Think not lightly of good,

saying,
“It will not come to me.”

Drop by drop is
the water pot filled.

Likewise, the wise one,

Gathering it little by little,
Fills oneself with good.

Dhammapada 9.122
 Positive
Neuroplasticity
Training

Turning Everyday Experiences

Into Lasting Inner Strengths
© Rick Hanson, Ph.D., 2016
 1
The Essence of
Positive Neuroplasticity
Introduction
Think not lightly of good,
saying,
“It will not come to me.”

Drop by drop is
the water pot filled.

Likewise, the wise one,

Gathering it little by little,
Fills oneself with good.

Dhammapada 9.122
 Classes of PNT
1 2 3
The Essence Having, Enriching, Linking Positive
of Positive and Absorbing And Negative
Neuroplasticity Experiences Material

4 5 6
Growing Growing Growing
Strengths for Strengths for Strengths for
Safety Satisfaction Connection
 What We’re Doing in PNT

1 2 3
Learning how Using Exploring
to deliberately internalization different ways
internalize skills to to encourage
beneficial cultivate what beneficial
experiences would be states and
in implicit beneficial in traits
memory your mind

MOST IMPORTANT
Challenges & Resources
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
What are some
of the challenges

?
in your life these
days? (in the world,
body, or mind)

(A’s go first). Then take

?
turns, with one person
speaking while the What mental
partner mainly listens,
exploring these questions:
resources do
– or could – help
you with these
TIP: If you’re alone, challenges?
reflect or journal.
 A Taste of
Taking in the Good
How to Take in the Good: HEAL

Activation
1. Have a beneficial experience
Installation
2. E nrich the experience
3. A bsorb the experience
4. L ink positive and negative material
(Optional)
Have a Beneficial Experience
Enrich It
Absorb It
Link Positive & Negative Material
Have It, Enjoy It
 Let’s Try It
Notice Create Create
something the experience the experience
beneficial in of gladness or of feeling
awareness gratitude cared about

For each of the above:

Have the experience. Enrich it. Absorb it.
Growing Inner Strengths
Two Wolves in the Heart
Inner Strengths
Understandings
Capabilities
Positive Emotions
Attitudes
Motivations
Virtues
 What psychological
resources – inner
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B strengths – would
(A’s go first). Then take you like to develop
turns, with one person
speaking while the in yourself
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question:
(perhaps through
this program)?
TIP: If you’re alone,
reflect or journal.
Inner Strengths Are Built
From Brain Structure
Mental activity entails
underlying neural activity.
Repeated mental activity
entails repeated neural activity.

Repeated neural activity

builds neural structure.
 Learning – changing
neural structure and function,
proceeds in two stages:

Encoding Consolidation

Activation Installation

State Trait
Inner strengths are grown from
experiences of them or related
factors – activated states – that are
installed as traits.
 You become more compassionate
by repeatedly installing experiences
of compassion.

You become more grateful by repeatedly

installing experiences of gratitude.

You become more mindful by repeatedly

installing experiences of mindfulness.
Most experiences of inner strengths –
resilience, kindness, insight,
mindfulness, self-worth, love, etc. –
are enjoyable.
Without installation – without turning passing
mental states into enduring neural structure –
there is no learning, no change in the brain.

Activation without installation is pleasant,

but has no lasting value.

What fraction of your

beneficial mental states ever
become neural structure?
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
What are some of
the good facts
in your life these
days?
?
(A’s go first). Then take
turns, with one person
speaking while the
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question: As the listener, keep finding
a genuine gladness about
the good facts in the life of
TIP: If you’re alone, our partner.
reflect or journal.
The Three Ways to
Engage the Mind
 In the Garden of the Mind
1 2 3
Be with what Decrease Increase
is there the negative the positive

Witness. Pull weeds. Plant flowers.

Let be. Let go. Let in.
Mindfulness is present in all three.

“Being with” is primary – but not enough.

We also need “wise effort.”
Velcro for Bad, Teflon for Good
The Negativity Bias
 In the Garden of the Mind
1 2 3
Be with what Decrease Increase
is there the negative the positive

Witness. Pull weeds. Plant flowers.

Let be. Let go. Let in.
Mindfulness is present in all three.

“Being with” is primary – but not enough.

