Hardwiring Happiness
Rick Hanson · 2013
Hardwiring Happiness (2013) is a book by Rick Hanson on Positive Neuroplasticity & Well-Being. Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson shows how the brain's negativity bias keeps us anxious, and how a simple practice called HEAL deliberately installs positive experiences as lasting neural resources that rewire the mind for resilience.
A neuropsychologist's practical antidote to the brain's built-in pessimism: four everyday steps that turn fleeting good moments into lasting inner strengths.
Two of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Hardwiring Happiness pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.
- The brain has a **negativity bias**: it is like **Velcro for bad experiences and Teflon for good ones**, because ancestors who fixated on threats out-survived those who savored pleasures. This built-in tilt keeps modern minds anxious even when nothing is wrong.
- **Passing mental states become lasting neural traits** through repeated activation, 'neurons that fire together, wire together.' Since bad experiences hardwire faster, you must deliberately overweight the good to level the scales.
The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 8 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- The Hidden Power of Everyday Experiences
- Velcro for Bad, Teflon for Good
- The Three Operating Systems and Their Needs
- HEAL: The Four-Step Practice
- The Fourth Step: Linking Positive and Negative
- Growing the Strengths You Actually Need
- Weaving the Practice into Real Life
- A Brain, and a Life, Rewired Toward the Good
Finish Hardwiring Happiness tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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