From the Blog
Writings on Well-Being Dr. Rick Hanson
Change the Channel
Sometimes when inner practices fail you, it helps to change the channel. A respite or some sort of pleasure will help to refuel you for challenges.
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Admit Fault And Move On
Get beyond the hassle and bad feelings by admitting fault. Remind yourself how it’s in your own best interest to admit fault and move on. It takes a strong person to admit fault, and it puts us in a stronger position with others.
Being Well Podcast: Beyond Resolutions: Discover What You Want in 2025
Why do New Year’s resolutions usually fail by February? Forrest and Dr. Rick explore why traditional goal-setting falls short and offer a new approach to creating lasting change.
Receive Generosity
Life shows us generosity in a magnitude of ways including our senses and the natural world. The best thing we can do is to receive generosity.
Being Well Podcast: Attachment Masterclass: Sue Johnson, Rick Hanson, Julie Mennano, and Elizabeth Ferreira
In this special episode of Being Well, Forrest is joined by four leading experts for a masterclass on the science of attachment.
Meditation + Talk: Speaking Wisely – Even If Others Aren’t
Feeling unheard or stuck in relationships? Get mindfulness-based tools to navigate conflict, stay grounded, and foster deeper understanding and connection.
Recognize Suffering in Others
Where does it hurt? The practice: Recognize suffering in others. We’re usually aware of our own suffering, but seeing the suffering in others: that’s not so common. All the news and pictures of disaster, murder, and grief that bombard us each day
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.
Being Well Podcast: Working with Your Parts: Complex PTSD, Dissociation, and Hypervigilance with Elizabeth Ferreira
Somatic therapist Elizabeth Ferreira joins Forrest to discuss complex PTSD, dissociation, and working with challenging emotions.
Rick’s Recommended Books of 2024
Books have brought me comfort, humor, knowledge, inspiration, and a lot of joy. Here are my favorites from 2024 — from Fiction to Spiritual Growth to Science.
Twelve Good Things 2024
Each year I use an issue of the Just One Thing newsletter to offer Twelve Good Things that I think are really wonderful and worth your attention. May you and those you love and the whole wide world be truly well, truly happy, and truly at peace. —...
Being Well Podcast: Anxious and Avoidant in Relationship: The Pursuer-Distancer Dynamic
Dr. Rick and Forrest explore why we’re drawn to people who activate our insecurities, how anxiety manifests differently in those with anxious and avoidant attachment styles, and what we can all do to work with our natural tendencies more skillfully.
Meditation + Talk: The Power of No
Struggling with boundaries or overcommitment? Learn the power of “no” to reclaim space for what matters, assert your needs, and find peace and clarity.
See Progress
If you don’t see progress in your own life, then you will feel stagnant, or declining. Learn to notice the things that are improving all around you.
Meditation + Talk: Radical Equanimity and Wise Speech
Discover radical equanimity: practical tools to stay calm, centered, and connected—even when life’s chaos and challenges push your buttons.
Being Well Podcast: Why We Don’t Change (and what you can do about it) with Dr. Ross Ellenhorn
Dr. Ross Ellenhorn joins the Being Well Podcast to explore our resistance to change, and the many good reasons we might have to stay just as we are.
Say Thanks
Say Thanks – it’s a small moment with big ripples. What do you feel when someone thanks you for something? For a comment in a meeting, a task done at home, an extra step taken, an encouraging word.
Being Well Podcast: Now What? What to Do When Things Fall Apart
Forrest and Dr. Rick explore a practical framework for navigating life’s most challenging transitions, including what to do when things fall apart.
Meditation + Talk: The Good That Is Still True
Feeling overwhelmed or downhearted by life? Explore simple, practical ways to face challenges, find the good, and build resilience with wisdom and compassion.
Being Well Podcast: How to Make Good Choices: A System for Decision Making
Forrest and Rick Hanson explore how to make good choices by developing a reliable system for making choices that aligns with your values and goals.
Meditation + Talk: BLACK EARTH WISDOM: Afro-Indigenous Ecological Thought and Practice
Leah Penniman weaves ancestral wisdom, mindfulness, and stories to explore humanity’s bond with the Earth, inspiring healing, gratitude, and ecological care.
Minimize Painful Experiences
Painful experiences range from subtle discomfort to extreme anguish – and there is a place for them. Sorrow can open the heart.