

8. Practical Steps Toward Serotonin

9. Help Others Escape Status Games

Epilogue

Index

About the Author