Rick Hanson's Blog, page 25

Notice You’re Alright Right Now

Are you basically OK?

The Practice:
Notice you’re alright right now.

Why?

To keep our ancestors alive, the brain evolved strong tendencies toward fear, including an ongoing internal trickle of unease. This little whisper of worry keeps you scanning your inner and outer worlds for signs of trouble.

This background of unsettledness and watchfulness is so automatic that you can forget it’s there. So see if you can tune into tension, guarding, or bracing in your body. Or a vigilance about y...

Being Well Podcast: Using the Enneagram to Rewrite Your Story with Ian Cron

As we’ve talked about often on Being Well, one of the most effective ways to change how we show up in the world is to identify and change our underlying personal narrative. On this episode, Forrest and I talk with Ian Cron about how we can use the Enneagram personality typing system to aid us in this process.

LISTEN

Ian Cron is a therapist, mast...

Meditation + Talk: Resting in the Ground of Everything

This Wednesday Night Meditation included a 34-minute meditation and 62-minute talk and discussion about Resting in the Ground of Everything.

I hope you find it helpful, and you are welcome to join my free Wednesday Meditations – open to everyone!

Meditation: Resting in the Ground of Everything

Download the Audio of this Meditation

Talk: Resting in the Ground of Everything
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Minimize Painful Experiences

Are you feeling unneeded pain?

The Practice:
Minimize painful experiences.

Why?

Painful experiences range from subtle discomfort to extreme anguish – and there is a place for them. Sorrow can open the heart, anger can highlight injustices, fear can alert you to real threats, and remorse can help you take the high road next time.

But is there really any shortage of suffering in this world? Look at the faces of others – including mine – or your own in the mirror, and see the marks of w...

Being Well Podcast: Hedonic Adaptation: How to STAY Happy

We’ve talked on this show about lots of ways we can be happier over time, but one of the hardest things to do is to STAY happy as the events of life wash over us. On today’s episode of Being Well, Forrest and I consider the human tendency to return to the same basic level of happiness regardless of recent positive or negative experiences–also known as hedonic adaptation–and how to contend with it so we can get off the hedonic treadmill.

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Meditation + Talk: Innate Goodness As A Portal To Awakening

This Wednesday Night Meditation included a 33-minute meditation and 52-minute talk and discussion, with guest teacher Stephen Snyder.

Stephen Snyder began daily meditation and retreat practice in 1976. He was authorized to teach in 2007, and he is the author of Demystifying Awakening, Buddha’s Heart, and co-author of Practicing the Jhanas. His teaching schedule can be located at AwakeningDharma.org.

I hope you find it helpful, and you are welcome to join my free Wednes...

Lighten Up

What’s weighing you down?

The Practice:
Lighten up.

Why?

On the path of life, most of us are hauling way too much weight.

What’s in your own backpack? If you’re like most of us, you’ve got too many items on each day’s To-Do list and too much stuff in the closet. Too many entanglements with other people. And too many “shoulds,” worries, guilts, and regrets.

Remember a time when you lightened your load. Maybe a backpacking trip when every needless pound stayed home. Or after you finally ...

Being Well Podcast: The Science of “Self” with Dr. Jud Brewer

One of the underlying threads that runs through many of our conversations on Being Well is our relationship with our “self”. On this episode, Forrest and I talk with mindfulness author and researcher Dr. Jud Brewer about what we mean by that word, where we can find the “self” in the brain, and the benefits of relaxing our attachment to it.

LISTEN

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Meditation + Talk: Embracing What Can Be

This Wednesday Night Meditation included a 36-minute meditation and 55-minute talk and discussion, with guest teacher Daniel Ellenberg.

Daniel Ellenberg, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Relationships That Work®, founder/director of Strength with Heart® men’s groups and workshops, and a principal in Rewire Leadership Institute®. He is a licensed psychotherapist, leadership coach, and seminar leader.

Daniel Ellenberg and I will be offering a live online workshop on Courage, Vulnerability, and C...

Let Things Change

What’s changing?

The Practice:
Let Things Change

Why?

The fifth of my personal Top 5 practices (all tied for first place) is open out, by which I mean relaxing into a growing sense of connection, even oneness, with all things.

“Opening out” can sound kind of airy-fairy or flaky, but I mean it is very down-to-earth ways; check out these JOTs about it: accept it, accept them as they are, and let it go. Here, I’m focusing on relaxing and opening into the fact that things keep changing, a...