There are times in our lives when we recognize that something’s got to change. Today Dr. Hanson and Forrest explore a big question: What goes into making who we are, and how can we give ourselves the freedom to grow and change over time?  Life After COVID Summit: Join Dr. Rick Hanson, Forrest Hanson, and a roster of world-class experts during this FREE three-day online event to explore our life after COVID. Click here to learn more about the Summit and register now. Key Topics: 2:00: What does “self-concept” mean? 6:00: Where does self-concept come from? 11:30: Different ways to understand childhood development. 17:00: Why is it so hard for people to change?  26:00: Social forces that prevent us from changing. 33:00: Three case studies of personal change.  34:00: Who owns the problem? 38:30: Do you really want it? 44:30: We can change if we’re willing to take risks. 52:00: Trusting yourself, and feeling validated.  Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tara Brach joins Rick and Forrest to explore how we can find more compassion and acceptance while maintaining our motivation to change ourselves, and our world, in positive ways.  About Our Guest: Tara is the founder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C., and has a doctorate in clinical psychology. She is the author of three books: Radical Acceptance, True Refuge, and most recently Radical Compassion, and leads one of the largest mental-health and Buddhism-focused podcasts in the world. Key Topics: 2:00: Why “radical?” What does it mean to have “radical compassion?” 6:30: Practical applications of “no self.”  9:00: Maintaining “less self” while also being motivated to change. 10:30: How can we “accept ourselves” while also wanting to change in positive ways? 12:30: What gets in the way of compassion and self-acceptance.  17:15: The “trance” that keeps us away from compassion.  20:00: The RAIN meditation. 27:15: Making it easier to nurture ourselves. 32:15: “After the rain.”  34:00: Can, and should, we find acceptance and compassion for people we disagree with? 41:45: Coming to terms with our participation in systems of oppression. 48:50: Hope during challenging times.  52:30: Recap Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With so much challenging stuff going on in the world around us these days, it's natural to ask a simple question: how much control do we have over how happy we are? On this episode of "10 Good Minutes," Forrest explores the research behind happiness, reveals the most important factors, and gives some practical advice for maximizing sustainable well-being. If you'd like to watch this episode rather than listen to it, Forrest has a new YouTube channel! Subscribe to the channel, and watch the video over there.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Research: Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change Our podcast episode with Dr. Lyubomirsky. Twin studies find that identical twins raised in different households are more similar in their level of happiness than fraternal twins raised in the same household.  Emotional well-being decouples from income at ~$75,000/year. BRAND NEW research suggests that "experienced well-being" continues to rise as income increases above $75,000/year. Circumstantial factors that most consistently predict high subjective well being. Connect with the show: Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we’re presented with challenging circumstances it’s natural for us to cope with them through a wide variety of behaviors. Today Dr. Hanson and Forrest explore one of the most common coping mechanisms: dissociation. This includes what it is, the function it serves, the experiences that can lead to dissociation, and what we can do about it. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:00: What is dissociation? 9:35: “Fragmentation and separation.” 11:45: Recovered and implanted memory. 17:45: Why do people dissociate? 22:10: Common symptoms of dissociation. 29:30: The risks of over-pathologizing.  31:40: Coming into your own life.  36:20: Growing self-worth as an antidote for dissociation.  40:15: Challenges of mindfulness for dissociation. 43:00: Focusing on an aspect of experience.  46:30: Enjoyment as a grounding experience.  48:55: “Our nature is to be associated.” 51:30: Recap Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this timely episode, Dr. Bruce Perry joins the podcast to explore how we can limit the long-term impact of stressful events, and heal from past traumatic experiences.  About Our Guest:  Dr. Bruce Perry is one of the world’s leading experts on childhood trauma, and his clinical research and practice focuses on examining the long-term effects of trauma in children, adolescents, and adults. He is the Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, and the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog. Life After COVID Summit: Join Dr. Rick Hanson, Forrest Hanson, and a roster of world-class experts including Dr. Perry during this FREE three-day online event to explore our "new normal." Click here to learn more about the Summit and register now. Key Topics: 1:15: Pandemic fatigue.  4:45: Experiencing acute stressors alongside chronic stress.  7:20: Practices to help yourself de-stress.  11:30: The impact of stress on our ability to regulate ourselves. 13:30: How to limit the long-term impact of stressful events. 18:40: How we can explore traumatic material without re-traumatizing ourselves. 23:30: Avoiding helplessness, and experiencing control and agency.  25:30: Dissociation as a coping response. 31:00: Disruptions of attunement.  36:00: Caregiver fatigue, and caring for ourselves.  41:30: The pandemic’s impact on people who have been previously traumatized. 44:00: A wish for the future.  46:00: Recap Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re somehow both more efficient than ever before, and, at the same time, busier than ever before.  All of the many ways that we’ve found to optimize our performance has led to much more "doing," and not nearly as much "being." Today Rick and Forrest explore how we can get more in touch with being, and how by focusing more on "being" we might even be able to "do" more than ever before.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Ideas: 1:10: Rick making dad jokes.  2:00: The difference between “doing” and “being.” 6:20: Getting wrapped up in doing that crowds out “being.” 10:15: Craving in the brain.  15:05: How to grow what we want to be.  21:40: Allowing “being” to create friction-less “doing.” 25:45: How to get in touch with the feeling of “being.” 31:50: Internal resistance to being.  35:30: Who are you when you’re not scared?  41:15: Recap Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What allows people to push on even during the darkest times?  