From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson

Meditation + Talk: How to Be a Good Listener – and Help Others Listen Better to You
Discover the power of deep listening to heal disconnection, reduce conflict, and nurture meaningful relationships—with clarity, empathy, and lasting well-being.
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Helping Yourself Speak Your Truth
Continuing the discussion on Inhibition Profiles, let's look at some methods to help you speak your truth. Normal as they are, these inhibitions limit your autonomy, and consequently, your intimacy. Their regulation is excessive and thus unskillful. And they harm...
The Third Noble Truth – The Noble Truth of the End of Suffering
The Third Noble Truth comes directly from the Second one: The end of suffering comes with the end of clinging. As Achaan Chah said, "If you let go a little, you'll have a little happiness. If you let go a lot, you'll have a lot of happiness. If you let go completely ....
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled Appreciating Your Good Intentions. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
The Second Noble Truth – The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering
The Second Noble Truth describes the principal cause of suffering. It is clinging. . . to anything at all. The bad news is that we suffer. The good news is that there is a prime cause - clinging - that we can address. There are lots of words that get at different...
Friday Favorite
Artist: Breier
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled A Peaceful Heart. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled The Three Refuges of Peace, Contentment, and Love. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Neuro-Bhavana
Last April I taught Neuro-Bhavana: The Mindful Cultivation of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom in Our Brains and Our Lives at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, based on my book Hardwiring Happiness. The workshop was recorded and edited into 11 videos, which you can...
The First Noble Truth – The Noble Truth of Suffering
The Four Noble Truths are the most fundamental teaching of the Buddha. Deceptively simple, they actually provide a profound explanation of human unhappiness, both gross and subtle, and how to attain increasingly positive states of mind, from stress relief in daily...
Friday Favorite
I hope you enjoy this very heart-warming and inspirational story about never giving up.
Do Freely
There’s a way to relate to the endless To Do list that’s freer and less burdened. When we “do freely” we refresh in having a sense of choice.
Inhibition Profiles
The inhibition profile of a particular person can be quite nuanced. For example, in terms of attachment theory, a person raised by a “dismissing” parent could worry about asking too much of others, and someone with an “inconsistent” parent –alternately intrusive and...
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson and Will Pye. It’s titled Will Pye – Blessed with a Brain Tumor. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Changing the Machinery of Upset
Let’s consider ways to cultivate more peace of mind – and even its consummation in profound equanimity – by working with the eight gears of the machine of suffering that we explored in this earlier post. (There are other methods, too, that are more specifically...
The Impact of Experiences
Children express what they feel and what they want through their actions, emotions, signals, and, by their second birthday, words. Then people respond, including their parents, teachers, and other children; responses can be active or passive, verbal or nonverbal,...
Friday Favorite
This video needs no explanation - just a few minutes to listen. Enjoy!
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled Thou All Other. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled Mindfulness of Object Relations. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled Realizing You Don’t Need to Feel Frightened, Frustrated, or Hurt. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Here is the latest talk from the San Rafael Meditation group with Rick Hanson. It’s titled Openhearted Peace with the Pain of Others. More information on the San Rafael Mediation group can be found at https://rickhanson.net/teaching/meditation-group.
Emotional Hijacking
In light of the machinery of survival-based, emotional reactivity, let’s look more narrowly at what Daniel Goleman has called “emotional hijacking.” The emotional circuits of your brain – which are relatively primitive from an evolutionary standpoint, originally...