From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
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.
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Ask Questions
Ask questions – it’s one of the best ways to listen well. It shows you’re paying attention, it gets things out in the open and it slows emotional conversations.
Being Well Podcast: Embracing Perfectionism with Katherine Morgan Schafler
Forrest explores how we can harness perfectionism’s strengths without getting captured by its vulnerabilities with therapist and author Katherine Morgan Schafler.
Meditation + Talk: Bottom-Up Healing and Growing
A “bottom-up” approach to challenges allows us to observe and engage with our emotions for deeper understanding and personal growth.
Hold Wants Lightly
Be aware of wanting inside your own mind. List wholesome wants that you would like to pursue more. Your wholesome wants will help crowd out the unwholesome ones.
Being Well Podcast: The Shadow: Individuation, Wholeness, and Becoming Your True Self
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore one of the most interesting concepts in psychology: Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow and becoming our true self.
Meditation + Talk: Cultivating Patience with Loving Strength
Patience brings peace and allows us to pause and respond mindfully rather than react unskillfully—learn to apply it to your own inner and outer experiences.
Find Stillness
Wherever you find stillness enjoy it and let it feed you. Stillness is a source of clarity and peace. In stillness, you can find a refuge and some quiet amidst the noise. Give yourself the space, the permission, to be still in your mind.
Being Well Podcast: How to Deal with Other People’s Defenses
Rick and Forrest explore the psychological and communication skills that will guide you in dealing with other people’s defenses.
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.