From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
Talk + Meditation: Using Mindfulness When You’re Triggered
What should we do when we get triggered — especially by other people? When we get “plugged in” — suddenly reactive, upset, or overwhelmed — it can feel like something has gone wrong inside us or between us and others. The good news is that we can be skillful with...
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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](https://rickhanson.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Wednesday-Talks-9.jpg)
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.
See Your Part
Acknowledging one’s own part in a difficult situation is one of the hardest – and I think most honorable – things a person can do.
Being Well Podcast: AI Therapy: Should You Be Concerned? with Dr. Nick Jacobson
Dr. Rick and Forrest are joined by Dr. Nick Jacobson, to explore the risks and opportunities of AI therapy: Can a chatbot be good at therapy?
Talk + Meditation: Wise Effort in Relationships: 3 Blocks to Being a Positive Energizer
Join Diana Hill to learn how to bring your strengths into relationships with wise effort—avoiding old stories, avoidance, and clinging—while nurturing true connection.
Being Well Podcast: How to Have a (Good) Life Crisis: Authenticity, Healthy Discontent, and the Anxiety of Choice
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore how to use a life crisis productively, drawing on developmental stage theories, existential philosophy, literature, personal experience, and Rick’s clinical work.
Talk + Meditation: How to Stay Present Longer
Learn how concentration deepens mindfulness, steadies the mind, and brings peace, clarity, and joy—even amid distractions and emotional turbulence.
Relax, You’ve Arrived
Part of this comes from our biological nature. To survive, animals – including us – have to be goal-directed, leaning into the future. This focus – can get confused and stressful.
Being Well Podcast: People Pleasing and the Fawn Response with Meg Josephson
Forrest and therapist Meg Josephson explore the fawn response, a survival strategy where safety is sought through people pleasing.
Talk + Meditation: Just Do the Right Thing
Caught between worry, effort, and letting go? Learn how to release what you can’t control, do the next right thing, and find peace in the middle.
Remember the Big Things
In every life, reminders arrive about what’s really important. While it’s good advice not to sweat the small stuff, we also need to nurture the large stuff.
Being Well Podcast: Anxious-Avoidant Relationships, Narcissism, and Insight to Action: Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest open up the mailbag to answer questions about complex situations where good process really matters, including anxious-avoidant relationships.
Talk + Meditation: Getting Better At Pleasure! A Taxonomy of the Many Buddhist Joys
Discover the Buddha’s 5 kinds of happiness—from fleeting pleasures to lasting peace—and learn why some joys burn out while others bring freedom.