From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
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.
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Meditation + Talk: Practicing with Unprecedented Sources of Anxiety
These days many people feel anxious about events and issues that seem beyond their control, such as climate change, political instability, and technological advancements. Get perspective and practices for recognizing exaggerated worries and managing emotions.
Enjoy The Good That Lasts
Good lifts the heart and can turn passing experiences into lasting resources. Recognize the relative stability of good things. Enjoy it all. The more we recognize impermanence, the more we can take refuge in the good that lasts.
Being Well Podcast: If You’re “Too Self-Aware,” Listen to This
In this episode, Dr. Rick and Forrest explore what we can do if we feel like we’re “too self-aware.”
Meditation + Talk: Making Your Own Life
Feeling stuck? Or, know someone who is struggling, and resisting help or change? We can move forward and grow with wisdom and patience.
Find Your Ground
What can you do when you’re shaken? Find your ground. It’s clear that we all need a place to stand. A physical place to be sure – hearth and home, land and sea, a bed to curl up in – but also psychological or spiritual places, such as feeling loved, a calm clear center inside
Being Well Podcast: Breaking Out of a Depressed Mood
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how we can break out of an episode of depressed mood.
Meditation + Talk: Reflections on the Path of Practice
Guest teacher Henry Shukman shares how the practice of being quiet and still can bring us to something deeper in our nature.
Lower Your Stress
It is important to feel good as often as possible, at least several times a day. Stop the urgency of the day and let quiet fill the air, let thoughts slow down. There is presence in this moment, and no worries about the future.
Being Well Podcast: Why You’re Feeling Stuck – and How to Fix It
On today’s episode, Dr. Rick and Forrest explore why we go through periods of feeling stuck, and what we can do about it.
Meditation + Talk: Gathering and Dispersing: The Two Great Movements of the Heart
Balancing gathering and dispersing is vital. Overemphasis on gathering can cause anxiety and stress, while dispersing fosters openness and reduces mental strain, leading to less suffering.
Forgive
Forgiveness frees you from the tangles of anger and retribution. Appreciate the value of forgiveness. Ask yourself: what does my grievance, my resentment, cost me? Cost others I care about? What would it be like to lay those burdens down?
Being Well Podcast: Depression and Self-Care, Accepting Love, and Building Stronger Relationships: July Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest open the mailbag and answer questions focused on strengthening our relationships, including supporting friends and loved ones who are experiencing depression while also caring for ourselves.
Meditation + Talk: The Future of Wise Leadership Is Up to Us with Dr. Diana Hill
We all have the capacity to make a profound and lasting impact. Here is a meditation and 7 Practices to Grow Stronger Together.
Tell the Truth and Play Fair
People compete with each other and have conflicts of all kinds, but we expect a level playing field. Do what you can to tell the truth and play fair.
Being Well Podcast: How to Become a Disciplined Person
Forrest and Dr. Rick explore how to become a disciplined person, including how to make even frustrating tasks rewarding and learning to feel good when we do good.
Meditation + Talk: Confidence, Hope, and Fear with Ethan Nichtern
Confidence can be difficult to maintain in the face of challenges. Buddhism offers insight into the forces that shape our self-perception and well-being.
Enjoy The Freedom Not To
If you can’t say “no” – to others, and yourself – then your “yesses” will lose their meaning and power. The “freedom not to” gives you a feeling of ease.
Being Well Podcast: Psychological Defenses: How to Understand (and Change) Your Mind and Behavior
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how our psychological defenses shape our actions, influence our relationships, and affect our overall well-being.
Meditation + Talk: 7 Practices for Dealing with Regrets
We all have regrets. Meditate on Resting in Contentment and Releasing Craving. Then learn 7 Practices for Dealing with Regrets.
Feel Whole
When you open to the whole of your experience you feel more at home in yourself. With moments of practice that add up over time, you feel more like a whole person, less fragmented. As this happens, you feel more fed and fulfilled – and more connected, more entwined with the world as whole.
Being Well Podcast: The Fawn Response: People Pleasing, Self-Abandonment, and Standing Up for Yourself
Dr. Rick and Forrest finish their series on the stress responses with the fawn response, which is an appeasement strategy where we try to manage stressful situations by giving others what they want.