And how can we use that answer to influence our behavior, or the behavior of other people? Today Rick and Forrest are joined by Dr. Tali Sharot to explore the optimism bias, how optimism can exist alongside negativity, and how we can influence others more effectively.  About our Guest: Dr. Sharot is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, and the director of the Affective Brain Lab. She’s also the author of a number of wonderful books, including The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain, and The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Ideas: 1:30: What is the optimism bias, and how does it appear in people’s lives? 3:30: Where does the optimism bias come from? Did we evolve it? 8:45: How can someone cultivate an attitude of optimism?  13:00: Bringing good things into our awareness. 16:30: The negativity bias vs. the optimism bias.  19:30: Negativity, positivity, and memory. 23:00: The impact of surprise on our memory. 27:30: What helps us change our behavior and form new habits? 30:00: Changing behavior and beliefs on a national scale. 34:30: What really influences people's behavior? 40:00: Is human nature more positive or more negative? 44:00: Recap From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do you want to achieve in 2021? In this short episode, Dr. Rick Hanson walks you through a guided practice focused on helping you achieve your goals.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all have something we want to do "someday," but for most of us "someday" just never seems to come around. Here's how to make 2021 the year you finally put all the pieces together, and achieve the goals you've set for yourself. Key Topics: 4:00: What leads to change that lasts? 5:40: Do you really WANT to change? 9:00: How to change your self-concept.  14:00: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” 16:00: Small changes that lead to big ones. 20:00: Appreciating the finite nature of life.  22:30: “What do you want to give as a gift to the person you will be tomorrow?” 25:30: What makes for a good resolution? 29:00: Using Forrest as a guinea pig: setting good goals and maximizing your resolutions. 33:00: Picking very clear commitments, and making things simple. 34:30: Thinking about how it would feel at the end of 2021 if you accomplished what you set out to do. 41:00: Finding consistent effort.  45:00: Summarizing the key questions.  48:00: Recap. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all have things that frighten us. But some fears can become so core to who we are that we start to organize our lives around not having to experience them. In this not-to-be-missed episode, Dr. Hanson and Forrest explore how we can identify and face our "dreaded experiences," which exert a quiet power over our lives.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:40: What is a “dreaded experience?” 6:40: The three step process of a dreaded experience. 9:10: The critical distinction between “event” and “experience.” 12:20: Forrest’s dreaded experiences.  16:30: Normal avoidance vs. making yourself small. 18:15: Where do dreaded experiences come from? 24:10: Starting to risk the dreaded experience.  29:00: Ways to start safely facing fears. 38:00: Identifying your dreaded experience.  41:20: Being seen as your whole self. 46:30: Our journey of growth.  49:30: Recap From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does talking to a therapist have such a huge impact on people's lives? On the first edition of "10 Good Minutes," Forrest Hanson dives into the research behind the key factor in any therapeutic relationship.  If you enjoy this episode, you'll love our Patreon account! Studies: Psychotherapy is as effective for the treatment of depression as medication. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is particularly effective when it comes to treating depression and anxiety disorders. Only a few of the studies demonstrating therapy’s effectiveness provide evidence without bias, and there’s a lot of publication bias. Psychotherapy changes how clients use their brains in meaningful ways. Therapeutic outcome doesn’t seem to be affected by how experienced the therapist is. The strength of the alliance established between therapist and client is a key factor. Empathy appears to be a key factor in the formation of a strong alliance and therapeutic outcomes more generally.  Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Want fresh, delicious, simple dinners delivered right to your doorstep? Check out HelloFresh, America’s #1 meal kit, and use code beingwell90 to get $90 off including free shipping!  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does power corrupt? Where does compassion come from? And do positive or negative emotions serve as the basis for our true nature? Today we're exploring these questions with Dr. Dacher Keltner, a world-class expert on emotion, power, and morality. About Our Guest: Dr. Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the Berkeley Social Interaction Lab. He’s also the founder and co-director of the Greater Good Science Center. Dr. Keltner is also the author of three books: Born to Be Good, The Compassionate Instinct, and most recently, The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence.  Here's the referenced research from Dacher on emotion and facial expression. Key Topics: 2:15: What is an emotion, and how many emotions are there? 7:45: The complex weave of positive emotions.  11:30: Why did we evolve positive emotions? 15:00: The influence of compassion.  20:45: Power dynamics, and in-groups vs. out-groups. 25:30: How and why power corrupts. 33:30: Are we only nice to other people because we have to be? 38:45: Finding awe in mystery.  44:00: Committing to daily practice.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need. Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been a long, strange, challenging year. As we get toward the end of it, and look forward to 2021, it feels appropriate to start by taking a look back and seeing what, if anything, we can learn from the year that’s gone by.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:30: The importance of internal resources. 4:15: "It can happen to us too." 6:00: Putting more effort into what’s local. 8:30: Interdependence and interconnection.  12:30: Appreciating the pains that aren’t happening. 17:30: Seeing clearly and allowing yourself to take appropriate action. 22:30: Your compassion is not dependent. 25:45: Avoiding playing into grievance theater. 30:40: Nonattachment. 33:00: Focusing on what really matters, and being fed up. 38:45: Lessons from our listeners. 43:30: What’s still here? From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're all subject to forms of bias and prejudice. On this episode, Forrest and Rick are joined by Dr. Jack Glaser, an expert on intergroup bias and racial prejudice, to explore what we can do to overcome our innate tendencies.  