Dr. Rick Hanson on Positive Neuroplasticity and Resilience

There's a real opportunity here, and it fascinates me, especially when you hold it up against a Buddhist model of the mind. That model says most of our suffering traces back to an inner sense of lack or agitation. From that sense comes craving, in the widest meaning of the word, and craving is what breeds suffering and harm. Now flip it. If you keep taking in a sense of being full rather than empty, and keep taking in a sense of steadiness rather than agitation, something shifts. Do it again and again and the underlying wiring of the brain slowly changes. The ground that feeds that craving begins to thin out, and with it the suffering and harm it produces. For any one person, I find that genuinely hopeful.

Pull the lens back and it gets more interesting. As someone walks this path of growing well-being, they get harder to push around with fear, because they feel stronger and steadier and more at peace inside. They get harder to sell to as well. The machinery of consumerism, of greed, of the dread of losing money or status, loses its grip, because the person already carries a quiet feeling of enough. And those old pulls toward tribalism, toward us-against-them, start to lose their hold too. I think that matters for all of us. It may be part of what helps the world settle into a gentler ending to this century than the one we seem to be aiming at right now.

Erik: That's wonderful, and it's energizing to hear that we can put these ideas to work and come out more resilient, less easy to spook, less at the mercy of the fear that advertising keeps poking at before it offers us something to buy. With the minutes we have left, could I ask you to take us through a few exercises?

Dr. Hanson: Of course. Here's what I love about positive neuroplasticity: you can weave it into ordinary daily life, you do it yourself, and it sits right at the center of self-reliance in the broad sense. You are the one running your own mind. Nobody can rewire your brain from the inside except you. The responsibility is yours. Call it old-fashioned if you like. But if you actually practice these things, you can trust they'll register, because the brain is built to learn, and it learns best from experiences that are held long enough, felt strongly, come through more than one channel, carry some newness, stand out, and are set up in advance.