From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
Lean Into Good On First Waking
Try to influence your mind with positive and loving thoughts, when you wake.
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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.
Meditation + Talk: Living Your Values: Finding Peace and Resilience in a Chaotic World
Dr. Daniel Ellenberg shares how to navigate chaos with clarity and compassion, and take action without burnout or hardening your heart.
Relax, You’re Going to be Criticized
Criticism is unavoidable. Sometimes we take being criticized with good grace, other times it stings, and sometimes both are true. Here are some tips for accepting criticism, learning what you can from it, and moving on.
Being Well Podcast: Protecting Yourself from Narcissistic People with Dr. Ramani Durvasula
Dr. Ramani Durvasula, one of the world’s leading experts on narcissism and narcissistic abuse, joins Forrest to help us learn how to understand, identify, and recover from relationships with narcissistic people.
Meditation + Talk: How to Prevent Life’s Wear and Tear – and Release the Past
In this talk, Dr. Rick Hanson discusses how our mental reactions to life’s inevitable challenges often cause more suffering than the original problem and offers practical strategies to break this cycle and reduce unnecessary suffering.
See Beings, Not Bodies
When we encounter someone, the mind summarizes and simplifies tons of details. Though fast and efficient this process has lots of problems. As our ancestors evolved, rapid sorting of friend or foe was very useful but is it still.
Being Well Podcast: What to Do When Your Worst Fears Come True: Mailbag
Dr. Rick and Forrest open up the mailbag and answer questions from listeners, many of which focused on anxiety experiences and when our worst fears come true.
Meditation + Talk: Finding an Authentic Core of Calm Strength
Feeling stressed and uncertain? Explore how to navigate difficult emotions without being overwhelmed, and create an authentic feeling of calm.