About the Guest: Dr. Jack Glaser is a Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He studies intergroup biases and the unconscious operation of stereotypes and prejudice, and is particularly interested in racial profiling. Jack is also the author of Suspect Race: Causes & Consequences of Racial Profiling, and is on the board of the Center for Policing Equity. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:15: Jack’s history, what drew him to the study of bias. 4:50: What is implicit bias?  10:30: What’s the purpose of bias, where does it come from, and what consequences does it create? 18:15: How individual biases scale up to groups and systems. 23:10: The myth of meritocracy. 25:30: Assimilation, accommodation, and bias. 27:25: Errors of attribution.  30:00: The lens we view our world through, and “alternative facts.” 36:00: Can we become less biased? 42:45: Can we deliberately override our biases through effort? 48:45: Fighting bias is an ongoing process.  50:30: Bias under pressure, and what we can do. 1:01:10: “The brain does crazy stuff sometimes.” 1:03:00: Recap From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's short episode, Dr. Rick Hanson leads a guided meditation aimed at experiencing gratitude and finding the small pleasures in life.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Forrest's Website Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The holidays are coming up, and for many people they’re likely to be very different this year from usual. Experiencing sadness or disappointment around the holidays is normal even among the best circumstances, and we're far from those. On this episode, Dr. Hanson and Forrest explore how to work with this year's natural feelings of sadness and disappointment. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 4:50: A therapy session focused on sadness with Rick.  9:30: Associations between current sad experiences and our past material.  11:45: A process for experiencing and working with sadness.  17:45: Imagery to aid experiencing. 19:00: Helping sadness soften and release.  24:30: Non-judgement  28:40: Identifying underlying beliefs. 29:40: Letting in good experiences alongside challenging ones.  33:10: Finding the root experience, and communicating our needs.  37:00: Sadness vs. depression.  41:30: Dealing with disappointment.  45:00: Finding agency in a moment of disappointment.  48:10: “Strong hopes, weak expectations.”  50:20: Recap.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Forrest's Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learning is the single most important skill: if you know how to learn, you can get good at anything else. Today we're joined by Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA, to explore the 20 hour rule, the problems with 10,000 hours, cognitive biases, and how you can learn anything more quickly. About our Guest: Josh is the author of three bestselling books: The Personal MBA, The First 20 Hours, and How to Fight a Hydra. The Personal MBA is a #1 international bestseller, and he's also responsible for one of my favorite TED talks which has more than 22 million views - The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:15: Why focus on business and learning? 5:30: 20 hours vs. 10,000 hours. 9:00: The power law of practice. 11:30: Precommitment, and making it through 20 hours.  15:00: The importance of deliberate practice.  17:00: Fast feedback loops.  19:45: Breaking big tasks into small tasks.  26:40: Responses to threat, and how our psychological state impacts learning.  32:30: Cognitive biases and social proof. 38:40: “Commitment and consistency” bias.  46:00: Recap. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you live in the United States – and probably for many people who don’t – it’s been a bit of a stressful week. Today Dr. Hanson and Forrest talk about relaxing anxiety, weathering the storm, and taking in the year as a whole.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 1:30: Where do we want to allocate our attention? 5:00: Rational, appropriate stress and anxiety.  8:00: The cost of ‘negative’ emotions.  12:30: Practices of calming stress.  14:45: Giving yourself grace, and accepting some amount of stress.  17:40: Deal with the bad, turn toward the good, take in the good.  22:15: Seeing what is true.  26:45: Being happy when others are not.  36:40: A practice for calming and centering.  44:45: Learning from the hard parts of practice. If you'd like to learn more about Jaimal Yogis, here's his website.  Overcome Anxiety:  Let go of anxiety and grow a greater sense of calm strength with Rick's Dealing with Anxiety program, which offers 5 powerful practices for managing stress and worries. Save 10% with coupon code BEINGWELL. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part of our 10 most essential lessons for a great life, we explore accepting difference, open heartedness, healthy skepticism, embracing life, and impermanence.  Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:30: Different people are different. 10:00: Open your heart.  13:45: Open heartedness as a ‘field.’ 19:20: Cultivate a stance of healthy skepticism.  27:00: Honor the gift of your life.  33:00: All things end.  37:00: The feeling of one minute. Overcome Anxiety:  Let go of anxiety and grow a greater sense of calm strength with Rick's Dealing with Anxiety program, which offers 5 powerful practices for managing stress and worries. Save 10% with coupon code BEINGWELL. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the most essential lessons we've ever learned? Today we're exploring the first half of our 10 most important practices, skills, techniques, and reflections for the long road of life. Today we cover getting on your own side, the impact of childhood, widening your view, slowing down, and taking in the good. A quick summary of Rick's approach to taking in the good. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 1:30: Introduction: The view from the porch.  4:10: Get on your own side.  7:10: Respect the impact of childhood experiences.  13:20: Widen your view.  21:10: Grow the space between stimulus and response. 30:00: Take in the good.  44:00: Recap and ending. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About the Episode: Studies show that Americans feel less connected and more divided than ever before. Celeste Headlee, an award winning journalist, joins us to explore how we can navigate the many hard conversations that are happening these days.  About our Guest: In her 20-year career in public radio, Celeste appeared on NPR, PRI, CNN, and the BBC. She has been the Executive Producer of On Second Thought for Georgia Public Broadcasting, and anchored shows including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition at NPR.  