These statements about reality, about the way things really are, are central to Buddhism, and you can test them for yourself: Everything happens because of preceding causes. Everything, both inside our minds and outside in the world. Those causes lead to results that...

I've created a reading guide for my book, Hardwiring Happiness, to take you through the concepts and details of each chapter, offering more opportunities to practice, reflect and apply the teachings to your every day life. The reading guide is a helpful resource for...

Visit Part I of this blog post here. Concentration Concentration has two central factors: applying attention to an object and sustaining it there, like an ice skater plants her foot (applying) and then glides along (sustaining). When you practice formal concentration,...

How do I develop an inner protector? Not being able to find an inner protector is a real fact of the inner of world of many people. Developing one is a matter of committed practice toward one’s own well-being, which will gradually change the brain. Some steps along...

You were quoted in a short post about negativity bias in which you stated, “The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positives ones.” Can you explain this in more detail? As the brain evolved, it was critically important to learn from negative...

"Is the “fight or flight” response the functional part of the primitive/reptile brain or the emotional brain?" These distinctions about the brain – fight or flight response, primitive/reptile brain, emotional brain – are used a lot these days, but they’re inherently...

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate...