From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
Talk + Meditation: How to Keep an Open Heart in a Difficult World
Explore four qualities that can help you meet yourself, other people, and even difficult experiences with greater wisdom and care .
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Choose To Love
Choose to love. Love is more about us being loving than about other people being lovable. In fact, choosing to love is twice loving: it’s a loving act to call up the intention to love, plus there is the love that follows.
Being Well Podcast: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: What the Critics Get Right (and Wrong) with Dr. Ellen Hendriksen
Clinical psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen joins Forrest to talk about what Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is, its history, its strengths and weaknesses, and why it’s gotten such a bad rap.
Talk + Meditation: How to Use Anxiety – and Not Be Used by It!
Anxiety can be useful — until it isn’t. Learn how to listen to what worry is telling you, then let go of what you don’t need.
Try a Softer Tone
There are three elements of tone: 1) Explicit content 2) Emotional subtext 3) Implicit statement about the nature of the relationship.
Being Well Podcast: Understanding Pain with Dr. Rachel Zoffness
Pain psychologist Dr. Rachel Zoffness joins Forrest and Dr. Rick to explore what pain is, why it can persist long after an injury has healed, and what actually helps.
Talk + Meditation: 5 Ways to Take Things Less Personally
Life is going to bump into us. People will disappoint us, criticize us, misunderstand us, drop the ball, or sometimes genuinely treat us badly. The question is how to deal […]
Feel Cared About
Feeling cared about buffers against stress, increases positive emotions, promotes resilience, and increases caring for others. Learn how to feel cared about to gradually fill any holes in your heart.
Being Well Podcast: People Pleasing vs. Fawning: Why We Do It and How to Change
Dr. Rick and Forrest talk about what separates people-pleasing from the fawn response, and why those differences affect what actually helps.
Talk + Meditation: Why It’s So Hard to Set – and Keep – Healthy Boundaries
Healthy boundaries can bring more freedom, peace, and connection to our relationships.
Know You’re a Good Person
Is it hard to believe you are a good person? Try to take in the good of feeling cared about; recognize goodness in your acts of thought, word, and deed. Enjoy this beautiful goodness, so real and so true.
Being Well Podcast: Depleted Mother Syndrome: Why Moms Burn Out, and How to Recover with Jan Hanson
Forrest is joined by his parents, psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson and nutritionist Jan Hanson, to discuss “Depleted Mother Syndrome:” the exhaustion, brain fog, and low mood so many mothers experience.
Talk + Meditation: Why Good Boundaries Make Better Relationships
Healthy boundaries can bring more freedom, peace, and connection to our relationships.
Turn Anger into a Peaceful Heart
3 things to help guide you to find peace: Stop Things from Building Up, Understand What’s Making You Angry, Find Key Ways to Turn Anger into a Peaceful Heart
Being Well Podcast: How to Feel Your Feelings with Simone Saunders
Forrest talks with trauma therapist Simone Saunders about how to go from knowing your patterns to being able to do something about them when things get intense.
Talk + Meditation: Insight – The Power of Seeing Reality Clearly
Melvin McLeod and Rick explore five keys that can transform mindfulness from a meditation practice into a complete path for life.
Parent From the Same Page
Find compromises and work with your partner for the benefit of your child. Minor differences in parenting style are okay. But children get confused when there are major differences. Here are five ways to work effectively and get the best possible results.
Being Well Podcast: The Manipulator’s Playbook: How to Become Manipulation Resistant
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how to become more resistant to manipulation, discussing terms like gaslighting, DARVO, and love bombing.
Talk + Meditation: How to Find Peace in the Present Moment
Learn how to stop worrying about the future, let go of expectations, and find more peace, freedom, and contentment in the present.
Find Your North Star
What’s the light that will guide you out of your own tangled woods – both the woods “out there” in the world and the ones “in here,” in your own mind?
Being Well Podcast: What’s The Problem With Therapy Speak? August Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest answer a listener question about the consequences of “therapy speak,” focusing on the good and bad of clinical language escaping the therapy room.
Talk + Meditation: Patience – Why We Need It, and How to Grow It
Learn how patience reduces stress and conflict, builds inner strength, and helps you stay calm when life and other people test you.