Celeste is also the author of two wonderful books: We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving.  Here's a summary of George Lakoff's framing theory that was mentioned during our conversation. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 1:30: “Pandemic okay.” 4:45: Being a good talker vs. being a good conversationalist.  7:15: Why intelligent people can struggle to be good conversationalists.  11:30: Working with the inevitable presence of bias.  14:15: Facts, feelings, and frame theory. 18:00: Metacognition and confirmation bias.  22:45: Do facts change people’s opinions? 24:45: Making it easy for people to change their mind.  31:00: Maintaining our mental health inside hard conversations.  35:45: “Bothsides-ism” 40:00: How to engage when someone’s argument isn’t based on facts you agree with. 45:00: Doing less to do more. 50:00: The power of weak ties, and the negative impact of too much tech. 53:00: A message to your younger self.  Overcome Anxiety:  Let go of anxiety and grow a greater sense of calm strength with Rick's Dealing with Anxiety program, which offers 5 powerful practices for managing stress and worries. Save 10% with coupon code BEINGWELL. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors:   Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s one thing to use some of the tools that we talk about on this podcast when things feel stable and are going “good enough.” It’s another to apply them when the world feels threatening. Today we’re learning how to have more 'equanimity,' which is what allows us to maintain our composure, presence of mind, and perhaps even wellbeing under challenging circumstances.   Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 1:30: How do we define equanimity? 4:00: Psychological experience of equanimity.  4:30: Hedonic tone. 8:00: Brain science behind equanimity. 11:30: Liking and wanting. 14:30: Equanimity in secular Buddhism.  15:30: Equanimity, privilege, and gaslighting.  22:00: Dealing with unfairness. 26:30: Responding to painful experiences in the moment.  30:30: The ‘four foundations’ of equanimity.  35:30: Manage aversion. 37:30: Grow the good.  39:15: Find what endures. Overcome Anxiety:  Let go of anxiety and grow a greater sense of calm strength with Rick's Dealing with Anxiety program, which offers 5 powerful practices for managing stress and worries. Save 10% with coupon code BEINGWELL. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we be more productive, and improve our ability to focus on the things we really care about, without it becoming a source of stress? Chris Bailey, who TED described as "possibly the most productive person you could ever meet," joins us to explore how to get your brain to focus.  About our Guest: Chris is the bestselling author of Hyperfocus and The Productivity Project, and his website A Life of Productivity has a small army of devoted readers. Chris' wonderful TED talk, How to Get Your Brain to Focus, touches on many of the topics we explore in this episode. Support the Podcast: We're on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 3:15: What does it mean to be productive? 5:00: A year of productivity.  7:00: What is the goal of productivity? 10:45: Defining success, and the Rule of Threes. 15:30: Our negative attitudes toward productivity. 18:30: Defining and finding intentionality. 22:40: Productivity benefits of meditation. 31:20: Finding fulfillment and working calmly. 36:15: Maintaining focus and productivity during challenging times. 41:30: The TV and your attention. 49:00: How to build our capacity for focus.  Overcome Anxiety:  Let go of anxiety and grow a greater sense of calm strength with Rick's Dealing with Anxiety program, which offers 5 powerful practices for managing stress and worries. Save 10% with coupon code BEINGWELL. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Want fresh, delicious, simple dinners delivered right to your doorstep? Check out HelloFresh, America’s #1 meal kit, and use code beingwell90 to get $90 off including free shipping!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How have children experienced this year's challenges, and how can we get better at talking with them about race and racism? Today we’re focusing on trauma, resilience, and effective coping, and particularly on the unique challenges experienced by young people and their parents. About our Guest: Dr. Allison Briscoe-Smith is a child clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and issues of race. She is a senior fellow of Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and is both a professor and the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Wright Institute.  Here's Allison's wonderful article on parenting during overwhelming times that I referenced during our conversation. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:25: Honoring the small challenges alongside the big ones.  5:30: What challenges are children facing this year? 7:30: How are children processing our challenges differently from adults? 9:50: Helping children manage this time. 11:30: Finding hope, and having things to look forward to. 13:30: Signs of PTSD, and listening to our children.  16:30: How can we get better at talking to kids? 21:00: How children are processing racial violence. 24:10: Talking with children about racial violence. 28:00: Bias, implicit and otherwise. 34:30: How does bias find its way into the virtual classroom? 37:05: What are we privileging in different spaces? 42:00: The first time a kid experiences or perpetrates racism. 48:30: Creating a family mission statement. Sponsors:  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we maintain contentment, calm, or inner peace, while still aiming high, pursuing good goals, and experiencing natural frustration and anger? And is contentment even a good goal when there's so much injustice out in the world? Rick's Course: If you'd like to learn how to change your brain for the better, check out Rick's Positive Neuroplasticity Training. It's a six-week online course that will teach you how to beat your brain's negativity bias, and have more confidence, compassion, and inner peace. Use coupon code BEWELL50 at checkout for $50 off the purchase price. Key Topics: 1:45: Why contentment matters. 4:30: Can we be content when things are hard? 6:00: Being skeptical of the “wanting mind.” 8:30: How can we return to contentment when moved from it? 12:10: What’s wrong with being driven? Does contentment make us lazy? 16:20: Self-actualization and taking action from a place of fullness. 19:00: Staying content while performing basic tasks. 21:50: Contentment vs. complacency.  25:20: Content while hurt or angry.  29:30: How to build contentment when times are tough. 35:00: Can we be content and afraid? 