We also need “wise effort.”
 That concludes Part 1:
The Essence of Positive Neuroplasticity

COMING NEXT:

2
Having, Enriching, and
Absorbing Experiences
 2
Having, Enriching, and
Absorbing Experiences
Elements of Experience
 Elements of Experience
Thought
belief • perspective • expectation • image • memory • idea

Perception
sensation (e.g., relaxation, vitality) • sight • sound • taste • smell

Emotion
feeling • mood

Desire
want • wish • hope • drive • motivation • purpose • dream • passion

Action
behavior • posture • knowing how to
 Having
Beneficial Experiences
How to Take in the Good: HEAL

Activation
1. Have a beneficial experience
Installation
2. E nrich the experience
3. A bsorb the experience
4. L ink positive and negative material
(Optional)
 The Two Ways
To Have a Beneficial Experience

1 Notice one you are

already having.
• In the foreground of awareness
• In the background

2 Create one.
 How to Create
A Beneficial Experience
Look for good facts in:
1. Immediate situation 10. Care about others
2. Current or recent events
11. Directly evoke a
3. Stable conditions
beneficial experience
4. Your character
5. The past 12. Produce good facts
6. The future
7. Bad situations 13. Share about good
8. The lives of others facts with others
9. Your imagination
 Turning a Good Fact
Into a Good Experience
• Bring awareness to your body.
• Soften and open.
• Be a little active in your mind.
• Imagine how another person might
feel.
• Be kind to yourself, and encourage a
good experience.
How to Take in the Good: HEAL

Activation
1. Have a beneficial experience
Installation
2. E nrich the experience
3. A bsorb the experience
4. L ink positive and negative material
(Optional)
 Reflections So Far

You can notice or create a beneficial experience.

There are lots of ways to create experiences.

Beneficial experiences are usually based on facts.

Recognizing good facts does not deny bad ones.

Good facts about yourself are facts like any other.

 Enriching
Beneficial Experiences
 How to Enrich an Experience

• Duration – 5+ seconds; protecting it; keeping it going

• Intensity – opening to it in the mind; helping it get big

• Multimodality – engaging multiple aspects of

experience, especially perception and emotion

• Novelty – seeing what is fresh; “don’t know mind”

• Salience – seeing why this is personally relevant

 Absorbing
Absorbing Beneficial Experiences
Beneficial Experiences
 Two Aspects of Installation
Enriching
Mind – big, rich, protected experience
Brain – intensifying and maintaining
neural activity

Absorbing
Mind – intending and sensing that the experience is
received into oneself, with related rewards
Brain – priming, sensitizing, and promoting more
effective encoding and consolidation
 Absorbing an Experience

• Intend to receive the experience into yourself.

• Sense the experience sinking into you.

– Imagery – Water into a sponge; golden dust sifting
down; a jewel into the treasure chest of the heart
– Sensation – Warm soothing balm
– Give over to it; let it change you.

• Be aware of ways the experience is rewarding.

The good life,
as conceive it,
is a happy life.
I do not mean that
if you are good
you will be happy;
I mean that
if you are happy
you will be good.

Bertrand Russell
 Being for Yourself

• Bring to mind someone you are for. Find a sense of

caring, support, being loyal, standing with someone
as an ally. Know this stance toward someone.

• Apply this stance, this feeling, toward yourself.

• Recognizing your difficulties and burdens. Recognizing

injustice applied to you. Recognizing the impacts on you.

• Finding determination that you not be mistreated,

that you cope with challenges, that you be truly happy,
having a good life as best you can.
 That concludes Part 2:
Having, Enriching, and Absorbing Experiences

COMING NEXT:

3
Linking Positive and
Negative Material
 3
Linking Positive and
Negative Material
 It’s Good to Take in the Good
• Development of specific inner strengths
– General - resilience, positive mood, feeling loved
– “Antidote experiences” - Healing old wounds,
filling the hole in the heart

• Implicit benefits:
– Shows that there is still good in the world
– Being active rather than passive
– Treating yourself kindly, like you matter
– Rights an unfair imbalance, given the negativity bias
– Training of attention and executive functions

• Sensitizes brain to positive: like Velcro for good

Keep a green bough
in your heart,
and a singing bird
will come.

Lao Tzu
Centering Practices
 Centering Practices

Feel Feel Feel

already already already
safe satisfied connected
Key Resource Experiences
Our Three Fundamental Needs

safety satisfaction connection

 Needs Activated by. . .

