"Our brains are evolved to be highly focused on threats and setbacks and less focused on the good things in life. This has worked well as a survival process over millions of years but now can be a cause of suffering in all kinds of ways. In this remarkable book one of the world's leading authorities on mind training takes these insights and shows us ways we can cultivate the helpful and good within us. In a beautifully written and accessible way, with many personal anecdotes, Rick Hanson offers us an inspiring gift of wise insights and compassionate and uplifting practices that will be of enormous benefit to all who read this book. A book of hope and joyfulness." -- Paul Gilbert, Ph.D., O.B.E., author of The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life's Challenges
"Always on the cutting edge, Rick Hanson is brilliant at making the neuroscience of happiness accessible, engaging, and practical. In Hardwiring Happiness, he offers powerful, research-based practices to turn your everyday positive experiences into lasting changes in your brain that will transform your life. If you're looking for greater happiness, more fulfilling relationships, or greater peace of mind, this book is a treasure." --Marci Shimoff, author of Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup to the Woman's Soul "I have learned more about positive psychology from Rick Hanson than from any other scientist. With Hardwiring Happiness, he has done it again. He makes the compelling case that sustainable happiness requires neural rewiring in order for happiness to take hold in our lives. Hanson’s explanation of the practical science of neuroplasticity is both accessible and fascinating. Read this book, take in the good, and change your brain so that you can become the person you were destined to be." --Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Positive Psychology, author of Gratitude Works! and Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
"One need only believe in the possibility of change for this book to be of great benefit. With current neuroscience to back him up, Rick Hanson has given us an incredible gift. The practices within this book don’t take much time at all, yet have the potential to yield true and lasting change." --Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
"Rick Hanson's new book Hardwiring Happiness both clarifies and simplifies the power of small positive experiences to heal and enrich. Carefully explaining both the neurobiology and practice of happiness Dr. Hanson writes simply enough that anyone can use this book as a primary resource to bring more joy and less stress into their lives." --Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., Director of Stanford Forgiveness Projects, author of Forgive for Good
"Learning to take in the good is like fully and mindfully breathing in life…it allows us to access our inner strengths, creativity, vitality and love. In his brilliant new book, Rick Hanson gives us the fascinating science behind attending to positive experiences, and offers powerful and doable ways to awaken the deep and lasting wellbeing we yearn for." --Tara Brach, Ph.D., author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge
"Seamlessly weaving together insights from modern neuroscience, positive psychology, evolutionary biology, and years of clinical practice, Dr. Hanson provides a wealth of practical tools anyone can use to feel less anxious, frustrated, and distressed in everyday life. With humor, warmth, and humility, this book combines new research and ancient wisdom to give us easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions to counteract our hard-wired tendency for psychological distress and live richer, happier, more loving and fulfilled lives." --Ronald D. Siegel, Psy.D., Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Author, The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems
"One of the most groundbreaking discoveries of our time is that with practice, we can choose what we focus on, and what we choose to focus on actually shapes our physiology. When we intentionally pay attention to what IS working, to what is good and right, to what we can be happy about and proud of, we kick off an upward spiral in mind, body and spirit that make beauty and love, rather than fear and anger, the most central features of our lives. No one explains exactly how to make this happen better than Rick Hanson. This book is a gem. I recommend keeping it on your bedside table and making it the first thing you read each day." --Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D., President, Institute of Noetic Sciences, coauthor of Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life
"It is all too easy for us to highlight the negatives in life. And the positives, when we notice them, soon fade because we become all too accustomed to them. In Hardwiring Happiness, Dr. Rick Hanson has given us an instruction manual for creating new brain patterns of noticing and strengthening our ability to "take in the good." This ability, once mastered, can change your life, healing old pain and leading you out of old, unhelpful patterns. And he does it all with a gentle humor and kindness that shines throughout the book." --Bill O'Hanlon, author of The Change Your Life Book and Do One Thing Different
"In this book, the insights of neuroscience become clear, practical, and profoundly transformative. Rick Hanson is the one expert in this realm that I've come to trust completely, and following his guidance is 'taking in the good' indeed." --Raphael Cushnir, author of The One Thing Holding You Back: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Connection
"In Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hanson provides an exceptionally clear and compelling explanation as to why we tend to focus on what's wrong far more than what's right. He provides equally clear and compelling reasons why we have to work just a little harder to not only notice what's right but actually experience it. He provides practical and effective ways to do this, supportively encouraging us to use our innate potentials in new and powerful ways. If you want to shape your own brain for the better and make feeling good a reflex, get this book and absorb its wisdom!" --Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D., author of Mindfulness and Hypnosis and Depression is Contagious
"One insight at the core of this book, "taking In the good", has helped me change my life. And yet there's much more here. With the compassion and gentleness of a good friend and the rigor and precision of an engineer, Rick Hanson gives you the key takeaways from neuroscience that will enable you rewire your brain for a more joyful life." --Terry Patten, author of Integral Life Practice
"I can’t help but fall in love with this book, it is so powerful in its elegant simplicity. Hardwiring Happiness opens us up to the small choices that are all around us to live a happy, fulfilled and resilient life." --Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., author of The Now Effect: How this Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life and A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook "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. This is truly a book I wish every human being could read - it's that important. I hope we'll soon be saying to each other, in meetings, over coffee, in crowded subway cars, 'Practice taking in the good yet today?'" --Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman's Comfort Book and The Life Organizer
“Rick Hanson is brilliant not only at making complex scientific information about the brain simple, he also shows us in Hardwiring Happiness, how to overcome our brain’s evolutionary negativity bias. Using ordinary experiences he guides the reader in processes that actually restructure the brain to experience sustainable happiness and joy. For anyone wanting to decode the black box of the brain and take advantage of its potential, this is the book to read.”--Harville Hendrix, Ph. D., co-author with Helen LaKelly Hunt of Making Marriage Simple |