Sometimes when inner practices fail you, it helps to change the channel. A respite or some sort of pleasure will help to refuel you for challenges.
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
Being Well Podcast: Emotional Regulation: How to Feel Your Feelings Flexibly
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how emotional regulation helps us feel, manage, and process our emotions with greater skill and ease.
Talk + Meditation: Finding Brightness and Goodness in a Troubled World
Ajahn Nisabho explores how to cleanse the heart like gold—refining virtue, forgiveness, and love amid life’s impurities.
Stay Right When You’re Wronged
Blasting another person with anger is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned. Speak calmly and from your heart, even when wronged.
Being Well Podcast: Trauma or Personality, When to Walk Away, and Burnout: October Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest open up the mailbag to answer listener questions about trauma and its impact on personality, boundaries, anger, and burnout.
Talk + Meditation: How to Shift Your Thoughts and Feelings about Others
Discover how to stay kind and grounded — even when others are difficult — with insights from Rick Hanson and the Buddha’s timeless wisdom.
Rest
Encourage your mind to come to rest at least occasionally. Tell the truth to yourself about how much time you actually – other than sleep.
Being Well Podcast: The Psychology of Resentment: Over-Functioning, Repression, and Repair
Dr. Rick and Forrest unpack how resentment – rooted in feeling wronged and powerless – damages relationships, and share ways to move from rumination toward agency, communication, and repair.
Talk + Meditation: Finding What’s [Reassuringly] Reliable in an Unreliable World
Find lasting steadiness in turbulent times by resting in presence, good intentions, love, awareness, nature, and the unconditioned.
Be the Body
The fabric of your mind is woven by your body. Focus on what others communicate, and try to receive that as a valuable offering. Open your mind to the good that is implicit or down deep in the other person.
Being Well Podcast: What if You Aren’t Broken? Carl Rogers and Humanistic Psychology
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore humanistic psychology, the mid-20th century movement that redefined how therapists relate to clients.
Talk + Meditation: Wise Effort in Relationships: Building Bridges, Letting Go, and Opening Up
Discover how “wise effort” can transform relationships—finding balance, letting go, and building bridges of connection with openness and compassion.








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