Safety Satisfaction Connection

Unpleasant Pleasant Heartfelt
Pain Opportunity Attraction
Threat Loss Rejection
Needs Met by Three Systems

Safety Satisfaction Connection

Avoiding Approaching Attaching
harms rewards to others
Needs Feel Met: Responsive Mode

When we feel When we feel When we feel

basically safe – basically satisfied basically
not disturbed by – not disturbed connected –
threat – the by loss – the not disturbed by
Avoiding system Approaching rejection – the
goes Responsive, system goes Attaching system
with a sense of Responsive, with goes Responsive,
peace. a sense of with a sense
contentment. of love.
 The Responsive Mode is Home Base

In the Responsive “green zone,” the body defaults to a

sustainable equilibrium of refueling, repairing and recovering.

The mind defaults to a sustainable equilibrium of:

Avoiding Approaching Attaching

Peace Contentment Love

This is the brain in its homeostatic Responsive,

minimal craving mode.
Needs Don’t Feel Met: Reactive Mode

When we feel When we feel When we feel

unsafe – dissatisfied – disconnected –
disturbed by disturbed by loss – disturbed by
threat – the the Approaching rejection – the
Avoiding system system goes Attaching system
goes Reactive, Reactive, with goes Reactive,
with a sense a sense of with a sense
of fear. frustration. of heartache.
 The Reactive Mode is Leaving Home

In the Reactive “red zone,” the body fires up into the

stress response: fight, flight, or freeze; outputs usually exceed
inputs; long-term building projects are deferred.

The mind fires up into:

Avoiding Approaching Attaching

Fear Frustration Heartache

This is the brain in its allostatic Reactive, craving mode.

Coming Home, Staying Home
Meeting your core needs brings you home to the
Responsive “green zone.”

Taking in the good Responsive states grows

Responsive traits. In a wonderful cycle, these traits
promote good states – which can strengthen your
Responsive traits.

Responsive states and traits help you stay

Responsive when the world is flashing red.
 Can You Stay in the
Green Zone When:

Things are Things are

unpleasant? heartfelt?
Things are
pleasant?
 Some Types of Resource Experiences

Avoiding Approaching Attaching

Harms Rewards to Others
Feeling basically Feeling basically full, Feeling basically
alright right now the enoughness in this connected
moment as it is
Feeling protected, Feeling included, seen,
strong, safe, Feeling pleasured, liked, appreciated,
at peace glad, grateful, satisfied loving

The sense that Therapeutic, Feeling

awareness itself is spiritual, or existential compassionate, kind,
untroubled realizations generous, loving
The Evolving Brain
Pet the Lizard
Feed the Mouse
Hug the Monkey
 Linking Positive
Linking Positive and
Absorbing Beneficial Experiences
Negative Experiences
and Negative Material
 “Negative” Material

• “Negative” material includes pain, worry,

discomfort, helplessness, anger, frustration,
disappointment, drivenness, addiction,
loneliness, insecure attachment, hurt,
jealousy, resentment, inadequacy, shame
• Comes from the presence of the “bad” and
the absence of the “good”
• Activated explicitly and implicitly
 How Linking Works
• Activated negative material associates to whatever is
also present in awareness.

• When negative material leaves awareness, these

associations are reconsolidated in memory.

• This means that positive material can soothe, ease, put

in perspective, and even replace negative material.

• Examples: pain held in spacious awareness; telling a

friend about a problem; self-compassion for an upset;
feeling cared about alongside feeling hurt
HEAL by Taking in the Good

1. H ave a beneficial experience.

2. E nrich it.

3. A bsorb it.

4. L ink it with negative material.

(Optional)
Conditions for the Link Step

• Divided awareness;
holding two things at once

• Not hijacked by negative;

if so, drop negative

• Positive material is more

prominent in awareness.
 Degree of Engagement
with Negative

• The idea of the negative material

• A felt sense of the negative material
• The positive material goes into
the negative material

Throughout, the positive material remains

more prominent in awareness.
 Skills with the 4th Step
• Be on your own side; you want the positive to win.
Perhaps imagine inner allies with you.

• Be resourceful. It’s OK to be creative, even playful.

• If the negative gets too strong, drop it;

return to positive.

• Get a sense of receiving the positive into the negative.

• End with just the positive.

