Rick Hanson's Blog, page 113

Relax Needless Fear Around Others

Does it feel safe with other people?

The Practice:

Relax needless fear around others.



Why?

We all know this fear. You’re walking down a street, someone you don’t know comes toward you, and there’s a second or more of wariness, scanning, apprehension, and tension or bracing in the body: a barely conscious assessment of possible threat. Or you step into a meeting with people you know and still there could be a watchfulness, a restraint, a certain carefulness in how you speak that comes more from s...

Is the Mind-Body Problem a Problem at All?

One could rightly ask: How can intangible thoughts affect tangible matter (i.e., the brain)? This question is at the heart of the longstanding “mind-body problem,” and related questions include: How can mind arise from matter? Is mind reducible to matter? Does matter determine mind?

These are important, non-trivial questions, and they’ve occupied philosophers for millennia – and now, neuroscientists. Increasingly, their research is suggesting that the account of dependent origination (particul...

Questions About Taking in the Good

“If you focus on the positive for long enough, does it actually make your brain more receptive to doing that? Turn it into “velcro” for happiness, to use your expression?”

“Once an uncomfortable pattern has developed, bad expectations seem to be a self-fulfilling prophecy for some folks – is there a basic first step to break the pattern?”

“You say that the brain has powerful, natural capacities toward intimacy. What, then, do you believe causes some of us to isolate ourselves or feel alone?”

You...

A Meditation on Gratitude

Set aside a quiet time during which you can reflect on some of the many things you could be thankful for. As a starting point, you might read the passage below to yourself or out loud, adapting it to your situation as you like.

There really is so much to be thankful for.

I am grateful to my friends. For their good qualities, for the good things they have done for me. For the ways they are fun, for the good times we’ve had.

I am grateful for my children – if I have any – for the delight and love...

A Caring, Joyful Heart

As you probably know, compassion and lovingkindness are central elements of Buddhism.

They arise naturally in response to one of those three fundamental characteristics of existence: interdependence/not-self/emptiness. They are also a beautiful path of spiritual practice. And they just feel good: “Through compassion one is free from lethargy and depression.” (Acariya Dhammapala)

Interestingly, a scientifically based tradition as hard-headed as Western psychology is also beginning to find that w...

Mind Changing Brain Changing Mind

The knowledge of neuroscience has doubled in the last twenty years. It will probably double again in the next twenty years. I think that neuropsychology is, broadly, about where biology was a hundred years after the invention of the microscope: around 1725.

In contrast, Buddhism is a twenty-five-hundred-year-old tradition. You don’t need an EEG or MRI to sit and observe your own mind, to open your heart and practice with sincerity. I don’t think of neuropsychology as a replacement for traditio...

7 Facts About the Brain That Incline the Mind to Joy

#1 The mind and the brain are mainly (and perhaps entirely) a single unified system.

Almost every – and perhaps every – subjective state is correlated with an objective, material brain state.

Other than a transcendental factor – call it God, Spirit, Energy, or by whatever name – by definition, what else could be going on than the functioning of matter?

I happen to believe there is indeed a mysterious transcendental Something infusing objective and subjective reality, whose influence is subtle, p...

Seven Facts about the Brain That Incline the Mind to Joy

#1 The mind and the brain are mainly (and perhaps entirely) a single unified system.

Almost every – and perhaps every – subjective state is correlated with an objective, material brain state.

Other than a transcendental factor – call it God, Spirit, Energy, or by whatever name – by definition, what else could be going on than the functioning of matter?

I happen to believe there is indeed a mysterious transcendental Something infusing objective and subjective reality, whose influence is subtle, p...

Water Your Fruit Tree

What would bear lots of fruit?

The Practice:

Water your fruit tree.

Why?

My wife and kids tease me that the title of this practice is corny – and it is. Still, I like it. If you don’t nourish the things that nourish you, they wither away like a plant in dry stony ground.

I’m writing this on New Year’s Eve. Looking to the year ahead for you – a year that can begin whenever you want – what’s one key thing that will bear lots of fruit for you if you take care of it?

There is usually one thing – or two...

The Power of Intention

Every day, think as you wake up: Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it.

~The Dalai Lama

To make the most of your life, to nourish the causes of happiness for yourself and others, it takes strength, clear intentions, and persistent effort. This post explores how to establish powerful intentions and sustain the commitment to see them come true.

Setting Clear Intentions

As humans evolved, stacking one floor above another on the n...