Rick Hanson - Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

Rick Hanson is a master of his craft, showing us a wise path for daily living in this book. Based on the latest findings in neuroscience, this book reveals that if we understand the brain a little, we can take care of our lives a lot, and make a real difference to our well-being. Here is a book to savor, to practice, and to take to heart.

Mark Williams, Ph.D., professor, University of Oxford, and author of Mindfulness

The cultivation of happiness is one of the most important skills anyone can ever learn. Luckily, its not hard when we know the way to water and nourish these wholesome seeds, which are already there in our consciousness. This book offers simple, accessible, practical steps for touching the peace and joy that are every persons birthright.

Thich Nhat Hahn, author of Being Peace and Understanding Our Mind

In this remarkable book, one of the worlds 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, 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., OBE, author of The Compassionate Mind

Rick Hansons 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 readits that important. I hope well soon be saying to each other, in meetings, over coffee, in crowded subway cars, Take in the good?

Jennifer Louden, author of The Womans Comfort Book and The Life Organizer

I have learned more about positive psychology from Rick Hanson than from any other scientist. 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 of The Journal of Positive Psychology, and author of Gratitude Works! and Thanks!

Hardwiring Happiness provides the reader with a user-friendly toolkit to expand feelings of happiness and to functionally erase the profound consequences of negative memories and experiences.

Stephen Porges, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, University of North Carolina, and author of The Polyvagal Theory

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 well-being we yearn for.

Tara Brach, Ph.D., author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

Hardwiring Happiness teaches us the life-affirming skills of inverting our evolutionary bias to hold on to the negative in our lives and instead soak in and savor the positive. What better gift can we give ourselves or our loved ones than an effective strategy to increase joy through brain-based steps that are both accessible and pleasurable? Bravo!

Daniel J. Siegel, MD, clinical professor, UCLA School of Medicine, and author of Mindsight, The Mindful Brain, and Brainstorm

Truly helpful and wise, this book nourishes your practical goodness and feeds the vitality of your human spirit. Following these practices will transform your life.

Jack Kornfield, Ph.D., author of A Path with Heart

Dr. Hanson has laid out an amazingly clear, easy, and practical pathway to happiness.

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., associate professor, University of Texas at Austin, and author of Self-Compassion

Rick Hanson is brilliant not only at making complex scientific information about the brain simple. 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., coauthor of Making Marriage Simple

I happened to be reading Hardwiring Happiness while my mother was dying in hospice. Following the instructions in the book, there was a healing that transformed my experience of my mothers dying. This was the right book for the right moment, and I am deeply grateful for it.

Gordon Peerman, D.Min., Episcopal priest and psychotherapist, and author of Blessed Relief

With current neuroscience to back him up, Rick Hanson has given us an incredible gift. The practices within this book dont take much time at all, yet have the potential to yield true and lasting change.

Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness

Dr. Hanson offers a remarkably simple, yet transformative, approach to cultivating happiness. He provides clear instructions for bringing these insights into challenging areas such as parenting, procrastination, healing trauma, and transforming relationships. This book is a gift, one you will want to read over and over and share with your friends.

Christopher Germer, Ph.D., clinical instructor, Harvard Medical School, author of The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion, and coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

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 hardwired tendency for psychological distress and live richer, happier, more loving and fulfilled lives.

Ronald D. Siegel, PsyD, assistant clinical professor of psychology, Harvard Medical School, and author of The Mindfulness Solutions

Rather than offering simplistic positive thinking, Dr. Hansons synthesis of the new science of the brain is realistic and practical. Stop needless suffering, take in the good with his HEAL formula, calm down and green your brain, and flip the switch. We all need Hardwiring Happiness as a wise, daily practice.

Sara Gottfried, MD, author of The Hormone Cure

Dr. Hanson shows us, in compelling prose sprinkled with humor, how we can learn to re-wire our brain, so that we can respond to the world in a receptive mode, one resting in peace, contentment, and love. I cant imagine a better prescription for our troubled world!

Robert D. Truog, MD, professor of medical ethics, anesthesiology, and pediatrics; director of clinical ethics, Harvard Medical School

Always on the cutting edge, Rick Hanson is brilliant at making the neuroscience of happiness accessible, engaging, and practical. If youre 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 for the Womans Soul

In a lively and lovely voice, Rick Hanson offers an inspiring, easily accessible guidebook to living happily.

Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D., author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

Why should you read this over any other happiness or mindfulness book? Because the prose, stories, and concrete strategies are beautiful, lucid, and most importantly, they work. I cannot remember the last time a book brought me peace of mind as quickly and effectively.