46:00: Recap From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com/BEINGWELL and get a free trial of their Premium Membership. Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How can we find happiness even when times are challenging? Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar joins us to explore authentic happiness, accepting difficult emotions, and giving yourself permission to be human.  About our Guest: Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is the bestselling author of six books, founder of the Happiness Studies Academy, and former professor of two of the largest courses in Harvard’s history. Learn more about his Certificate in Happiness Studies program here. Use the code HAPPY for a 10% discount.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:45: Unhappiness in spite of success. 4:15: How do you define happiness? 5:50: Combining self-actualization with in-the-moment happiness.  8:45: Accepting our painful emotions.  10:10: Giving ourselves permission to be human. 19:10: What did students learn in Tal’s courses that they didn’t expect?  22:30: How to make hard personal choices.  28:00: Authenticity and comparison.  30:15: Does pursuing happiness actually make you unhappy? 36:10: Creating lasting change.  40:10: Happiness as a business value-add.  43:00: Managing expectations.  46:00: The Happiness Studies Academy. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're exploring the single most important skill we will ever teach on this podcast: How to change the brain in lasting ways. The dirty secret of the personal growth industry, and self-help and psychology more broadly, is that most of what we learn doesn't stick. So, what can we do to achieve the ‘holy grail’ of personal growth – lasting change in our hearts, minds, and behaviors?  Rick's Course: If you'd like to learn more about how to change your brain for the better, check out Rick's Positive Neuroplasticity Training. It's a six-week online course that will teach you how to beat your brain's negativity bias, and have more confidence, compassion, and inner peace. Use coupon code BEWELL50 at checkout for $50 off the purchase price!  Key Topics: 3:30: What is neuroplasticity? 8:00: The power of deliberate practice.  9:30: Meditation and the brain.  12:45: Why is it so hard to change? The negativity bias.  19:45: Human exceptionalism and energy conservation.  23:00: An experiential example.  30:30: How to change deep-seated issues.  36:45: The Positive Neuroplasticity Training. 39:15: Changing self-concept to change behavior.  49:00: Participating in who you are becoming.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Want fresh, delicious, simple dinners delivered right to your doorstep? Check out HelloFresh, America’s #1 meal kit, and use code beingwell90 to get $90 off including free shipping!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are the consequences of growing up inside an abusive family, and what can we do as adults to heal old wounds? Today we're joined by Pete Walker, a practicing therapist and expert in Complex PTSD. About Our Guest: Pete is a licensed psychotherapist practicing in the San Francisco Bay Area, who specializes in helping adults who were traumatized in childhood. He’s the author of three books, including Complex PTSD : From Surviving To Thriving. It’s a practical, user-friendly self-help guide to recovering from the lingering effects of childhood trauma, and to achieving a rich and fulfilling life as an adult. Pete has a variety of resources on his website, including his 13 Steps of Emotional Flashback Management.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Timestamps: 3:00: What distinguishes CPTSD from PTSD? 5:55: CPTSD as “developmental trauma disorder” 8:55: Presence of the bad vs. absence of the good.  11:40: The importance of empathy.  13:35: “They’re crazy or I’m crazy,” and the consequences of that.  17:10: Healthy anger.  19:00: Becoming a support to yourself. 21:30: Stages of recovery. 25:00: Corrective emotional experiences.  27:30: The lifelong process of recovery.  32:10: Reparenting and the inner child.  34:45: Managing the relationship with our family of origin.  41:30: Forgiveness.  44:30: The inner critic and internalized abusers.  48:30: A message to your younger self.  Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What makes for a great team – whether personal or professional – and how can organizations and individuals create a more psychologically healthy environment?  Many of us have been fortunate enough to be on a really great team…and most all of us have probably been on a bad one. So, what makes for a great team – whether personal or professional – and is it as simple as just being good at your job, or is there more to it than that? It turns out one of the key factors is called psychological safety, which we'll be learning about today with the help of a world-class expert. About our Guest: Dr. Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, where she studies teaming, psychological safety, and organizational learning. She’s the author of six books, including her most recent book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:00: What is psychological safety? 7:15: How does psychological safety relate to personality? 11:45: Stress and high performance.  14:00: Me vs. We 17:30: Psychological safety vs. psychological abuse.  22:00: Creating a safe group environment. 27:00: Accepting responsibility. 31:30: Psychological safety in virtual environments. 34:00: Giving good feedback. 37:30: Just one thing.  41:30: A message to your younger self. Sponsors: From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sharon Salzberg, one of the most prominent teachers of mindfulness in the West, joins us to discuss how we can create real change in our hearts, minds, and lives.  About our Guest: Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher and NY Times bestselling author. Her 11th book, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World, comes out September 1st. She's also the host of the fantastic Metta Hour podcast.  New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 2:45: Sharon’s experience over the last few months. 4:30: Feeling the breath. 6:20: Sitting with painful feelings.  7:15: Turning toward the good, and metta. 10:15: “Mindfulness to change the world.” 13:30: Key skills from Real Change.  18:00: Dealing with burnout and overwhelm.  24:30: Grief. 28:00: Effective compassion vs. empathic overwhelm. 33:00: Generosity, and giving to fill your own cup.  36:00: Metta.  38:00: Kindness toward difficult people. 40:00: Doing what you can. 42:00: Patience, and putting wins on the board.  45:00: A message to your younger self. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part two of our conversation, we explore some of the key psychological skills that lead to a truly great relationship informed by 35 years of couples counseling experience.  