What this means is that when your son squeals in delight when you dramatically “die” from his Peter Pan sword thrust, when you and your daughter dance together at a concert or in the living room, or when you and your kids work together on a gardening or construction project, the experience strengthens the bonds between you and teaches your kids

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which means that it enables communication between brain cells. Your brain cells receive what some people call “dopamine squirts” when something pleasurable happens to you, and it motivates you to want to do it again. Scientists

we are hardwired for play and exploration as well as for joining with one another. In fact, “playful parenting” is one of the best ways to prepare your children for relationships and encourage them to connect with others. That’s because it gives them positive experiences being with the people they spend the most time with: their parents.

shyness is to a large extent genetic. It’s actually a part of a person’s core makeup present at birth.

we soak up like a sponge what we see in the behaviors, intentions, and emotions of someone else. We don’t just “mirror back” to someone else, but we “sponge in” their internal states.

“emotional contagion.” The internal states of others—from joy and playfulness to sadness and fear—directly affect our own state of mind. We soak other people into our own inner world.

We see an act, we understand the purpose of the act, and we ready ourselves to mirror it.

We sense not only what action is coming next, but also the emotion that underlies the behavior.

the brain is a social organ, made to be in relationship. It’s hardwired to take in signals from the social environment, which in turn influence a person’s inner world. In other words, what happens between brains has a great deal to do with what happens within each individual brain.