How to balance effort and letting go in meditation and life. Explore compassion, joy, equanimity, and inner peace with Dr. Rick Hanson.
Rick Hanson
Author / Psychologist
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Biography
Rick Hanson, Ph.D. is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His seven books have been published in 33 languages, and include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha’s Brain, and Mother Nurture – with over a million copies in English alone. He's the founder of the Global Compassion Coalition and the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, as well as the co-host of the Being Well Podcast – which has been downloaded over 25 million times. His free newsletters have over 260,000 subscribers and his online programs have scholarships available for those in need. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on CBS, NPR, the BBC, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and has taught in meditation centers worldwide. He and his wife live in Northern California and have two adult children. He loves the wilderness and taking a break from emails.
Articles
Hug the Monkey
Hug the monkey inside yourself helps satisfy an innate human need for connection can remedy old pain and provides that fundamental human sustenance: love.
Being Well Podcast: Is Self-Help Making You Miserable?
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore what’s really wrong with the self-help industry, going beyond the obvious pseudoscience and snake oil to examine deeper structural issues.
Talk + Meditation: The Surprising Power of Active Nonviolence
Discover how active nonviolence offers a powerful, practical path to transform conflict, foster connection, and create real change—without fueling more harm.
Give Over to Good
Give over to good and let this good be your guiding principle. Just One Thing Newsletter.
Being Well Podcast: The Freeze Response, Gifted Kid Syndrome, and BPD: July Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest answer listener questions about perfectionism, the freeze response, trauma, and relationships.
Talk + Meditation: How to Find Peace in Impermanence
Struggling with constant change? In this talk, explore how embracing impermanence can ease anxiety, loosen clinging, and open the door to deeper peace.
Feel the Support
The more you feel supported by the people that care about you, by the natural world, and by your own capabilities, the better you’ll feel. Plus your load won’t seem so heavy, and you’ll be more able to carry it. By focusing on the support that truly does exist for you, you can have a sense of ease, relief, calming, or happiness.
Being Well Podcast: How Real Change Happens with Elizabeth Ferreira
Forrest is joined by associate therapist Elizabeth Ferreira to discuss parts work, psychological defenses, and how real change happens.
Talk + Meditation: The Joy in Not-Knowing
Feeling overwhelmed or stuck in certainty? Explore the surprising peace of not-knowing and how beginner’s mind can free you from stress and suffering.
Be Home
When the body is not disturbed by hunger, thirst, pain, or illness, and when the mind is not disturbed by threat, frustration, or rejection, then most people settle into their resting state, which is our “home base” – our fundamental nature as human beings.
Your body and mind want to come home: that’s where energy is conserved for the marathon of life. Try this practice to help yourself come home more naturally.
Being Well Podcast: Why Modern Life Doesn’t Make Us Happy with Dr. Bill von Hippel
Forrest Hanson talks with evolutionary psychologist Dr. Bill von Hippel about a central paradox of modern life: life today is safer and more comfortable than ever before, so why do so many people feel unhappy, lonely, and anxious?