Just One Thing

Simple Practices for Resilience and Happiness from

DR. RICK HANSON

Did YOU truly choose this path?

THE PRACTICE:

—  Why?  —

The human body has about 100 trillion cells (plus another ten quadrillion microscopic critters hitching a ride, most of them beneficial or harmless). Each one of your cells has aims - goals, in a sense - controlled by its DNA: cells conduct processes aimed at particular functions, like building bones or gobbling up harmful invaders. Cells also work together in larger and larger assemblies in pursuit of broader goals, such as the 100 billion neurons in your brain that run the nervous system, which as a whole is itself the master regulator of the body.

In effect, there are layers, hierarchies, of goals in the body - and a similar architecture of aims in the mind. For example, operating right now is the goal of moving your eyes over these words, which serves the goal of understanding them, which serves larger goals such as desires to learn new things, new skills, and to be truly happy.

In short, whether in the body or the mind, there is no life without goals. Trying to "transcend" goals is itself a goal. The only question is: Are your goals good ones? In other words, do they lead to happiness and benefits for you and others rather than suffering and harm?

To choose good goals we must balance the influences of the world and the murmurings of the heart. Some counsel from others is good; I wish I'd listened to my parents' advice to start saving in my 20's (rather than in my 50's when I finally got around to it).

But often we get nudged, cowed, persuaded, bullied, seduced, enveloped, swept along, or otherwise drawn into values, priorities, gender or culture roles, perspectives on life, assumptions, addictions, career choices, marriages, spiritual practices or orientations, etc. etc. etc. that in ways large or small are not really, not deeply, right for us. And sometimes we are active participants in this process. For example, it was a combination of external hype and internal laziness that led me to try to take a shortcut in my early 30's with my training as a psychologist, which then cost me a couple of years of effort to get back on the right path.

In effect, a thousand little threads tug at us this way and that, many of them originating from within, internalized voices and faces from the past and "shoulds" and "musts" from the present. When these threads pull you from your true course - the one that is authentic, at the intersection of your talents and joys and values, appropriate to your temperament and nature, and filled with heart - you end up feeling sidetracked, caught in a backwater, unfulfilled, unused, adrift, trapped, even alienated from your own life. Do you have any sense of this, yourself?

So it's important to find your own way.

—  How?  —

As a frame, know that you can follow your course while also fulfilling your responsibilities. With intention and practice, inner freedom is available while being externally engaged. You make these responsibilities part of your course, an honorable expression of it, informed by it, an opportunity for growth in your own way.

Consider how you are not living your own life as much as you could. In relationships, do you make more room for the other person's needs than your own? What aren't you saying? Whose shoulds or plans or taboos are you living out? (Especially the ones from childhood.) How might you be conforming, even in subtle ways, to scripts or teachings or group-think or cultural programs?

When you get those other voices out of your head, what's left that's true? What silence might be speaking to you?

Take a look at parts of your life, such as family or career or a particular relationship. Have you drifted from your own truth in any of these situations? What specific course corrections could you make? What would help you stick with them?

Open to guidance outside the box. Draw on (for most people) the right side of your brain for images of your current path and where it could be better to go. Listen to your heart: What in your life is truly working for you that you could strengthen, and what is calling to you to lean more toward? Step out of your normal routine for an hour or longer: go for a long drive or walk, take a workshop, spend a day with a dear friend - and look at your life from a bird's-eye view, with a sense of possibility and freedom: Alright, no praise or blame, but where to head from here?

The shift in course could be tiny. It could be simply a matter of adjusting an attitude or spending 20 minutes a day in a new way. But extended forward over the rest of your life, and meanwhile knowing in your heart that it is true for you, will make all the difference in the world.

We make a life a minute at a time. In this minute, you can learn as much as possible toward your own true way.

As they say in Tibet, if you take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.

Know someone who could use more guidance in finding their own way?

Share this Just One Thing practice with them!

Share on Facebook |  Tweet on X  |  Forward this Email

NEW ON THE BEING WELL PODCAST

Who You'll Be This Year: Values, Goals, and a Different Kind of Resolution

In this New Year's episode, Dr. Rick and Forrest make the case that most resolutions fail because they focus on the wrong things: outcomes and behaviors rather than key values. Learn how to identify your important values, embrace caring about them, and start to let them change your behavior.

FROM THE WEDNESDAY MEDITATIONS + TALKS ARCHIVE

The Power of Patience

In this talk, I explore the transformative power of patience - not as passive resignation, but as an active, profound skill to navigate life's complexities with greater ease and wisdom.

If you haven't yet, sign up to join me every week for this free, live offering.

MORE GOOD STUFF

SCIENCE NEWS  (VIEW ARCHIVE HERE)

Hubble recently spotted a new type of object dubbed Cloud-9, a starless cloud of dark matter and gas that never became a galaxy.

FOR PARENTS

All of us could probably get better at empathy, but men in particular tend to be raised in our society to focus on facts and solutions rather than feelings and relationships. If approached with respect (and some empathy as well), many partners welcome a gentle suggestion about what to actually do in order to be more empathic. One man actually asked his partner to give him a list of questions to ask, and this is what they came up with.

READY FOR A RESET? FREE DOWNLOAD

My friend Marci Shimoff has created this special Miracles Energetic Reset Checklist for you to realign and create momentum. Click here to download it.

FREE SUMMIT: NERVOUS SYSTEM REBOOT

Your nervous system has been shaped by years of stress, conditioning, and survival responses. But here's the good news: science now shows your nervous system can learn new patterns of safety, calm, clarity, and connection - at any age. That's the focus of the Nervous System Reboot Experience, a brand-new 6-day FREE online healing experience starting January 20. I'm honored to be a featured speaker this year and hope you'll check it out!

HAVE YOU READ IT YET?

Resilient

Learn how to develop key inner strengths – like grit, gratitude, and compassion – to stay calm, confident, and happy no matter what life throws at you. Available in Hardcover, Paperback eBook, and Audiobook, wherever books are sold.

WORDS OF WISDOM

"Whether in the body or the mind, there is no life without goals. Trying to "transcend" goals is itself a goal. The only question is: Are your goals good ones?"

— 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)

Manage your subscription

Unsubscribe from all lists

Being Well, Inc., PO Box 6088, San Rafael, California 94903, United States