• Start with positive or negative material.

 That concludes Part 3:
Linking Positive and Negative Material

COMING NEXT:

4
Growing Strengths
For Safety
 4
Growing Strengths
For Safety
 What do you
want to take
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
home from this
(A’s go first). Then take program so far?
turns, with one person
speaking while the (key ideas and
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question: experiences;
what’s been useful)

TIP: If you’re alone,

reflect or journal.
Multi-Purpose Inner Strengths

Being on your own side

Centering
Calming
Love
Feeling cared about | Feeling caring | Self-compassion
 Self-Compassion
Compassion is the wish that beings not suffer,
with warm-hearted concern. Compassion is
sincere even if we can’t make things better.
Self-compassion simply applies this to oneself.
To encourage self-compassion:
1 2 3
Get the sense of Bring to mind beings Shift the
being cared about. you care about. Find compassion to
compassion for them. yourself.
“Anthem”
Ring the bells that can still ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in

Leonard Cohen
 Reflections on Fear
• Fear is normal. Avoiding harms is fundamental.
• Much anxiety is unnecessary and unreasonable.
• We tend to overestimate threats and
underestimate opportunities and resources.
• People can be afraid . . . to give up fear.
• Remember that you can give up unnecessary
anxiety and still remain appropriately cautious,
watchful, and strong.
Class 4: Strengths for Safety

Feeling protected

Feeling alright right now

Handling threats in a Responsive way

Centering in peace, contentment, and love

 Feeling Protected
• Protections in your setting
• Resources inside you and in your life
• Other beings who could help protect you
• Imagining a shield, a force field protecting you
• Feeling as safe as you reasonably can
• Needless anxiety falling away . . . No need to
struggle with anything unpleasant inside you
or out in the world . . .
 Feeling Basically Alright Right Now

• Tuning into the body’s signals that all is well right now
• Aware of breathing going fine . . . the heart beating . . .
awareness itself keeps on going no matter what arises . . .
• Letting go of the past, not worrying about the future.
Noticing that at least in this moment you are OK.
• Being alright, you can let go of any need to struggle with
anything unpleasant.
• Feeling alright sinking into places inside that haven’t . . .
Reactive Approaches to Pain or Threat

Overestimating
Disturbing and Fear, anger,
threats and
depleting bodily immobilization,
underestimating
systems helplessness
resources

Fight, Flight, Strong sense of Vicious cycles

Freeze I-me-mine in relationships
Responsive Approaches to Pain or Threat

Fear or anger
Sustainable
Centered, grounded, contained in
outflow,
in-balance mindfulness, calm,
intensity, pace
strength

Perhaps positive
emotions Less sense of Assertive, firm;
(e.g., confidence, I-me-mine cautious
vigor) but not cowed
 Strengths Supporting Responsive
Approaches to Pains and Threats
Recognizing costs of
Reactive mode; Multi-purpose: Feeling strong,
knowing you can on your own side, agency, protected,
deal with challenges centered, calm, love alright, relaxed
Responsively

Seeing threats
and resources Finding refuges Peace in
accurately your core
Coming Home

Peace
Contentment
Love
 That concludes Part 4:
Growing Strengths for Safety

COMING NEXT:

5
Growing Strengths
For Satisfaction
 5
Growing Strengths
For Satisfaction
Class 5: Strengths for Satisfaction

Sense of accomplishment
Finding beauty
Imagining the rewards of something
you’d like to help yourself want
Handling opportunities and losses
in a Responsive way
Centering in peace, contentment, and love
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
What are some
of the things
you have
accomplished
in your life?
?
(A’s go first). Then take
turns, with one person (Including lots of
speaking while the seemingly small things)
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question:

Take in your partner’s

TIP: If you’re alone, recognition of you.
reflect or journal.
Explore this setting for things that are
beautiful (or otherwise pleasureable) to
you: sounds, sights, tastes, touches,
smells, and thoughts. Look for little things.

Really take in the sense of beauty

(or the sense of pleasure in general).
 Liking and Wanting
• Desire (positively or negatively valenced):
– Liking: enjoying, preferring, valuing, “nice to have”
– Wanting: pressure, tunnel vision, insisting, “must have,” addiction,
craving; different from simple determination, passion, ambition,
aspiration, commitment
– You can like without wanting and want without liking.

