In this episode – we go deep on mastering the superpower that underpins all other powers, how your brain’s automatic survival mechanism tilts you towards unhappiness, growing the mental resources to deal with the biggest challenges of your life, and down the rabbit hole of exploring the idea of the self, ego, and much more with Dr. Rick Hanson. This was one of the most profound conversations we have had on this podcast.

Dr. Hanson is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best-selling author. His books include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. He’s also the Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, he’s been an invited speaker at NASA, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and other major universities.

We discuss:

-How to master the SUPERPOWER that BUILDS ALL OTHER POWERS
-How to grow the mental resources inside yourself to deal with the biggest challenges in your life
-We reverse engineer the olympic athletes of the mind to learn their secrets
-We discuss how your thoughts change the physical structure of your brain
-How your brains 5 core survival strategies create suffering in your life
-How reality is continually constructed by the underlying hardware of the brain
-How to disengage from stress and suffering
-How to let go of attachment to your ego
-How to stop being defensive and taking things personally
-Why your “self” doesn't have an independent existence outside of the totality of the universe
-And MUCH more!

If you want to wire your brain to be happier - you can’t miss this episode!

Thank you so much for listening!

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SHOW NOTES, LINKS, & RESEARCH

• [Book] Buddha’s Brain by Rick Hanson (see here).

• [Book] Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson (see here).

• [Poem] Late Fragment by Raymond Carver (see here).

• [Book] The Dhammapada by Eknath Easwaran (see here).

• Rick Hanson’s Website (see here).

• Foundations of Wellbeing Website (see here).

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT