|
Just One Thing |
|
Simple Practices for Resilience and Happiness from
|
DR. RICK HANSON
|
|
|
|
|
Life keeps throwing us challenges, and so many of us are just trying to survive it all. That's why I created the Foundations of Well-Being — where I take you through a whole year of growing inner strengths and practical life skills so you can start thriving amidst life's challenges with confidence, joy, and ease. We're starting a new cohort in January, and if you sign up by this Friday, you can save 40%.
|
|
|
|
|
Do you accept the gift? |
THE PRACTICE: |
Receive Generosity. |
|
— Why? — |
Life gives to each one of us in so many ways.
For starters, there’s the bounty of the senses – including chocolate chip cookies, jasmine, sunsets, wind singing through pine trees, and just getting your back scratched.
What does life give you?
Consider the kindness of friends and family, made more tangible during a holiday season, but of course, continuing throughout the year.
Or the giving of the people whose hard work is bound up in a single cup of coffee. Or all those people in days past who figured out how to make a stone ax – or a fire, edible grain, loom, vaccine, or computer. Or wrote plays and novels, making art or music. Developed mathematics and science, paths of psychological growth, and profound spiritual practices. A few people whose names you know, and tens of thousands – millions, really – whom you will never know: each day their contributions feed, clothe, transport, entertain, inspire, and heal us.
Consider the giving of the natural world, the sound of rain, the sweep of sky and stars, and the majesty of mountains. How does nature feed you?
How about your DNA? The moment of your conception presented you with the build-out instructions for becoming a human being, the hard-won fruits of 3.5 billion years of evolution.
You don’t earn these things. You can’t. They are just given.
The best you can do is to receive them. That helps fill your own cup, which is good for both you and others. It keeps the circle of giving going; when someone deflects or resists one of your own gifts, how inclined are you to give again? It draws you into a deep sense of connection with life.
And if nothing else, it’s simply polite!
|
— How? — |
Start with something a friend has recently given to you, such as a smile, an encouraging word, or simply some attention. Then open to feeling given to. Notice any reluctance here, such as thoughts of unworthiness, a background fear of dependence, or the idea that if you receive then you will owe the other person something. Try to open past that reluctance to accept what’s offered, to take it in – and enjoy the pleasures of this. Let it sink in that receiving generosity is good.
Next pick something from nature. For example, open to the giving folded into an ordinary apple, including the cleverness and persistence it took, across hundreds of generations, to gradually breed something delicious from its sour and bitter wild precursors. See if you can taste their work in its rich sweetness. Open even more broadly to the nurturing benevolence in the whole web of life.
Then try something unliving, perhaps something with no apparent value, like a bit of sand. Yet in that single grain are echoes of the Big Bang – the gift that there is something at all rather than nothing. Who knows what deeper, perhaps transcendental gifts underlie the blazing bubbling emergence of our universe?
Take a breath and enjoy receiving trillions of atoms of oxygen – most of them the gifts of an exploding star.
Consider some of the intangibles flowing toward you from others, including goodwill, fondness, respect, and love. See if you can drink deeply from the stream coming from one person; as you recognize something positive being offered to you, try to experience it in a felt way in your body and emotions. Then see if you can do the same with other people. If you can, include your parents and other family members, friends, and key acquaintances.
Try to stretch yourself further. Recall a recent interaction that was a mixed bag for you, some good in it but also some bad. Focus on whatever was accurate or useful in what the other person communicated and try to receive that as a valuable offering. Open your mind to the good that is implicit or down deep in the other person, even if you don’t like the way it has come out.
Keep listening, touching, tasting, smelling, and looking for other overflowing generosity coming your way.
So many gifts.
|
Read this Online
|
|
Know someone who could accept more generosity? |
Share this Just One Thing practice with them!
|
Share on Facebook | Tweet on X | Forward this Email
|
|
|
|
|
NEW ON THE BEING WELL PODCAST
|
Attachment Masterclass: Sue Johnson, Rick Hanson, Julie Mennano, and Elizabeth Ferreira |
|
Why do some people navigate the social world with such ease while others feel like they’re swimming upstream? In this special episode of the Being Well Podcast, Forrest is joined by four leading experts for a masterclass on the science of attachment. Featuring conversations with Dr. Sue Johnson, Dr. Rick Hanson, Julie Mennano, and Elizabeth Ferreira, this carefully curated episode gives you a map to becoming more socially confident, emotionally intelligent, and authentically connected.
|
Check out the Episode
|
|
|
|
|
NEW FROM THE WEDNESDAY MEDITATIONS + TALKS
|
Speaking Wisely – Even If Others Aren’t |
|
Last week I offered a live meditation on Resting in the Breath, followed by a talk on Speaking Wisely – Even If Others Aren’t, and I hope you'll check it out.
If you haven't yet, sign up to join me every week for this free, live offering.
|
Check It Out
|
|
|
|
|
MORE GOOD STUFF
|
|
SCIENCE NEWS (VIEW ARCHIVE HERE)
Scientists have recently uncovered the unique strategies that allow conifers like Christmas trees to survive and thrive in harsh winter conditions, explaining why they dominate boreal forests.
|
|
FOR PARENTS
When children come along, relatives can be an incredible blessing or something of a curse – and sometimes both at the same time. Happily, there are lots of ways to keep things on a good footing with the relatives.
|
|
FREE EBOOK FROM Marci Shimoff, Dr. Sue Morter, and Lisa Nichols
Are you making some huge (and unconscious) mistakes that keep you from living a life filled with miracles? Find out by reading this free ebook, Manifest A Life of Miracles: 4 Steps to Living in the Miracle Zone.
|
|
|
|
|
HAVE YOU READ IT YET?
|
Making Great Relationships |
|
Learn 50 simple practices for solving conflicts, building connection, and fostering love. Available in Hardcover, Paperback eBook, and Audiobook, wherever books are sold.
|
Get Your Copy
|
|
|
|
|
WORDS OF WISDOM
|
"Keep listening, touching, tasting, smelling, and looking for other overflowing generosity coming your way." |
— RICK HANSON, PHD
|
|
|
|
JUST ONE THING (JOT) is the free newsletter that suggests a simple practice each week for more joy, more fulfilling relationships, and more peace of mind. A small thing repeated routinely adds up over time to produce big results.
Just one thing that could change your life. (© Rick Hanson, 2024)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|