“By taking just a few extra seconds to stay with a positive experience – from the pleasure of a deep breath to a sense of calm, satisfaction, and love – you turn good moments into a great brain, full of strength, health, and happiness. That’s what it means to “take in the good.” ~Rick Hanson, PhD.

I was so thrilled and honored to have the opportunity to interview Dr. Rick Hanson on his latest book, Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence.  I literally stumbled upon Rick’s work a couple of years ago, when I stumbled upon a book title that sounded intriguing to me, called Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and then started following Dr. Hanson’s work since then.

Dr. Hanson is a neuropsychologist and New York Times best-selling author. His books include Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence (in 4 languages), Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (in 25 languages), Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time (in 12 languages), and Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships. Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and on the Advisory Board of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide.

An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, Dr. Hanson’s work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, CBC, FoxBusiness, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report, and O Magazine, and his articles have appeared in Tricycle Magazine, Insight Journal, and Inquiring Mind. He has several audio programs with Sounds True, he edits the Wise Brain Bulletin, and his weekly e-newsletter – Just One Thing – has over 100,000 subscribers, and also appears on Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and other major websites.

Grounded in brain science, psychology, and contemplative wisdom,  Hardwiring Happiness shows readers how to build a better brain from the inside out, using the hidden power of seemingly ordinary experiences. By taking just a few extra seconds to stay with a positive experience – from the pleasure of a deep breath to a sense of calm, satisfaction, and love – you turn good moments into a great brain, full of strength, health, and happiness. That’s what it means to “take in the good.”

Dr. Hanson shares, “This is not mere positive thinking, which is usually wasted on the brain. It’s about transforming fleeting experiences into lasting improvements in your neural net worth. Taking in the good takes charge of this structure-building process. It’s a way to be active rather than passive – a hammer rather than a nail – at a time when people feel pushed and prodded by events and their reactions to them.

It is this deliberate internalization of positive experiences in implicit memory – our inner storehouse, which determines how we feel, think, and act – and whether we create health or illness, happiness or suffering, and effectiveness or dysfunction for ourselves and others. Therefore, learning how to shape the contents of this storehouse – literally changing the structure of your brain – is the absolute foundation of everyday well-being and productivity, healing old pain, personal growth and spiritual practice, long-term health, and loving relationships.”

I had a delightful interview with Dr. Hanson, and I learned so much in such a short amount of time.  I’ll be sharing my interview with Dr. Hanson on my radio show, so if you’re interested in listening to the interview, feel free to click the link below to listen.  The show will broadcast live at 1:00 PM Central on Monday, December 2, but if you are unable to listen live, you can still click on the link below and listen to a recording of the show.

Click here to listen to my interview with Dr. Rick Hanson

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Hanson and get lots of free and useful information, feel free to visit his website: www.RickHanson.net

I’ll finish with an intriguing thought by Dr. Hanson:

“Our brain reacts like Velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones, and evolved this way to help our ancestors to survive and pass on their genes – but today it is more like a design flaw that ignites stress reactions, distorts perceptions, fuels anxiety, wears down health, and creates conflicts in couples and families, organizations, and the wider world. This is the fight-or-flight Reactive mode of the brain. Taking in the good corrects this caveman bias for 21^st century life, and gradually installs positive feelings, beliefs, and behaviors into the brain and the self. Besides building specific resources inside you, this practice has the inherent added benefits of being active rather than passive, and treating yourself like you matter. And over time, it will sensitize your brain to the positive, making it like Velcro for good.”