• Liking without wanting: heaven;

wanting without liking: hell.
• Dealing with the unpleasant, pleasant, heartfelt, and neutral
on the basis of liking without tipping into wanting is the
essence of the Responsive mode.
 Encouraging Motivation
In some ways, the key to life is helping yourself learn to want
things that are good for you that you don’t yet want.
It is said that wisdom is choosing a
greater happiness over a lesser one.
To help your brain want and choose that greater
happiness, associate anticipated rewards with
whatever you want to encourage, by:
1 2 3
Before doing it, While doing it, After doing it,
imagine the rewards. focus on the rewards. recall the rewards.
 Strengths Supporting Responsive
Approaches to Opportunities and Losses

Sense of
Seeing costs of accomplishment,
Multi-purpose:
Reactive and beauty, fullness of
on your own side,
benefits of this moment,
centered, calm, love
Responsive rewards, pleasure,
gratitude, gladness

Making good plans

Finding enthusiasm Contentment in
and drawing in
and passion your core
needed resources
Coming Home

Peace
Contentment
Love
 That concludes Part 5:
Growing Strengths for Satisfaction

COMING NEXT:

6
Growing Strengths
For Connection
 6
Growing Strengths
For Connection
Class 6: Strengths for Connection

Happiness at the good fortune of others

Feeling of worth
Empathy, given and received
Engaging relationships in a
Responsive way
Centering in peace, contentment, and love
 The Tip of the Root
In the fourth step of TG, you could try to get at the
youngest, most vulnerable layer of painful material.

The “tip of the root” is commonly in childhood.The brain is

generally more affected by the negative experiences that occur
in early childhood than by ones occurring later in life.

Prerequisites:
1 2 3
Understanding the Compassion and Capacity to “presence”
need to get at support for the young material
younger layers inner child without flooding
 Feeling of Worth
• It is natural and important to feel that you have worth
as a person – which does not mean arrogance or ego.

• You develop this sense of worth through:

– Others including, appreciating, liking, and loving you
– You respecting yourself

• Take in experiences of being:

– Capable, skillful, talented, helpful
– Included, wanted, sought out, chosen
– Appreciated, acknowledged, respected
– Liked, befriended, supported
– Loved, cherished, special
Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
What are some of
the good facts
in your life these
days?
?
(A’s go first). Then take
turns, with one person
speaking while the
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question: As the listener, keep finding
a genuine gladness about
the good facts in the life of
TIP: If you’re alone, our partner.
reflect or journal.
 Feeling of Worth
• It is natural and important to feel that you have worth
as a person – which does not mean arrogance or ego.

• You develop this sense of worth through:

– Others including, appreciating, liking, and loving you
– You respecting yourself

• Take in experiences of being:

– Capable, skillful, talented, helpful
– Included, wanted, sought out, chosen
– Appreciated, acknowledged, respected
– Liked, befriended, supported
– Loved, cherished, special
Pick a partner and
What was that
practice like for
you, exploring
?
choose an A and a B
(A’s go first). Then take
feelings of worth?
turns, with one person
speaking while the
partner mainly listens,
exploring this question:
While listening, be
as empathic as you can
TIP: If you’re alone, with your partner.
reflect or journal.
 Strengths Supporting Responsive
Approaches to Closeness and Rejection

• Seeing costs of Reactive and • Feeling caring; empathy

benefits of Responsive
• Compassion for the
• Multi-purpose: on your own other person
side, centered, calm, love
• Autonomy
• Feeling of worth
• Clarity
• Feeling cared about
• Acting with strength
• Self-compassion and with heart

• Love in your core

Pick a partner and
choose an A and a B
What are the
key benefits
for you from
this training?
?
(A’s go first). Then take

?
turns, with one person
speaking while the
partner mainly listens, What are your
exploring these questions: key intentions
for the days and
weeks ahead?
TIP: If you’re alone,
reflect or journal.
 In the Days Ahead
• Make taking in the good an informal daily habit

• At the end of any formal practices – meditation,

exercise, journaling, prayer, yoga, walking the dog
– take a few moments to take in the benefits

• Know what your current “vitamin C” is – and look

for opportunities to feel it and internalize it

• Be mindful of the hedonic tone of experiences –

unpleasant, pleasant, heartfelt, neutral – and help
yourself tip toward the green zone about them
Think not lightly of good,
saying,
“It will not come to me.”