The Relationships Workshop: Join Rick for a live, online relationship workshop that will teach you how to have more fulfilling, effective, and joyful relationships than ever before. Follow the link to learn more, and podcast listeners can enter code BEWELL50 at checkout for $50 off the purchase price!  Key Skills: 3:00: Give your full attention.  6:30: Tune into your body.  7:20: Cultivate interest.  11:00: How can we know if we’re actually empathic? 13:00: Your attention is yours.  16:00: Accepting some level of discomfort.  17:45: Getting comfortable with people wanting things from you.  21:00: Three stories of relating. 22:30: Fulfilling relationship tasks.  24:30: Changing our relationship to criticism.  30:30: Chronic giving, and setting firm boundaries.  37:30: Cultivating a stronger sense of self.  44:30: Talk about what matters.  50:50: The desire to be found.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Want fresh, delicious, simple dinners delivered right to your doorstep? Check out HelloFresh, America’s #1 meal kit, and use code beingwell90 to get $90 off including free shipping!  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We all want great relationships - ones that are fulfilling, loving, stable, and fun. This is the first of two episodes focused on becoming a 'great relater.' Today Dr. Hanson and Forrest focus on understanding our individual attachment style, and how we can work through our personal material.  The Relationships Workshop: Join Rick for his online relationship workshop that will teach you how to have more fulfilling, effective, and joyful relationships than ever before. Follow the link to learn more, and podcast listeners can enter code BEWELL50 at checkout for $50 off the purchase price!  Key Topics: 0:25: Staying content while  striving for achievement.  4:00: Information on the relationship workshop.  6:20: Who helps you feel enlarged?  7:55: Rick makes fun of Forrest…and managing different levels of standard.  9:00: Building a good relator. 10:15: Attachment theory 17:00: Getting less attached to our attachment style.  19:15: Insecure attachment styles.  23:00: What issues does anxious attachment create? 26:00: A relationship between anxious and avoidant.  29:00: Skills for relating with an anxious person.  32:00: Finding optimal distance.  35:30: Working through a dreaded experience.  39:30: Exposure and blame.  From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors:  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month! Use code beingwell to let them know you came from us.  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second episode related to the pitfalls of self-help, we explore how individuals and environments can manipulate others by making them feel like something is wrong with them.  This is a self-help podcast. And there's a lot to like about self-help! But it has it's issues as well. Today we're exploring our exploration of those issues by focusing on painful forms of comparison and the natural vs. supernatural frame. Key Topics: 2:45: Being goal directed vs. self-acceptance.  6:50: Exploitative practices and the fragile psyche.  10:20: Relating to “problems” in healthy ways.  14:20: Comparison and creating a sense of lack.  16:30: Identifying good teachers and communities. 21:30: Comparison. 24:00: Separating means and ends.  26:00: How to deal with comparison.  30:30: How much do we actually control? 33:00: The Secret, and the natural vs. supernatural frames.  39:15: Cheapening the truly transcendent.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  From our Sponsors  Reset and rebalance with Recess, a sparkling water infused with hemp extract and adaptogens. Take 15% off your first order by using code BEINGWELL at checkout. Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Stephen Porges joins Rick and Forrest to explore his Polyvagal Theory, which explains how we can use the systems of the body to completely change our relationship with stress.  About Our Guest: Dr. Stephen Porges is a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina. In 1994 he proposed the Polyvagal Theory, a theory that links the evolution of the nervous system to social behavior and emphasizes the importance of physiological states in our psychological experiences. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 1:45: Summary of Polyvagal Theory. 6:00: Evolutionary neuro-biology: the three systems of the body. 15:15: The adaptive nature of the three systems. 19:45: Shutdown, trauma, and constructing a narrative.  23:00: Challenges of COVID to the social engagement system 28:15: How to intervene in the body. 33:00: Being stuck with problematic people. 35:30: Using the breath and staying calm. 38:00: Co-regulation 42:00: A message to your younger self.  From Dr. Hanson: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Sponsors: Want fresh, delicious, simple dinners delivered right to your doorstep? Check out HelloFresh, America’s #1 meal kit, and use code beingwell90 to get $90 off including free shipping!  Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Want to sleep better? Try the legendary Calm app! Visit calm.com/beingwell for 40% off a premium subscription. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do self-help environments force us into inauthentic happiness? And how can we move away from the false front, and into more authentic expression? This is the first of a series of episodes dedicated to some of the self-help community's pitfalls.  This is a self-help podcast. And there's a lot to like about self-help! But it has it's issues as well. Today we're exploring one of them: toxic positivity and forced happiness. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 3:00: Rick’s personal experience inside the personal development world.  8:00: Things that tend to limit abuses of power.  10:00: The democratization of self-help, and related pitfalls.  18:00: Act, scared self, and true being.  21:00: Where does toxic positivity appear? 26:00: The importance of authenticity. 29:30: The false front.  32:30: Encouraging other people to be fully authentic.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson:  Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're halfway through a very strange year, and it's a good time to take stock, check in with ourselves, and establish some new commitments – even if they’re as simple as being kind to ourselves.  One way we can reclaim our experience of agency is by finding where we do still have influence over our outcomes. And that’s what we’ll be exploring today: how to start anew under the circumstances we find ourselves in.  New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 3:45: Hope and disappointment.  7:30: Reckoning, repentance, and renewal.  