Authentic Happiness | Authentic Happiness Don’t Quarrel | Dr. Rick Hanson - Author of Buddha's Brain and Just One Thing posted on: November 30th, 2012 Who do you argue with?The Practice:Don’t quarrel.Why? It’s one thing to stick up for yourself and others. Similarly, it’s one thing to disagree with someone, even to the point of arguing – but it’s a different matter to get so caught up in your position that you lose sight of the bigger picture, including your relationship with the other person. You know you’re quarreling when you find yourself getting irritated, especially with that sticky feeling that you’re just not gonna quit until you’ve won. Quarrels happen both out in the open, between people, and inside the mind, like when you make a case in your head about another person or keep revisiting an argument to make your point more forcefully. However they happen, quarrels are stressful, activating the ancient fight-or-flight machinery in your brain and body: a bit of this won’t harm you, but a regular diet of quarreling is not good for your long-term physical and mental health. How?
Dr. Rick Hanson - Discover the Simple Method to More Joy &Less Stress posted on: February 1st, 2013 Wishing well? The Practice: Bless. Why? Lately, I’ve been wondering what would be on my personal list of top five practices (all tied for first place). In these JOTs, so far I’ve written about two of my top practices: Meditate – Mindfulness, training attention, contemplation, concentration, absorption, non-ordinary consciousness, liberating insightTake in the good (in three chapters excerpted from my book, Just One Thing) – Recognize the brain’s negativity bias (Velcro for the bad, Teflon for the good), see good facts in the world and in yourself, be intimate with your experience, have and enrich and absorb positive experiences (turning mental states into neural traits, good moments into a great brain), let positive soothe and replace negative My third practice is bless, which means see what’s tender and beautiful, and wish well. Blessing is obviously good for others and the world, and that’s plenty reason to offer it. How? Do blessing deliberately.
10 Ways Gratitude Can Change Your Life & 4 Step Gratitude Plan Gratitude can motivate others, increase self-control, build social ties and more…plus 4-step gratitude plan. Gratitude is the new miracle emotion. Although gratitude has been around for as long as human beings, it’s only recently started to get the big thumbs-up from science. So here are 10 ways gratitude can change your life, followed by a quick 4-step plan to help maximise your own gratitude, whatever level you start from. There’s even a trick for those suffering from ‘gratitude burnout’. 1. Gratitude is different things to different people: amongst them could be counting your blessings, savouring what life has given you, thanking someone or wondering at the natural world. Whatever form it takes, one of the best known and most researched effects of practicing gratitude is it makes you happier. Participants in one study were 25% happier, on average, after practicing a little gratitude over a 10-week period. 2. Gratitude isn’t just about feeling better, it’s also about thinking better. 3. 4.
Use This Simple Daily Habit to Add More Gratitude to Your Life I have a simple gratitude habit that I have been following nearly every day for three years. I want to share it with you here. First, let me set the stage. The Minor Tragedy The other day I ordered takeout from one of my favorite Indian restaurants for dinner. My family had a tight timeline that night, which meant we would only be together for an hour before everyone had to run off in separate directions. We picked up the food and drove home, but when we opened the bag we realized that the restaurant had forgotten to include one of the main dishes from our order. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a big deal. I wasn’t going anywhere later that night, so I volunteered to drive back to the restuarant and pick up the missing food while everyone else packed their bags for their trip. So, this was the mood in the room–frustrated, rushed, and stressed–when our simple gratitude habit came to the rescue. The Daily Gratitude Habit The habit is super simple. Why It Works Practicing Gratitude
Hardwiring Happiness Rick Hanson is a master of his craft, showing us a wise path for daily living in this book. Based in the latest findings of neuroscience, this book reveals that if we understand the brain a little, we can take care of our lives a lot, and make a real difference to our well-being. Here is a book to savor, to practice, and to take to heart. –Mark Williams, Ph.D., Professor, University of Oxford, author of Mindfulness The cultivation of happiness is one of the most important skills anyone can ever learn. In this remarkable book, one of the world’s leading authorities on mind training shows how to cultivate the helpful and good within us. Rick Hanson’s new book works practical magic: it teaches you how, in a few seconds, to rewire your brain for greater happiness, peace, and well-being. I have learned more about positive psychology from Rick Hanson than from any other scientist. Truly helpful and wise, this book nourishes your practical goodness and feeds the vitality of your human spirit.
The Science of Gratitude - Issue 30: Identity I conducted an early Thanksgiving experiment on myself. I was in Reykjavik, Iceland, on a lecture trip. My morning was free, and I took it to write two pages about how lucky I am—something, I’m embarrassed to say, that I had never done before. Here is one thing I wrote: “I’m looking out at a sky that Vikings would have seen. I get to do this—me.” I didn’t know it then, but in making such a list, I was engaging in a scientifically based gratitude intervention, the sort that has been shown, in experimental studies, to make you an all-around happier and more sociable person. Given the importance of gratitude to our psychological tool kit, the scientific literature implies that giving thanks once a year isn’t remotely enough. “I’m looking out at a sky that Vikings would have seen. Just how seriously has to do with a new scientific view that gratitude is one of a set of emotions known as “moral affects” that humans developed through evolution. It’s an apt metaphor.