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  • Published: 2 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9781846043574
  • Imprint: Rider
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99

Hardwiring Happiness

The Practical Science of Reshaping Your Brain—and Your Life




A revolutionary guide to finding happiness through the very latest neuroscience and contemplative techniques.

'A book to savour, to practise, and take to heart' Professor Mark Williams

'As clear and inspired as it gets' Ruby Wax

Four steps to counterbalance your brain's negativity bias and learn to hardwire happiness in only a few minutes each day.

Recent scientific breakthroughs have revealed that what we think and feel changes the brain. Dr Rick Hanson’s Hardwiring Happiness is the first book to show how to transform the simple positive experiences of daily life into neural structures that promote lasting health, contentment, love and inner peace.

To keep our ancestors alive, our brain evolved a ‘negativity bias’, which lets positive experiences flow through it like water through a sieve. Yet positive experiences are the building blocks needed for health, happiness and fulfilling relationships. Drawing on neuroscience and the contemplative traditions, Hardwiring Happiness shows how to overcome that negativity bias and get those good experiences into the brain where it can use them, providing the tools we need to heal old wounds, develop our inner resources and, ultimately, transform our lives.

  • Published: 2 January 2015
  • ISBN: 9781846043574
  • Imprint: Rider
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Rick Hanson

Dr Rick Hanson is a neuropsychologist whose books include the highly acclaimed Buddha’s Brain and Just One Thing. Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s taught at leading universities, and in meditation centres worldwide. He is a frequent keynote speaker, and his work has been widely featured in the media, including the BBC, NPR, FoxBusiness, and O Magazine. See www.RickHanson.net for more information.

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Praise for Hardwiring Happiness

A book to savour, to practise and take to heart

Prof Mark Williams, author of Mindfulness

Simple, accessible, practical...

Thich Nhat Hanh, author of Peace is Every Breath

This book is as clear and inspired as it gets...

Ruby Wax, author of Sane New World: Taming The Mind

Teaches us life-affirming skills...Bravo!

Prof Daniel J. Siegel, author of Mindsight