How To Develop A Resilient Mind - Dr Rick Hanson - #047

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends. Before I introduce today's guest, I wanted to give a massive shout out to everyone who shared and supported the episode from last week. We ended up in the top 100 on Apple Podcasts worldwide chart for three days off the back of one episode, which is absolutely insane. We've also now crossed 3.6 million listen minutes in under a year. So thank you very much. Please continue to share the episodes. Tell a friend who you think would enjoy them and rate the podcast if you would wherever you're listening. It does massively help and it makes me very happy. Today, I'm sitting down with Dr. Rick Hanson, who is a psychologist and New York Times bestselling author. Now, what's particularly interesting about Rick was that he has a very deep understanding of the esoteric meditation and wellness side of the brain and how life can be conducted, but also has a very strong academic background in the science as well. So he is a serious contender for understanding how the brain works. And today we're talking about Resilient, his new book. It's a very novel topic that I've never actually thought of all that much and relating it to how we experience everyday life and how it can improve our wellbeing was a big eye-opener. And I would be very interested to know if you agree. So if you do or if you don't, drop me a message on Instagram, Twitter, wherever you find me at ChriswellX. For now, we're going to learn how to be resilient with Dr. Hanson.
Dr. Rick Hanson, how are you today?

**Rick Hanson** (1:55)
Chris, I'm very happy to be here. And by the way, please call me Rick, or I'll have to call you Mr. Williamson or something.

**Chris Williamson** (2:01)
That's fine, we'll stay informal today. So Rick, what are we going to learn about today? What are you teaching us about?

**Rick Hanson** (2:08)
Well, you've asked me here to really talk about resilience, which for me is a word that's kind of easy to dismiss, like a cliche we've heard it a million times. But the essence for me is how do you grow? How, how do you grow? An unshakable core of resilient happiness. That's the question. It's easy to be happy when everything's going your way, but in the core of your being, how do you build up an unconditional well-being that can deal with the challenges of life and still feel content and at peace inside? So that's what I hope we can talk about.

**Chris Williamson** (2:40)
Wow, that would be, if I can come up with that by the end of this episode, I'll be an incredibly happy man. So many listeners will probably know you for hardwiring happiness. That was a New York Times bestseller, right? Was there much overlap between that and the current book you're writing? That's a great question.

**Rick Hanson** (2:59)
Yeah. That book, Hardwiring Happiness, you get it from the title. It's about the fundamental how of growing qualities inside that you care about, like grit or gratitude or happiness or self-worth, love for others, skills of different kinds. In other words, how do we actually hardwire passing experiences that are mostly usually wasted on the brain? But instead, how do we capture them? How do we harvest them and wire them into our own bodies, so we become stronger and happier in general? That's like the general method, how to fish. Then the book Resilient, it's going to be a dumb metaphor here, is about catching 12 fish. One of the 12 fish of 12 strengths, that book's about 12 strengths, 12 factors that are based in the evolution of the brain as a framework, but then we get into the practicality of it. 12 strengths inside that bring a resilient well-being in the face of life. One of the 12 strengths is learning, so that's the how to fish in general. Then the other 11 are specific fish like mindfulness, compassion, aspiration, courage, that the book teaches you how to catch in effect and weave into your own body, and so that you have them with you wherever you go. So that's the difference between the two books.

**Chris Williamson** (4:16)
I get you. So is learning the foundation upon which all of the others are built?

**Rick Hanson** (4:22)
Yes, and isn't it true that that's the foundation of everything? You know, I had this experience when I was a teenager that when I looked back on it, it was like a lot of things that happen when you're a teenager, you blow right by it, and you hardly realize that something has happened that's important for you, you know, but you look back at it later, I was about 15, and I realized that I was utterly unhappy, I was miserable, I was neurotic, I was seriously messed up, I was a mess, and I was kind of in despair in a way, like what am I going to do, my crummy family, my crummy school, I'm dead in the water, no one likes me. It wasn't horrible abusive, like some childhoods are, but it was pretty bad, pretty miserable. But the light bulb went off, that I could always grow and heal and learn and develop from here, going forward, in other words, I could learn every single day how to be a little happier, how to talk to girls, how not to be such a dork, how to not get so bothered by my parents. You know, I could learn and grow every day. And that is the essence of self-reliance, where you take it on every day. How can I learn? How can I grow? How can I be a little happier, a little stronger, a little wiser when I go to bed tonight? And that got me really, really interested in that fundamental process of how do you actually develop yourself? because then that's the strength of strengths, right? Learning, broadly defined, not memorizing the multiplication table. I mean, like body learning, emotional learning, social learning, spiritual learning. That is the strength of strengths because it's the one that grows the rest of them. So if you get good at learning, you know, then you can apply it to anything you want to develop inside yourself or if you want to help other people.