Just One Thing
Simple Practices from Dr. Rick Hanson
Foundations of Relationships
Love Freely
Love is in our nature, woven into our DNA. Love is a natural wellspring inside us all. It doesn’t need to be pushed or pumped. It needs to be released.
See Good Intentions
By recognizing positive intentions we feel safer, supported, and happier. You have to actively look for good intentions. The practice of looking for good intentions may make you happier, and give you a stronger sense of our common humanity.
See Deep Wants
When deeper wants are recognized one feels seen and less likely to be reactive. See deep wants is understanding what someone may want and giving them an alternative offering which may reduce negative emotion and increased cooperation.
Put No One Out of Your Heart
It may feel necessary to distance yourself from another person for a while or forever but you never have to put anyone out of your heart.
Lived By Love
Encourage love in all its forms to flow through you. Implicitly, and more fundamentally, this practice means a relaxed opening into the love – in a very very broad sense – that is the actual nature of everything.
See What’s Likable
Liking feels good, and it encourages us to approach and engage the world. We’re wired to like some things, but our liking or disliking depends greatly on what we pay attention to and our own perspective.
Be Benevolent
Liking feels good, it encourages us to approach and engage the world. Know what benevolence feels like in your body, heart, and mind, and realize that it is natural and normal. Appreciate some of the benevolence that buoys you along. Most people are fair-minded, empathic, cooperative, compassionate, and kind: in a word, benevolent.
See the Good in Others
See the good in others—it’s a simple but very powerful way to feel happier and more confident and become more loving.
See the Person Behind the Eyes
Everyone longs to be seen, known, to have our hopes and fears acknowledged. Can you see behind the mask a person wears?
See Beings, Not Bodies
When we encounter someone, the mind summarizes and simplifies tons of details. Though fast and efficient this process has lots of problems. As our ancestors evolved, rapid sorting of friend or foe was very useful but is it still.