Practical Wisdom with Dr. Rick Hanson
Led by psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Rick Hanson, these talks provide a down-to-earth way to develop greater resilience, compassion, and happiness. More at rickhanson.com
Episodes
69 episodes
How to Disentangle Yourself in Challenging Relationships
Life inevitably includes both change and loss, as well as sources of steadiness, meaning, and connection that endure. In this talk, I explore how we can meet the tangles of everyday life—difficult interactions, stubborn conflicts, painful patte...
How to Use Anxiety – and Not Be Used by It!
Sometimes our anxiety is trying to tell us something important about a real threat, something we need to take care of, or someone we love. The trouble comes when anxiety keeps going long after it’s useful, turning into rumination, clinging, and...
5 Ways to Take Things Less Personally
Life is going to bump into us. People will disappoint us, criticize us, misunderstand us, drop the ball, or sometimes genuinely treat us badly. The question is how to deal with all of that without adding a whole extra layer of suffering by taki...
Why It’s So Hard to Set – and Keep – Healthy Boundaries
Most of us know, at least in principle, that it’s good to have healthy boundaries. The hard part is actually setting them — and then holding onto them when other people push back, get upset, or simply keep doing what they’ve always done. <...
Why Good Boundaries Make Better Relationships
Good boundaries aren’t about pushing people away. In fact, they can help us feel closer, more open, and more at ease with the people we care about. When you know where you stand, what you’re responsible for, and what you’re simply not going to ...
Insight – The Power of Seeing Reality Clearly
This week, I was joined by Melvin McLeod, editor-in-chief of Lion’s Roar and author of The Complete Path of Mindfulness, to explore what mindfulness can become when we see it as much more than a meditation technique.Melvin and I explored...
How to Find Peace in the Present Moment
So much of the mind is leaning into the future—anticipating what will happen, planning what we’ll do, worrying about what could go wrong, and getting attached to how we or other people are supposed to become.In this talk, I explore what ...
Patience – Why We Need It, and How to Grow It
Impatience can be a surprisingly powerful source of stress, frustration, and conflict—especially when we’re waiting for something to change, dealing with difficult people, caring for someone we love, or simply wishing life would move faster.
How to Feel That You’ve Done Enough – and Are Enough
Many of us spend our lives quietly believing we need to do more, achieve more, or become more before we can finally feel at peace. What if the peace you’ve been searching for doesn’t come from becoming more—but from recognizing that, in importa...
How to Stop Ruminating
Even when nothing is particularly wrong, the mind can keep generating something else to want, solve, compare, worry about, or figure out. All that mental activity can be exhausting—and it can keep us from recognizing the contentment and peace t...
Bows and Vows
Many of us move through life reacting to circumstances without pausing to consider what we’re truly devoted to. When we lose touch with our values and deepest intentions, it’s easy to feel scattered, disconnected, or pulled in directions that d...
Letting Go of Fear, and Resting in Peaceful Confidence
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
The Sweet Power of Kindness, Compassion, and Happiness for Others
We often think of kindness and compassion as gifts we offer other people. But what if they were also among the most powerful ways to heal ourselves?In this talk, I explore three transformative qualities of the heart—kindness, compassion,...
Positive Emotions as Key Steps in the Path of Awakening
Many of us think of meditation and inner practice as serious, even grim work. But what if joy itself is part of the path? In this talk, I explored four emotionally positive states — gladness, rapture, tranquility, and happiness — that the Buddh...
The Powerful Combination of Concentration and Insight
We all know what it’s like to feel scattered, stuck in our own mental loops, unable to actually move through the hard stuff. What the Buddha was pointing to with “right concentration” is that a settled, unified mind isn’t just a nice meditation...
Insightful Freedom from Craving
Do you ever feel caught up in striving, worrying about how you’re doing, or trying to become a better version of yourself? In this talk, I explore an early Buddhist teaching on how craving and self-identification create suffering—and how loosen...
How to Use Fear and Not Let It Use You
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
Keys to Personal and Global Evolution with David Sloan Wilson
It’s easy to feel stuck in the same patterns—repeating old reactions, circling in the same thoughts, and wondering why real change is so hard. In this talk, we explore how Darwin’s insights into evolution—variation, selection, and retention—can...
How to Let Go
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
How to Be Calmer . . . Now
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
The Wise Effort of Letting Go of Self
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
Equanimity: Inner Freedom with a Heart as Wide as the World
You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for free — by signing up at https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/. We always start with a guided meditation to set the tone for the evening. If you’d like to...
When Unjust Power Comes at You – and What You Can Do about It
When power comes at us — through authority, intimidation, manipulation, or fear — it can stir old anxiety and self-doubt. So this week I explored how power affects the mind, from personal relationships and childhood conditioning to social hiera...
How to Claim the Power You Do Have (and Disengage Where You Don’t)
We often give away our power by focusing on what we can’t control and getting pulled into stress, overthinking, or other people’s reactions. This week I focused on how to reclaim your power by focusing on where you actually have influence—your ...
How to Balance Caring for Oneself and Caring for the World
When the world feels overwhelming and full of suffering (which seems to happen a lot, these days), it’s easy to feel torn between caring for yourself and caring for others. So this week I explored how to hold both without shutting down or turni...