11:00: Controlling what you can.  14:00: Coping with self-criticism and shame.  18:30: How to approach the future.  20:45: Building key habits.  24:00: Changing our identity in order to change our behavior.  26:30: Forrest's changing identity - moving into empathy.  29:30: Using key phrases.  31:00: Rick's changing identity - feeling like a good person. 34:00: Realistic optimism.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it possible to "do no harm," and should we even try? Dr. Hanson and Forrest explore what it means to do no harm, and the inner resources that allow us to do as little as possible. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 1:10: Reckoning and repenting in this moment.  4:45: What does it mean to truly do no harm? 6:45: How does doing no harm help us “be well?” 11:30: Reasons to take a collective perspective.  16:15: Grappling with the reality of causing harm.  19:00: The importance of repair. 22:30: Extending repair to yourself.  29:30: Are there necessary harms? 33:00: Resources that allow us to do less harm.  40:30: What happens when we stop being a danger to others? Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can we do to combat, unlearn, and ultimately unburden ourselves from the influence of systemic structures of racism - both out in the world and inside of ourselves? About Our Guest: Erin is the CEO, principal coach, and founder of Community Equity Partners, and the senior advisor at the Equity Lab. Erin works with educational, non-profit, government, and tech organizations that are committed to creating equitable and inclusive practices.  Key Topics: 1:10: Finding hope and awakening in the moment. 6:30: "Unburdening" ourselves.  9:15: Overt vs. covert structures and systems of racism.  16:15: Key moments that lead to waking to systemic racism.   23:30: A message to your younger self.  Sponsors: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is intergenerational trauma, how does it influence our lives today, and what can we do to heal and persevere when things get tough? The events of the past few weeks have cast the importance of healing the wounds of the past into stark relief. Today we’re exploring how the traumatic past, including that handed down through the generations, can influence our lives today.  About Our Guest: Dr. Sherri Taylor is an assistant professor of somatic psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and also teaches in the clinical psychology doctoral program at The Wright Institute.  Sponsor Message: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 4:10: What is intergenerational trauma? 7:30: Adaptive strategies for coping with trauma. 12:30: The primacy of the body.  15:15: Reclaiming comfort in your body.  20:45: Sensorymotor psychotherapy 22:30: Being with grief.  26:15: How to keep going when this process gets hard.  Check out my new website here! Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Racism and racist structures place an enormous mental health burden on the people they persecute. Dr. Alfiee joins me to discuss the mental health consequences of institutional racism, unique challenges faced by marginalized youth, disparities in access to mental health services, and the importance of "naming and claiming."  About Our Guest: Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble is a licensed psychologist who spent 20 years in academic medicine. She's the lead author of The Handbook of Mental Health in African American Youth, the host of the podcast "Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee," and the founder of the mental health nonprofit the AAKOMA Project. To join me in donating to the AAKOMA Project, follow this link. CNN Townhall with Dr. Alfiee. Key Topics: 3:30: The impact of institutional racism on mental health. 7:00: Forms of exposure to racism. 9:45: Allostatic load, weathering, and secondary traumatic stress. 15:30: Ways to manage traumatic stress. 19:45: Confusing stress and anxiety. 22:30: The importance of accurate labeling. 25:00: AAKOMA and availability of mental health resources. 29:00: Access, and the stigmatization of mental health. 33:30: Removing the stigma. 37:20: A message to your younger self. Sponsors: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's our turn to be uncomfortable.  https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co Racism is a public health crisis.  Ways You Can Help Donate to:  ACT Blue fundraiser GoFundMe’s justice and equality fund George Floyd Breonna Taylor Ahmaud Aubery Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can death teach us about living well? A pioneer in the field of end-of-life care joins us to explore the fear of death, anger, true courage, and acceptance in the face of it all.  About our Guest: Frank is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and advocate for compassionate care-giving. In 1987, he co-founded the Zen Hospice Project, which helped establish a longstanding model for mindful and compassionate care. In 2005, he founded the Metta Institute. Frank is also the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, which is one of my favorite books. From Dr. Hanson:  The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Key Topics: 2:00: Frank’s recovery from multiple strokes. 5:30: Fear and choice.   10:00: What death can teach us about ourselves. 12:20: Supporting caregivers and spreading kindness. 16:40: The fear of death.  23:30: Coming to terms with the deaths of those we love. 27:00: Allowing. 32:00: Meeting our defenses. 36:30: Removing judgement from anger. 43:00: Bringing wisdom to anger. 44:45: Courage in the world. 47:15: Coming together and falling apart. 54:45: Accepting each other as is.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean to "transcend the self?" Today Dr. Hanson, Forrest, and Dr. David Yaden explore self-transcendent, or “peak,” experiences, which the famous psychologist Abraham Maslow defined as “moments of highest happiness and fulfillment.” As a note, David is referred to as a "PhD student" during the episode. Since it was recorded, he's gone on to earn his doctorate! About our Guest: David is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins Medicine who studies the varieties of spiritual and self-transcendent experiences from the perspectives of psychology and cognitive neuroscience.  Read David's paper on The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience here.  New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 3:00: The two key characteristics of self-transcendent experiences. 4:30: “Everyday” versions of peak experiences.  8:00: Self-transcendence and psychopathology. 11:00: David’s account of self-transcendence.  13:50: The lasting impact of peak experiences.  17:00: Is there a “place” where self-transcendence occurs in the brain?  20:45: Making use of peak experiences. 