Can Your Chemistry Make You Unhappy?

It’s common to hear people explain their emotional state in terms of body chemistry. We attribute low moods or a lack of motivation to hormones, sleep cycles, blood sugar, or brain chemistry. It sounds logical—if we’re feeling off, there must be something physically “off” inside us. But what if the real cause of how we feel isn’t physical at all?

In this powerful talk, George Pransky challenges the popular belief that our chemistry causes unhappiness. He suggests that while our physical condition can influence how we feel, it doesn’t actually determine our emotional state. The real driver of our experience is our thinking and the role of thought in creating our moment-to-moment experience. Understanding this gives us a completely different way of relating to our moods. If our feelings are coming from our thinking in the moment—not from something broken or imbalanced in our body—then there’s nothing we need to fix. There’s no need to monitor every emotional dip or analyze every bad day. We simply let our thinking settle and know that our mood will naturally shift, just as the weather changes without our help.

When you're not afraid of your moods you respond with more clarity and patience. You stop trying to manage or control internal states, and instead, operate from a deeper understanding of where experience comes from.

Rather than feeling like victims of our chemistry, we begin to see that we have an innate capacity for resilience. Our state of mind fluctuates, but it always stabilizes when we leave it alone. This natural return to well-being becomes more reliable than any external fix.

At its core, George's insight invites us to take our moods less seriously—not to ignore them, but to see them for what they are: temporary, thought-based experiences. The less attention we give them, the faster they pass, allowing us to re-engage with work, relationships, and life from a steadier, clearer place.