Hardwiring Happiness with Dr. Rick Hanson
Buddha’s Brain by Dr. Rick Hanson is one of the books that changed my life. In this book Dr. Hanson provided concrete scientific proof that we can improve our experiences by retraining our brain. The concept of neuroplasticity was instrumental in changing my life and the lives of my clients.
In Buddha’s Brain, Dr. Hanson explores the plasticity of the brain and how religious, spiritual and ancient practices of meditation and pray affect how the brain factions. His new book, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence, builds on this concept and provides very practical tactical ways we can rewire our brains to experience more happiness.
Think of it as building your muscles. If you want to have a strong healthy body, it is necessary to exercise and utilize those muscles every day. If you had an amazing workout one day and then sat on the couch for the rest of the week, the muscle tone would not last. The same goes for our brain.
For survival, our brains are naturally programmed to focus on the negative. If we want to program our minds to be positive, it is necessary to continuously exercise the parts of our brains that bring us joy. One simple way to do this is to be conscious of your thoughts throughout the day and when you experience something that brings you joy, spend twenty to thirty seconds truly focused and aware of this joy. This simple process helps your brain store this feeling.
Listen to the call below for other simple techniques to reprogram your brain bringing you more contentment, calm, confidence, and happiness. Listen as Dr. Rick Hanson neuropsychologist and member of University of California Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center’s advisory board explores:
How to learn from contemplative practice experts targeted mental activities to target and strengthen the parts of your brain that lead to happiness
- How to use the concept of neurons that wire together fire together to make changes in how you experience life
- How to retrain the emotional learning in the brain
- The two part process to reprogram one’s brain using Activation & Installation
- The dirty secret of coaching and psychology
- The “how” of personal growth
- How to keep the accumulation of negativity from building.
