From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
Talk + Meditation: The Seductions of Healthy Desires
Feeling overwhelmed, always striving, or burnt out—even from good intentions? Learn how to stay centered and content through your core practice.
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See the Big Picture
The tree or the forest? See the big picture. The vast majority of human acts each day are constructive: making meals, tending to children, saying hello, restraining anger, completing tasks, planting seeds, teaching, healing, nurturing, cooperating
Being Well Podcast: Emotionally Immature Parents: How They Shape Us, and How to Heal – with Dr. Lindsay Gibson
Dr. Lindsay Gibson joins Forrest to explore emotional immaturity, the consequences of growing up with emotionally immature parents, and what we can do to change those patterns in adulthood.
Meditation + Talk: Three Ways to Live with Loss
Grief is inevitable—but with compassion, support, and steady presence, we can live well through loss. Explore five practices for healing and resilience.
Don’t Beat Yourself Up
Try to understand what causes you to feel fault, resolve it and move on. Inner criticism tears you down. Commit to skillful corrections. Take a big breath and very deliberately name to yourself three strengths or virtues you have and let them sink in.
Being Well Podcast: Self-Concept: The Secret to Changing WHO You Are
Forrest and Dr. Rick Hanson explore how self-concept, the invisible architecture of who we are, shapes our lives.
Be Benevolent
Liking feels good, it encourages us to approach and engage the world. Know what benevolence feels like in your body, heart, and mind, and realize that it is natural and normal. Appreciate some of the benevolence that buoys you along. Most people are fair-minded, empathic, cooperative, compassionate, and kind: in a word, benevolent.
Being Well Podcast: Linking: The Secret to Rewiring Painful Memories
Forrest and Dr. Rick explore one of his most powerful psychological tools: linking. Over time, linking can help us rewire the brain, softening the impact of painful memories.
See the Good in Others
See the good in others—it’s a simple but very powerful way to feel happier and more confident and become more loving.
Being Well Podcast: How to Get On the Same Team: Relationship Conflicts Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest answer questions focused on navigating common relationship conflicts, focusing on situations where people need to find a middle path between different needs.
Buddha’s Brain: Preface to the Fifteenth Anniversary Edition
Discover the newly written preface to the 15th anniversary edition of Buddha’s Brain—a heartfelt look at the book’s origins and its enduring impact.
Tune Into Others
Imagine being aware of the surface behavior of the people around you but oblivious to their inner life while they remain unmoved by your own.
Being Well Podcast: How to Find Your Path in Life with David Epstein
Bestselling author David Epstein joins the Being Well Podcast to explore how to find your path in life, the problem with 10,000 hours, and why generalists triumph in a specialized world.
Talk: Working Productively With Our Hindrances and Personality Patterns
Learn how your unconscious personality patterns shape your thoughts, reactions and relationships — and how to work productively with them.
Water Your Fruit Tree
Nourish the things that nourish you. Try to do one thing each day to. “Pass forward” a gift to the person you will be tomorrow . . . and a year from now.
Being Well Podcast: How to Stop Overthinking: Rumination, OCD, and Breaking the Self-Awareness Trap
Forrest and Dr. Rick Hanson explore how we can stop overthinking and break the self-awareness trap: when knowing ourselves becomes an obstacle to change.
Meditation + Talk: Understanding and Cultivating Self-Worth
Feel like you’re never enough? Learn how to shift from chasing approval to cultivating steady, unconditional self-worth—just as you are.
See the Person Behind the Eyes
Everyone longs to be seen, known, to have our hopes and fears acknowledged. Can you see behind the mask a person wears?
Being Well Podcast: How to Get Your Life Together: The 90/10 Rule
Forrest and Dr. Rick apply the 90/10 rule to psychology and self-help: what are the small handful of things that tend to make the biggest difference for people?
Meditation + Talk: Equanimity – What It Is, Why It’s Good, and How to Develop It
Feeling overwhelmed? Learn how to cultivate equanimity—stay calm, clear, and resilient in tough times with practical tools from Dr. Rick Hanson.
Speak From The Heart
Speaking from an open heart can seem so vulnerable yet be the strongest move of all. Naming the truth has great moral force.
Being Well Podcast: Improving Focus and Fixing Your Attention Span
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore improving focus and fixing our attention spans in a world that is constantly trying to distract us.