Self-help author, spiritual teacher, and neuropsychologist, Rick Hanson, has taught techniques and ways to acquire lasting happiness. He teaches people how they can work with the neuroplasticity of the brain to restructure it to heal itself and fundamentally change our ways of thinking.
Our Favorite Quotes
As a down to earth person who can humbly inspire people to make changes by combining both intuition and science, Rick Hanson is most well known for teaching people how to hardwire happiness.
He has taught this by explaining to people what it means to take in the good as well as practices to activate brain circuits that promote satisfaction and dissolve stress. Separated by book you will be able to find our top 12 quotes of Rick Hanson
Quotes From Buddha’s Brain
Nurturing your own development isn’t selfish. It’s actually a great gift to other people.
Sometimes we can feel resistance to changing things that are not working for us anymore or setting boundaries due to the fact it may ruffle someone else’s feathers. This quote reminds us that when we prioritize what helps us thrive, only then are we in a state to help others thrive too.
It’s easy to be kind when others treat you well. The challenge is to preserve your loving-kindness when they treat you badly—to preserve goodwill in the face of ill will
Compassion is the word that comes to mind here. It is the key to remaining free and at peace while you witness other’s anger. Practicing loving-kindness is a way to free yourself from other’s negativity.
How about making a personal commitment never to go to sleep without having meditated that day, even if for just one minute?
Maintaining consistency within your meditation practice or any task can come with surprising difficulty. This commitment Rick talks about acknowledges where you are at and sets a realistic task that is attainable and can help you continue to build off of that.
See the collateral damage—the suffering—that results when you cling to your desires and opinions or take things personally. Over the long haul, most of what we argue about with others really doesn’t matter that much.
When you take a step back to look at the big picture you may find it easy to let go of things that you previously were attached to. This is where self-reflection and meditation are incredibly helpful in processing and letting go of the insignificant.
If you can break the link between feeling tones and craving—if you can be with the pleasant without chasing after it, with the unpleasant without resisting it, and with the neutral without ignoring it—then you have cut the chain of suffering, at least for a time.
Through practice, one can anchor their state of consciousness within an observant perspective and let life course through them without becoming attached to joy, pain, or even neutrality.
To become happier, wiser, and more loving, sometimes you have to swim against ancient currents within your nervous system.
Rewiring the brain takes effort. You can change your way of thinking as well as your physiology through conscious effort. Learn about how meditation can rewire the brain here.
Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, and blame ourselves for the present.
Working to stay in the present moment can bring us into a state where we are free from the human approach to life listed above.
Quotes From Just One Thing
If you keep going, you might not reach your goal—but if you stop, you’ll never reach it
This is advice we could all appreciate at one time in our lives or another.
I’ve heard people talk like making efforts inside the mind is some kind of lightweight activity, but in fact it’s always a matter of resolve and diligence—and sometimes it’s very challenging and uncomfortable. Practice is not for wusses. You will earn its benefits
Positive thinking takes work, but it does pay off. Rick is speaking from wisdom here when he reminds us that this work is real work but it also provides the sweetest rewards.
Quotes From Hardwiring Happiness
Knowing without feeling is like a menu without a meal.
This is a problem that can be understood in correlation to hemispheric dominance where only one side of the brain is active. This can correlate to creativity that disregards logic and knowledge that lacks emotion.
Whole brain synchronization is when both sides of the brain are used to create a harmonious approach to life, which meditation has been known to. Learn about meditation and whole brain synchronization here.
By taking just a few extra seconds to stay with a positive experience—even the comfort in a single breath—you’ll help turn a passing mental state into lasting neural structure.
Shawn Achor talks about how focusing upon happiness and following these researched habits helps to train the brain to be happier and to generate its own happiness habitually by strengthening the neural structures associated with it!
Just before bed, your mind is very receptive, so no matter what went wrong that day, find something that went right, open to it, and let good feelings come and ease you into sleep.
Neville Goddard the law of attraction teacher from the mid-1900s taught this same concept and using it to manifest. The power of your emotions and beliefs can be used within your imagination and amplified to attract your desires as you are falling asleep.
