Practical Wisdom with Dr. Rick Hanson

What keeps us holding on to the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that cause us suffering? In this week’s talk, I explore four ways of letting go — in the body, of craving, in the mind, and of the mind itself. Learn how we can release old patterns of fear, anger, and grasping while still standing up for ourselves and pursuing what matters, opening to greater peace, freedom, and ease. You’re welc...

What happens when important emotional needs go unmet, especially when we’re young? Even with loving parents and a relatively good childhood, we can carry a lingering sense that something is missing — leaving us feeling anxious, disconnected, or constantly seeking reassurance. In this week’s talk, I explore how these early experiences shape the brain, fuel craving, and influence our relationships t...

We all carry emotional baggage from the past. These old hurts, fears, insecurities, and patterns can continue to affect us long after the original experiences have passed. While mindfulness can help us relate differently to these painful experiences, what does it take to actually heal them?  In this talk, I explored how to release the burdens of the past, identify the inner strengths and positive...

Life brings unavoidable pain, uncertainty, and loss, but it also offers countless opportunities to develop the inner resources that help us meet those challenges without becoming overwhelmed by them. In this talk, I explore how understanding our needs for safety, satisfaction, and connection can help us loosen the grip of craving and the suffering it creates. You’re welcome to join me live each we...

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 patterns, and situations we cannot control—without either withdrawing from what matters or becoming consumed by it. You’re welcome to join me live each week for...

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 worry about things we can’t control.  This week I focused in on how to find a middle way with anxiety: listening to the useful signals without letting them...

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 taking it so personally.  So this week, I explored how feeling more secure in your own worth, having healthy boundaries, bringing compassion to yourself, loosen...

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.  In this talk, I explored some of what makes boundaries so difficult, including feeling overly responsible for other people, doubting our own perceptions, and get...

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 take on, there’s less resentment, confusion, and pressure in a relationship. So that’s what I covered in my talk this week, including how to recognize what’...

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 mindfulness can be a complete path for living with his five essential elements—mindfulness meditation, insight, love and compassion, ethics, and community. T...

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 Buddhist wisdom, neuroscience, and even the physics of time can teach us about stepping out of this constant striving and returning to the “front edge of now.” Yo...

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. In this talk, I explore patience not as passive endurance, but as a combination of strength, insight, and an open heart. In the brain, when we become impatien...

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 important ways, you’re already enough? In this talk, I explore how the mind gets caught in endless striving and comparison, and how we can gently train ourselves t...

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 that are already available. In this talk, I explore an early Buddhist teaching on papañca—the mind’s tendency to proliferate—and how we can gradually step ou...

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 don’t reflect who we want to be. In this talk, I explore the relationship between what we bow toward and what we vow to live by. Practice isn’t just about ac...

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 experience the meditation that accompanied this talk, you can listen to it at: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-letting-go-of-fear-and-resting-in-pea...

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, and joy for others—and how intentionally cultivating them can reduce suffering, build resilience, and gradually become part of who we are. Along the way, we’ll l...

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 Buddha himself identified as essential factors on the path to awakening. You’ll learn why these states aren’t distractions from practice but powerful resources f...

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 bonus — it’s the thing that gives your insight real power to cut through. In this talk, I dig into a remarkable ancient teaching by a nun named Dhammadinnā...

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 loosening our grip on who we think we are can bring greater freedom, peace, and genuine happiness. You’re welcome to join me live each week for these talks — for...

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 experience the meditation that accompanied this talk, you can listen to it at: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-how-to-use-fear-and-not-let-it-use-yo...

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 be applied to your own healing, growing, and awakening. Drawing on both modern science and the deep contemplative traditions of Buddhism, this conversation...

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 experience the meditation that accompanied this talk, you can listen to it at: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-how-to-let-go/ And if you'd like...

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 experience the meditation that accompanied this talk, you can listen to it at: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-how-to-be-calmer-now/ And if you&apos...

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 experience the meditation that accompanied this talk, you can listen to it at: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-the-wise-effort-of-letting-go-of-self...