Rick Hanson on Growing Positive Qualities

The One You Feed

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Rick Hanson, PhD is a Neuropsychologist, teacher and author of many books. He is the founder of the Wellspring Center for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and an affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkley. This is the 2nd time Dr. Hanson has been a guest on the show and we invited him back because of how great his work really is. In this episode, he talks all about the fact that who we become is a result of what we grow inside of ourselves. Using the analogy of tending a garden, he teaches us very practical ways to grow and enrich ourselves through the experiences in our lives. Get a pen and paper - you'll probably want to take notes on this one!

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In This Interview, Rick Hanson and I Discuss...

• The Wolf Parable
• His book, Resilient: How to grow an unshakable core of calm, strength, and happiness
• Who we become is a result of what we grow inside ourselves
• How you manage your challenges, protect your vulnerabilities, Increase your resources: out in the world, in the body, and in the mind
• Growing resources in our mind is a good focus
• Converting an experience into lasting change
• Slowing down content delivery so that the nervous system in our brains has a chance to receive it and rewire accordingly
• 5 ways to enrich a beneficial experience:
• Extend the experience (make it longer)
• Intensify the experience (really lean into it)
• Embody the experience (how does it feel in your body and your mind)
• Freshen the experience (see what's novel about it? Bring a beginners mind)
• Value the experience (see the relevance to you)
• Asking what is the challenge? What resource would be the most beneficial?
• The mind is like a garden - to grow things, focus on:
• Mindful witnessing
• Mindful releasing of what's negative
• Mindful receiving (replace what we release or simply receive what would be beneficial)
• Fighting what's negative only makes it work
• Growing a fundamental core of resilient wellbeing
• Safety, Satisfaction, and Connection are basic needs we have
• How it takes time to tend a garden
• How adversity isn't the only way to grow in life
• We have to experience what we want to grow inside
• We have to turn that experience into some kind of lasting change in the brain

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