Rick Hanson's Blog, page 76

Receive Generosity

Do you accept the gift?

The Practice:
Receive generosity.

Why?

Life gives to each one of us in so many ways.

For starters, there’s the bounty of the senses – including chocolate chip cookies, jasmine, sunsets, wind singing through pine trees, and just getting your back scratched.

What does life give you?

Consider the kindness of friends and family, made more tangible during a holiday season, but of course continuing throughout the year.

Or the giving of the people whose hard work is bound up...

What Supports You?

In this audio from the San Rafael Meditation Group, I talk about what it’s like to be you and what supports you.

The post What Supports You? appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.

Which Diet Will Help You Lose The Most Weight?

Rick’s Picks is a series of posts highlighting the very best content online.

Using science to determine which of the many diets will help you lose the most weight; this article shows charts to compare.

Read more here: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...

The post Which Diet Will Help You Lose The Most Weight? appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.

How Does Buddhism Intersect with Neuroplasticity and an Ambitious Life?

Here is a talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It is titled, “How Does Buddhism Intersect with Neuroplasticity and an Ambitious Life?” More information on the San Rafael Meditation group can be found here.

The post How Does Buddhism Intersect with Neuroplasticity and an Ambitious Life? appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.

Of Mice and Mindfulness

Rick’s Picks is a series of posts highlighting the very best content online.

Neuroscientists have treated mice with 30 minutes of light therapy for 20 days to mimic meditation to test the effects of their behavior.

“Mice do not, so far as we know, practice meditation. But in order to study how that activity affects human brains at the cellular level, researchers at the University of Oregon managed to put murine brains into a somewhat equivalent state. Their experiments, reported in March in...

See Progress

Are some things getting better?

The Practice:
See progress.

Why?

There are always things that are getting worse. For example, over the past year, you probably know someone who has become unemployed or ill or both, and there’s more carbon in the atmosphere inexorably heating up the planet.

But if you don’t recognize what’s improving in your own life, then you feel stagnant, or declining. This breeds what researchers call “learned helplessness” – a dangerously slippery slope. It typically takes...

Expressing Your Intentions

Expressing Your Intentions

Once your intentions are clear, the next question is: How to express them?

There are many ways, including:

• As thoughts in your mind

• As an image

• In writing

• As a collage with words and images

• Through physical expression, posture, movement, dance

• As a sense of being

When you think intentions, you know them to yourself. Putting them in explicit words is usually helps create real clarity in your mind. Some intentions co-exist as equally vital, but many times...

Forgive

Are you holding onto feeling wronged?

The Practice:
Forgive.

Why?

Forgiveness is a tricky topic.

First, it has two distinct meanings:
*  To give up resentment or anger
*  To pardon an offense; to stop seeking punishment or recompense

Here, I am going to focus on the first meaning, which is broad enough to include situations where you have not let someone off the hook morally or legally, but you still want to come to peace about whatever happened. Finding forgiveness can walk hand in hand wi...

The Awakening Factor of Investigation

Here is a talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It is titled, “The Awakening Factor of Investigation” More information on the San Rafael Meditation group can be found here.

The post The Awakening Factor of Investigation appeared first on Dr. Rick Hanson.

See Beings not Bodies

What happens when you look at someone?

The Practice:
See beings, not bodies.

Why?

When we encounter someone, usually the mind automatically slots the person into a category: man, woman, your friend Tom, the kid next door, etc. Watch this happen in your own mind as you meet or talk with a co-worker, salesclerk, or family member.

In effect, the mind summarizes and simplifies tons of details into a single thing – a human thing to be sure, but one with an umbrella label that makes it easy to kno...