28:00: Should we seek peak experiences out?  36:00: Relaxing the sense of self.  41:30: A message to your younger self. 43:30: Recap Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Laurie Santos joins the podcast to share what the science says about how we can maintain our well-being during this difficult time. About our Guest: Laurie is a Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Her course “Psychology and the Good Life” is the most popular class in the university’s history. It’s now available for free online as “The Science of Well-Being." She’s also the director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale, which explores the evolutionary origins of the human mind Laurie hosts the critically acclaimed podcast The Happiness Lab. We couldn't recommend it more highly, if you like our podcast you should definitely give it a listen. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 2:00: Key resources for happiness during pandemic.  6:00: Understanding and combating logical errors.  10:00: How to stay strong during a crisis.  14:30: Developing an internal orientation toward positivity.  17:15: Key misconceptions about happiness.  20:30: Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. 22:45: Self-compassion.  24:30: What can we learn from monkeys? 31:00: Why didn’t “errors of reasoning” evolve out of us? 34:15: Liking vs. Craving. 37:00: The critical role of lasting learning.  48:00: A message to your younger self. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price!   Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we work with, and release, obsessive fear during this particularly anxiety-provoking time? Dr. Dan Kalb, an expert on anxiety disorders and OCD, joins the show to help us learn how.  About our Guest:  Anxiety and worry are a part of life. But when they disrupt the normal flow of life, work and school are harder, family and social relationships suffer, and life is not as enjoyable. Dr. Kalb has been a practicing psychologist for over 25 years, and focuses much of his practice on working with people who suffer from this form of extreme anxiety, hoarding, or OCD.  New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 1:45: What is an anxiety disorder? 6:00: Mindfulness and being in the present moment. 11:30: Releasing obsessions, and not becoming ensnared by negative thoughts. 16:45: Acceptance, and useful vs. harmful self-reassurance.  24:30: Fears of death, and how to manage them.  29:30: Key techniques for releasing fear.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What can we learn about ourselves from and through art? Sleeping At Last, an incredible musician, joins us to explore the Enneagram, the creative process, art and emotion, and how we can become ever more true to ourselves. About Our Guest: Sleeping at Last, also known as Ryan O’Neal,  is a well-known singer, songwriter, and composer who's written music for shows like Grey's Anatomy.  Over the last seven years Ryan has worked on his Atlas series, an ongoing project that includes an incredible series of songs based on the Enneagram of Personality, which is my favorite personality typing system. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 3:00: Sleeping at Last’s background and artistic origin story. 6:30: Music as a kind of journal.  8:30: How masks allow for vulnerability. 11:10: Writing in theme, and finding safe spaces for emotion through art.  17:00: Sleeping at Last’s creative process.  20:00: The Enneagram.  25:00: Forrest and Type 6 30:30: Ryan and Type 9. 33:50: 6 by Sleeping at Last 38:15: Learning about people through art. 43:00: Pressure.  44:45: Increasing creative output.  53:00: A message to Ryan's younger self.  Listen to the fantastic Sleeping at Last Podcast! On it, Ryan explains the process and inspiration behind his music, and I couldn’t recommend it more strongly. Learn more about The Nine Types Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Hardwire lasting change into your mind and heart in just a few minutes a day  with Dr. Rick Hanson's new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price! Connect with the show: Visit us on the web Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the "highest happiness," and what can we do to achieve it?  This is the second conversation with Dr. Hanson related to his new book Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness. Today we're focusing on the final four practices in the book: wholeness, nowness, allness, and timelessness.  Neurodharma is now available! Click here if you'd like to learn more. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 2:00: Why aim for “the heights of human potential” when the here and now already seems so challenging? 7:30: Wholeness, Nowness, Allness, and Timelessness.  11:00: What is an aspect of awakening? 14:20: The front edge of now.  17:00: The value of timelessness for a “normal person.” 23:00: The elements of consciousness.  26:45: The inherent emptiness of things.  32:50: Avoiding the pitfalls of emptiness.  34:30: The apparent self.  38:00: Our relationship to changing the self.  Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout history people have sought the heights of human potential - to become as wise, strong, happy, and loving as any person can ever be. Call these peak experiences, sense of oneness, or enlightenment itself. And now, science is revealing how these remarkable ways of being seem to be based on equally remarkable changes in our own nervous system. What do those individuals have in common, how did they reach that summit, and what can we learn from them? That's the subject of Rick's new book: Neurodharma: New Science, Ancient Wisdom, and Seven Practices of the Highest Happiness.  Neurodharma comes out May 5th, and is now available for pre-order. Click here if you'd like to learn more. New Sponsor: Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month!  Key Topics: 2:15: What is the upper bound of human potential, and why should we care? 5:30: Different ways of knowing ourselves 10:00: How can modern science contribute to personal growth? 15:00: How is the brain of an “enlightened” person different from our own? 20:00: The janas, and how they change the brain.  24:00: The seven practices of the highest happiness.  28:00: Experiencing the body as a whole.  35:00: Balancing me and we.  40:00: Egocentric and allocentric.  Sponsor Message: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. From Dr. Hanson: The Foundations of Well-Being brings together the lessons of a lifetime of practice into one year-long online program. Podcast listeners can use the code BEINGWELL25 at checkout for an additional 25% off! Please don't hesitate to apply for a scholarship if you're in need.  Connect with the show: Follow us on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices