The New Brain Science of Contentment - and Confidence

I have not even finished it and am already benefitting..It is wonderful to be assured of the neuroplasticity of the brain. I plan to buy copies for my family and friends when I have read it all the way through. I want to be able to tell them the good news.

When I read Rick Hanson's " Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, " I thought what a wonderful title and I wanted to learn more and indeed it is more than the title conveys. It gives supportive evidence to inspire the reader and to give such insights that you question your own mind and some of the thoughts you have generated that have not given you the best results you have wanted in your life. This book made me rethink all my thoughts and actions. By changing my thoughts, my emotions changed and my responses to others also changed and in so doing greater personal well being and greater personal happiness was possible. Though I have read many good authors, Rick Hanson's work moves me to another level, takes me to a level of change that is possible as through it all I also sensed the authenticity of the writer and the writer's genuine desire to reach out and to contribute his knowledge in such a readable format to help one change one's mind to change one's feelings to change one's attitude to self, to others and the world is inspiring and life changing. I thought it so worthwhile that I ordered more copies to give as gifts to my family so that the good that comes out of this book could be passed on to others.

I like Rick Hanson's work, and am always interested in how we can train our brains to automatically react differently. I also subscribe to Rick's weekly email. The content of this book is practical - and contains examples / exercises for re-wiring your own brain. I listened to it during my commute - which meant that I couldn't fully participate in some of the exercises while I listened. Some of the steps might be best retained with the help of images or diagrams for optimal retention, and there were some lists of steps / concepts that weren't as ideal for the audio book. I found myself re-listening to several of the chapters in order to fully focus. I got what I wanted, though, and recommend it for people who are interested in science related to happiness.

Rick Hanson is definitely on the forefront of the discovering what helps us achieve optimal levels of happiness. He provides ample research and excellent tips to help us make major shifts in our outlook on life. With concerted effort, I believe that a person who implements Rick's suggestions into his/her life will be happier as a result. Of course, you will still experience all the negative emotions that go with our human existence but I believe you will find more happiness, bounce back from adversity faster and possibly find more meaning and purpose in your life. This is a great book from an excellent mind.

This is an incredibly positive, inspiring, and wise book. It is written with compassion, kindness, and understanding and inspires us to be better, happier, kinder, and wiser in our lives. I highly recommend this author in general and this book in particular.

Very helpful, interesting and informative information. Excellent strategies to improve wellbeing but for me the writing is a bit redundant. Perhaps this is an intentional format to make things sink in better.

Clear, concise, meaningful and revealing. As Dr. Hanson described many aspects of how we process daily events and how we either respond or react to them, much of how we all act became more understandable. Many "a-ha" moments as I read the book. How these "human cognitive systems/processes of responding and/or reacting" form the foundation of our happiness is revealing.

I am eager to see if I change based on this book. Equally, I am eager to see if I can effectively related what he has presented to others.

Clear, concise, meaningful and revealing. As Dr. Hanson described many aspects of how we process daily events and how we either respond or react to them, much of how we all act became more understandable. Many "a-ha" moments as I read the book. How these "human cognitive systems/processes of responding and/or reacting" form the foundation of our happiness is revealing.

I am eager to see if I change based on this book. Equally, I am eager to see if I can effectively related what he has presented to others.

Dr. Hanson, in a clear and compassionate manner, translated neuropsychological mechanisms into highly readable and rewarding book. If you can spend just ten minutes each day on applying its principles you will enjoy less stressful and more fulfilling life. Great!

Rick Hanson has an excellent message in his book. It is my hope that our world will move in the direction of calm, confidence, and connection. His message is a step in the right direction. If we all practice and share the strategies and tools explained in this book, we will leave a positive mark on the world. I greatly appreciate the gift Rick has given us.

On the professional side, I am using this book, as well as Rick's regular email messages, with my clients. I am a certified life coach and the people I help are in the midst of transitions that they often find overwhelming. When they learn how to come "home" they really start to take control of their thoughts, emotions, and behavior. None of Rick's concepts are lost on these individuals.

Rick Hanson is one of the best self help writers . . . . ever! Love this book! Love the changes that it produces in our life. My hubby and I got 2 books and read them aloud. Great for growth and creates lots of interesting discussions about Life . . . and living . . . and growing . . . . thanks Rick!

Accessible for beginners as well as for those who have been involved in taking responsibility for creating their own lives; using "beginner's mind".
Exercises throughout the book are clear and definitely valuable.
Have recommended this book to others.

Rick Hanson has had a significant positive impact on my life. His research, analysis, and summary, give me scientific backing to continue to have faith and perseverance in using tools such as relishing the good in my life, as well as a regular meditation practice. In the moments when I have doubts, his work (plus that of Richard Davidson and Jon Kabot-Zin) brings me back to my focus and resolutions.

After reading Dr. Hanson's previous book, Buddha Brain, I loved it and shared it with a few friends and family-members. A few people commented that it was heavy going in some places, with the neurological descriptions being too technical. As a psychologist, I had not had this reaction, but could see that view.

In this book, Hardwiring Happiness, the author appears to have made intentional choices to be even more accessible, understandable, and secular. So, if you are easily bored by technical descriptions, this book is likely a better choice than Buddha Brain. On the other hand, if you are not familiar with Dr. Hanson's credentials and have skepticism about the research and supporting material for his analysis, I'd encourage you to start with the reference notes at the end of this book, which are thorough (but easy to miss as they are not obviously referenced as you read).

I sincerely appreciated the manner in which he presents models, backs them up with science, and then provides very practical steps to apply the model. The HEAL model, which he presents in this book does not have significant research on it's efficacy (unless I missed the references). In my opinion, however, he does a very credible job of showing how other research on the functioning of the brain leads to this model. Frankly, HEAL is easy to do and has no down-side, so why not? My sole question mark is his lack of emphasis in this book on meditation. In my own experience, meditation has given me the calm and awareness that supports me slowing down and taking in the good, and I'm not sure that for me personally, many of the steps in this book would have the same positive effect without this grounding.

His shorter book, Just One Thing, is more specifically focused on simple implementation of steps to happier and more effective living, and I'd highly recommend it as well. I've given Just One Thing to many friends, each of whom finds it deeply meaningful. On a side-note, I've been following Rick's blog regularly, and I sincerely believe that he is someone whose motivation is genuinely to be of help by sharing what he knows.

My 2 cents: BUY it, read it, live it!

Great book! Truly simplifies a difficult subject. Brain health is as important as physical health and this book will explain why. Hanson empowers the reader by demonstrating how we can choose to have a healthy brain and prolong the aging process. The choice is ours to make. If you value your quality of life and you are interested in being a 'whole' healthy person, nutrition, exercise and a receptive mind are the keys. Enjoy!

Hardwiring Happiness is another Hanson book I will recommend to all my friends, clients and visitors to my website Living in Color with Chronic Pain. "Buddha's Brain" the first Hanson book which I bought in January of 2011, has had a profound influence on my and my husband's life. This book holds the promise of more exciting changes to come.

For me the understanding that the brain can change at any age and that we can influence that change consciously offers tremendous hope to all of us. Particularly for mental health and in chronic disease management, having access to these teachings in ways we can easily understand and try out is so important. In my work with people in chronic pain, I am continually challenged how to help people bring about change. Buddha's Brain was a great help, and this book will be as well.

Hanson is a gifted teacher. He is able to take the newest research and theories of neurobiology and put them into words, images and stories that help people absorb and understand them. And believe me, as a licensed psychotherapist, I have read a lot and watched dozens of interviews in this field in in the past 3 years, these concepts are NOT easy to understand. Perhaps some of the ideas in this books seem on the surface simplistic, the implications of actually applying the ideas to your daily life are enormous.

I hesitated before ordering the book, as I get Rick Hanson's e-mails regularly, listen to free interviews with him, and was wondering how much new I would find in this book. Within hours I was reading sections to my husband, and began to really understand the implications of step L in the HEAL sequence- see other reviews for more. I agree with Rick that this is a profoundly important concepts for healing and therapy.

The book came via pre-order the day before its publication date. So I have had a few days to look it over.

One of the few contemporary books using brain science and extensive research to strengthen our neuronal responses to happy experiences and how we respond to varied life situations with a positive attitude. Makes the point that positive responses affect our physical functions as well as just our thinking. I believe this book breaks new ground for understanding ourselves and changing for the better.

Anyone interested in positive thinking and the practice of it will benefit tremendously from this book.

The title is well suited. It will give you an understanding of how and why our brains act the way they do, and how to overcome the unnecessary and almost constant generating of negativity which is hardwired into our brains.

I wish more people were aware of at least some of this information. It's not very difficult to use methods like this to revolutionize your way of thinking.

Highly recommend, also makes a great gift for a friend and will give you both a lot to talk about.

See my review for Buddhas Brain. I would recommend reading either Buddhas Brain or Hardwirring Happiness;but, not both. Because the first chapter of Hardwirring Happiness reads like the first chapter of Buddhas Brain and reads basically the same and offers very little new subject matter. (My opinion).

My husband found great advice in this book for both personal and business applications, and I'm looking forward to reading it as well. The advice has helped guide him to a more positive way of being in the moment with gratitude for all that is good -- and not all that is not (and could go wrong).

This method requires just a little introspection and very little effort. If you can look within and take a few seconds to stay with a good feeling or sensation, you will reap great benefits. If you do the last step, it can help you heal. If it sounds too easy to be true, give it an earnest try and see for yourself.

This book reinforced what I already knew, but gives me detailed instructions to add positive thinking to my life. I want to give everyone a copy! Give yourself permission to have a positive outlook...beautifully written.

A good starting point, it's the little things that we neglect or fail to see. "Bad things" get emphasized because we don't have to worry about getting eaten on a daily basis. That was great for surviving back in the day but our primitive brains can't shut that "it's a threat to our survival" down. It gives "don't sweat the small stuff" a whole new perspective.

This is a must read. Rick Hanson explains these topics very well and gives you not only an in-depth understandings that illuminate previous mysteries, he also provides easy and simple strategies which do not take much to incorporate into your everyday life.

A fascinating explanation for our interaction with the world, using recent discoveries in neuroscience. Hanson gives us another reason to think "positively" and reinforce with mindfulness and gratitude meditations the good things in our lives into our neural pathways.

This was a phenomenal book by a phenomenal psychologist. Hanson explains specifically in this book how simply savoring happiness can restructure your brain to become more open to positive experiences. Alongside Buddha's Brain, which focuses more so on mindfulness, meditation, and other calls to action, this is a recipe for a fulfilling life and an all-around positive experience

This book covered much of the material that was in Buddha's Brain, on taking in the good and cooling the fires of the bad, by the same author. As with the first book, all of the details on how the brain and neural systems work was a little much for me. But the actual practices have worked for me from the beginning. Another book that I've found helpful on this subject mater but without all the techno talk is Aggressive Mindfulness by Mike Lombardi.

This book makes the science of the brain interesting and readable. There is a reason for negative thinking, but there is a way to change what we hold onto, and what we let go. Good read, well written.

In an increasingly diverse world, happiness is a common goal that connects us; we all want to be happy. However, life’s complexities can sometimes get in the way of this important goal. In Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence, Dr. Rick Hanson strives to teach readers how to wire happiness into their brains in order to live an overall happier life. Hanson also has other popular books with similar topics, such as Buddha’s Brain and Just One Thing. Besides books, his ideas have appeared worldwide with many popular news sources, including NPR, CBC, BBC, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News & World Report, and the Huffington Post. He is a well-known neuropsychologist who founded the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom. He has also presented his work at prestigious universities, such as Harvard and Stanford. In addition, Hanson has ties to UC Berkeley, being an Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center. Thus, he is a very credible source regarding the brain and our behavior. Overall, Hanson’s ideas in Hardwiring Happiness could be a nice starting point for those seeking to improve the quality of their lives, and there is an adequate amount of neuroscience included to supplement the process behind the improvement.

Hanson’s ideas in this book are based on the brain’s ability to change, which is a concept called neuroplasticity. In our busy lives, we miss opportunities to notice, create, and build upon happy experiences. Hanson aims to show that we can positively restructure our brains by simply taking extra time to absorb positive experiences. Through comprehensible explanations and clear organization, he successfully utilizes a simple acronym, HEAL, to demonstrate how to alter our neural structure for consistent happiness and confidence. He successfully ties complex science ideas and terminology and the simple, yet abstract, idea of happiness to ensure that anyone can work towards a more enriched life.

Hanson organizes his ideas in this book into two major parts, with the first part being shorter and more focused on scientific background information. Hanson lists major structures of the brain and their functions, and he also writes about why we should work to change our brain structure. He begins by explaining that humans have a natural negativity bias based on evolution. In order to survive, humans had to focus on the negative. Focusing on the negative might create unwanted issues like paranoia, but negativity has helped humans survive by making sure that they can avoid danger. It is in our human nature to focus on negative situations, which is why negative situations always seem to overtake the positive ones. It would be beneficial to practice absorbing any positive experiences, which can modify our neural structure and offset the repeated history of negativity.

Hanson continues on and uses simple terms to explain the complicated science information that underlies his key points. For example, he dives into brain explanations when he talks about the three major parts of the brain: the brain stem, subcortex, and cortex. These major areas of the brain relate to three specific human systems we have and can utilize to help provide for our basic needs. Based on our human nature, we have three basic needs: safety, satisfaction, and connection. The first basic system is avoiding harm, which meets the need for safety. The second basic system is approaching rewards, which meets the need for satisfaction. The third basic system is attaching to others, which meets the need for connection. Additionally, these human systems essentially have two different modes. The responsive mode means we respond to our problems in a healthy manner since all of our needs are fulfilled. This allows us to be at peace, which is why the responsive mode is where we should try to be at all times. The other mode is the reactive mode, which means we react, rather than sufficiently respond, to adversity in life since our needs are not fulfilled. This particular mode leads to fear and instability, which is why it is important for us to practice neuroplasticity to work to maintain the responsive mode. In other words, changing our brain structure is good, and we can do this by taking time to seize and absorb all the good experiences and opportunities in our lives.

Part two of this book focuses on an actual process to changing our neural structures and creating happiness. This part mainly revolves around an acronym, HEAL. The “H” stands for having a positive experience. The “E” stands for enriching that experience. The “A” stands for absorbing that experience. The “L,” which is the only optional step of this four-step process, describes how we can link positive and negative experiences to help us change the way we might associate certain people, materials, or situations with negative experiences.

After describing his HEAL process, Hanson emphasizes the idea that there is a difference between positive thinking and positive experience. Most people go through their lives trying to be happy just by positive thinking. Instead, we should become aware of the positive experiences in each day, no matter how small. For example, simply being aware of our consciousness counts as a positive experience. Smelling our coffee in the morning, or feeling the warm sun touch our skin can also be a positive experience. We can also create positive experiences; for example, one way to create a positive experience is by thinking of the past, which can stir up good memories that instill positivity within us. Once we become aware of a positive experience, we must stay with it, and let it be enriching. A lot of times, people will experience a positive feeling, but they let it pass by and become covered up by negative feelings and stress. When we have a positive experience, it is important to stay with it for a longer period of time, even if it’s only an extra 30 seconds in our day. We need to breathe, relax, and let the positivity take us over. After we allow the experience to be enriching, we have to really let into absorb into us. Finally, it can also be helpful to work on getting rid of negative experiences by linking positive and negative experiences, which will allow the positive to override the negative. Essentially, each time we practice this HEAL technique, we are altering the structure of our brain in a good way, such as making new synapses. These changes can help us sustain the positivity and maintain happiness.

The last two chapters in the book are interesting because they emphasize further applications of the HEAL process, and I would recommend taking the time to read them. For example, Hanson believes we can practice “HEALing” others so they can live more fulfilling lives, too. We can also apply the HEAL process to promote the growth of our major inner strengths, like love.

Considering all of these key points, Hanson does a great job of making the text easily understandable by explaining any complex terminology. When he talks about any part of the brain, he immediately gives its definition or function. For example, he clearly explains the difference between parasympathetic and sympathetic divisions of our nervous systems in simple terms, such that they lead to rest and digest and fight or flight, respectively.

Another great aspect of this book is the outstanding organization and clarity. Each chapter has multiple tables and charts summarizing information, as well as an overall summary at the end of every chapter. Hanson also writes the book in a way that each chapter builds upon the previous chapter. He clearly states when he feels he is being redundant (thus allowing for the reader to skim to the next part), and he provides references back to specific pages that allow readers to relate new points with previously stated ideas.

It is also excellent that Hanson engages readers and fully guides them into restructuring their brains in a highly interactive way. He thoroughly explains every step that he recommends taking. He has guided practices in gray boxes throughout the book that allow the reader to take a step back and actually practice the techniques.

Despite all of this, the biggest question still remains: does this HEAL process work? From my personal experience, I am used to being very busy and becoming easily stressed out. After applying Hanson’s suggestions as I read, I felt happier because I started to appreciate the small pleasures in life. I relished in the feeling of taking a bite of my sandwich when I was hungry, or the feeling when I received a call from a loved one. I didn’t let these feelings quickly pass by, and this improved my mood and reduced my stress. It also seems that this process worked for others because Hanson included other people’s personal examples and stories. I enjoyed reading these small stories because it put the whole process into perspective by showing what actions or behaviors these people may have changed for the better. Other people are taking small actions to change their lives, too, so why can’t we all do it?! For example, one person decided to write down one positive experience per day and collect them throughout the year as a reminder of how much positivity is present in the little things in life. Hanson even included a few examples of how he applied his techniques, which makes the process seem more credible and realistic. He mentions that he enjoys listening to his kids laugh with each other, and he becomes happy knowing his kids are affectionate towards each other.

To me, the only minor downfall of this book is the amount of science-based information that is actually incorporated. I expected neuroscience to be a main part of the book, but the science seems to only function as a way of enhancing the self-help techniques. However, I still believe that the science included in the book does an acceptable job of clarifying how this process actually works. Hanson gives a sufficient amount of science-based information to accurately explain what it means to restructure and rewire the brain. He makes up for where he lacks by including notes and acknowledgments in the back of the book so science-driven people can look up extra resources. I am glad he didn’t include too much science information because it would have taken away from the main point of the book: helping people find happiness.

Even though I was surprised that neuroscience wasn’t the overriding focus of the book, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. I feel myself becoming happier as I take in all the positive experiences in my life. I loved interacting with each chapter and thinking of all the positivity that surrounds me.

I would recommend this book to everyone except to people who are narrow-minded or impatient. Some may believe this book is overly optimistic, so it takes an open-minded person to be willing to carefully read and interact with the text. It is an easy read, but the book is more powerful if the reader takes the time to try out all the exercises.

Overall, I give this book 5 out of 5 stars because it is a very well-organized book with easily comprehensible text. The end of the chapter summaries clarify main points, and each chapter allows readers to engage with the text and practice the HEAL process in their own lives. The HEAL process is a very interesting and optimistic approach to how we should live, and I am glad I took the time to apply Hanson’s techniques to my own life. For me, Dr. Rick Hanson was successful because I already feel happier, and I am going to go on his website to look for further resources on this topic. I highly recommend this book to increase happiness. I can’t wait to keep rewiring my brain in positive ways!

I've read dozens--perhaps hundreds--of self-help books and attended many workshops, but Hardwiring Happiness is the first experience that has changed mine. I want practical, succinct directions that I can relate to today's neurological discoveries, and that's what Dr. Hanson delivers.
I have suffered from varying degrees of depression for most of my life, but practicing Hanson's exercises is changing that around. At lunch with friends the other day, they all commented on my improved disposition. What more could one ask?