Happiness is far more than a positive feeling that comes and goes. Science is now proving that happiness is a skill that you can develop. On Meditations for Happiness, Dr. Rick Hanson leads you through a series of guided meditations that allow you to literally re-wire the neural pathways in your brain to experience deeper and more lasting happiness.
Based on a historically unprecedented coming together of the Western sciences of psychology and neurology with the great contemplative traditions, Dr. Hanson has created a program to help you make happiness the “container” of your life’s experiences. On the first part of Meditations for Happiness, this clinical psychologist and meditation teacher discusses the nature of happiness, its role in our evolution, how our brains both make us happy and create suffering, and how we can use and shape our brains over time to experience more joy and be more at ease in everyday life. He then guides you step-by-step through 14 meditations and exercises including:
• A Happiness Trip—explore the many “shades” of positive emotions that relate to your happiness
• Gratitude—a powerful antidote to threatening thoughts and feelings
• The Inner Protector—tap your innate capacity to nurture and encourage yourself
• Taking Refuge in What’s Reliable—learn to root your happiness in the “safe harbors” of things you can truly count on
• Coming Home to Happiness—a relaxing session to ease your bodymind back to its natural state of calm and contentment
“Emotions will always come and go. But true happiness endures,” teaches Dr. Hanson. With Meditations for Happiness, you will lay a progressive foundation of skills that will become increasingly embedded in your own brain as your neural circuits “fire together to wire together” to create the happiness you desire.