From the Blog

Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius are interviewed by Patrizia Collard from the School of Psychology, University of East London, UK.

We spoke about how Western Buddhism, transcendental learning and gratitude for opportunity all play an important role in getting in touch with your faith and finding true purpose and happiness in life.

Our intentions arise in the brain, are represented in the brain, and are pursued in the brain. Where else? Therefore, a basic understanding of how intentions work in the brain – and thus in your mind – is a very useful thing to have.

Is there a particular type of mindset keeps us from finding true happiness ? For our ancestors to survive, they learned to find the bad in situations. In today’s modern age, the human mind is still programmed to latch onto the bad even though that mindset is unnecessary.

”Without gratitude, life can be lonely, depressing and impoverished. Gratitude enriches human life. It elevates, energizes, inspires and transforms, and those who practice it will experience significant improvements in several areas of life including relationships, academics, energy level and even dealing with tragedy and crisis.”

Using the will means helping yourself to want the good thing, to stick with your good resolutions and intentions easily, without white-knuckling. It’s a combination of virtue and good purposes.

In this episode – we go deep on mastering the superpower that underpins all other powers, how your brain’s automatic survival mechanism tilts you towards unhappiness, growing the mental resources to deal with the biggest challenges of your life

In a profound sense, we are what we remember – the slow accumulation of the registration of lived experience. That’s what we have “taken in” to become a part of ourselves. Just as food becomes woven into the body, memory becomes woven into the self.

Right Mindfulness is one of the three elements of the Path that focus particularly on your internal states of being (the others are Right Effort and Right Concentration).

With Insight, you understand the factors that shape your reactions. Your reactions are not fixed and inevitable. They are constructed within your mind – which is very hopeful, since it means you can send them in a better direction.

Many of the practices that support our well-being and happiness as adults are wonderful for children as well, but the way that they are taught must be developmentally appropriate and meet their sometimes very different needs.

How do we change? In this pioneering talk, Dr. Shauna Shapiro draws on modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom to demonstrate how mindfulness can help us make positive changes in our brains and our lives.

Why is skillful interaction with our angry emotions so necessary? It’s because anger is both one of the most effective social tools for achieving short range results, and one of the most toxic emotions to ourselves and our family/social networks.

Some exercises that will help show you where in your own brain the emotions of anxiety and security live.

In Western culture, we are taught that if suffering exists, something is wrong. It is a mistake. I had a boss years ago who, when something didn’t work out, demanded, “Whose fault is this? Who is to blame?” When I would explain that sometimes things just don’t go...

Use letting go whenever you relax, get stress relief, release painful feelings like worry or anger, take things less personally, or drop thoughts that make you and others unhappy.

For most people, the point of living boils down to one or more of these three things: Quality of life, Contribution and Learning. So if you have been wondering what you’re doing here on this earth, you might look to one or more of those categories!