Drop by drop is
the water pot filled.

Likewise, the wise one,

Gathering it little by little,
Fills oneself with good.

Dhammapada 9.122
Coming Home

Peace
Contentment
Love
Thank You
 Suggested Books
See RickHanson.net for other good books.
• Austin, J. 2009. Selfless Insight. MIT Press.
• Begley. S. 2007. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain. Ballantine.
• Carter, C. 2010. Raising Happiness. Ballantine.
• Hanson, R. (with R. Mendius). 2009. Buddha’s Brain: The Practical
Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. New Harbinger.
• Johnson, S. 2005. Mind Wide Open. Scribner.
• Keltner, D. 2009. Born to Be Good. Norton.
• Kornfield, J. 2009. The Wise Heart. Bantam.
• LeDoux, J. 2003. Synaptic Self. Penguin.
• Linden, D. 2008. The Accidental Mind. Belknap.
• Sapolsky, R. 2004. Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Holt.
• Siegel, D. 2007. The Mindful Brain. Norton.
• Thompson, E. 2007. Mind in Life. Belknap.
 Key Papers – 1
See RickHanson.net for other scientific papers.
• Atmanspacher, H. & Graben, P. 2007. Contextual emergence of mental states from
neurodynamics. Chaos & Complexity Letters, 2:151-168.

• Baumeister, R., Bratlavsky, E., Finkenauer, C. & Vohs, K. 2001. Bad is stronger than
good. Review of General Psychology, 5:323-370.

• Braver, T. & Cohen, J. 2000. On the control of control: The role of dopamine in
regulating prefrontal function and working memory; in Control of Cognitive Processes:
Attention and Performance XVIII. Monsel, S. & Driver, J. (eds.). MIT Press.

• Carter, O.L., Callistemon, C., Ungerer, Y., Liu, G.B., & Pettigrew, J.D. 2005. Meditation
skills of Buddhist monks yield clues to brain's regulation of attention. Current Biology.
15:412-413.
 Key Papers – 2
• Davidson, R.J. 2004. Well-being and affective style: neural substrates and biobehavioural
correlates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 359:1395-1411.

• Farb, N.A.S., Segal, Z.V., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., Fatima, Z., and Anderson,
A.K. 2007. Attending to the present: Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes
of self-reflection. SCAN, 2, 313-322.

• Gillihan, S.J. & Farah, M.J. 2005. Is self special? A critical review of evidence from
experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 131:76-97.

• Hagmann, P., Cammoun, L., Gigandet, X., Meuli, R., Honey, C.J., Wedeen, V.J., & Sporns,
O. 2008. Mapping the structural core of human cerebral cortex. PLoS Biology. 6:1479-
1493.

• Hanson, R. 2008. Seven facts about the brain that incline the mind to joy. In Measuring
the immeasurable: The scientific case for spirituality. Sounds True.
 Key Papers – 3
• Lazar, S., Kerr, C., Wasserman, R., Gray, J., Greve, D., Treadway, M., McGarvey, M.,
Quinn, B., Dusek, J., Benson, H., Rauch, S., Moore, C., & Fischl, B. 2005. Meditation
experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport. 16:1893-1897.

• Lewis, M.D. & Todd, R.M. 2007. The self-regulating brain: Cortical-subcortical feedback
and the development of intelligent action. Cognitive Development, 22:406-430.

• Lieberman, M.D. & Eisenberger, N.I. 2009. Pains and pleasures of social life. Science.
323:890-891.

• Lutz, A., Greischar, L., Rawlings, N., Ricard, M. and Davidson, R. 2004. Long-term
meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. PNAS.
101:16369-16373.

• Lutz, A., Slager, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R. J. 2008. Attention regulation and
monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 12:163-169.
 Key Papers – 4
• Rozin, P. & Royzman, E.B. 2001. Negativity bias, negativity dominance, and
contagion. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5:296-320.

• Takahashi, H., Kato, M., Matsuura, M., Mobbs, D., Suhara, T., & Okubo, Y. 2009.
When your gain is my pain and your pain is my gain: Neural correlates of envy and
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Where to Find Rick Hanson Online

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

www.rickhanson.net/hardwiringhappiness

Personal website: www.rickhanson.net

Wellspring Institute: www.wisebrain.org

youtube.com/drrhanson facebook.com/rickhansonphd