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Keys to Changing the Brain Rick Hanson, PhD - QuickStart - pg. 1

How the Brain Processes Stress

People often experience some amount of stress

during the day. And any amount of stress can

leave us feeling overwhelmed and drained.

Here, Rick Hanson explains the dangers of high

stress levels and ways to train the brain to

better handle stress.

Dr. Hanson: “Mother Nature has endowed us

with another setting in the brain – the ‘Whoa’

setting – which is where we experience in our

core that one or more of our fundamental needs

of safety, satisfaction, and connection is not

met.

Then the brain fires up into its fight/flight stress

response mode, or it goes into an intense freeze

mode – the red zone.

In the red zone, which is not meant to be

sustainable at all – it is a brief burst – the body

burns resources faster than it takes them in.

Bodily systems are really disturbed; there is a

fundamental sense of deficit and disturbance,

and long-term building projects like

strengthening the immune system are put on

hold.

A QuickStart Guide: Keys to Changing the Brain

with Rick Hanson, PhD; Ruth Buczynski, PhD; Ron Siegel, PsyD; and Kelly McGonigal, PhD


In terms of avoiding, approaching, and

attaching, the mind is colored with a sense of

fear, frustration, and heartache.

Red zone experiences are normal, but as Robert

Sapolsky talks about in his great book, Why

Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, most red-zone spikes of

stress in the wild end quickly – one way or

another.

Then the animals go back to long periods of

green zone recovery – refueling, renewing, and

repairing.

That becomes a problem with modern life. Most

of us, at least, in the developed world, are

happy, with some unfortunate exceptions. We

are not spending our days running and

screaming in terror from charging lions – we

don’t have severe spikes of red zone stress.

But on the other hand, we are exposed to mild

to moderate chronic stress, with very little time

for recovery – which is a complete violation of

the evolutionary model” (on p. 8-9 in the Part 1

Transcript).

Developing a Positive Mindset

Bad days and negative experiences are

sometimes just a part of life. But according to

Rick Hanson, we don’t have to let them ruin our

mood entirely. Here, he shares his two-step

process for shifting your brain’s perspective

from negative to positive.


Dr. Hanson: “The neural psychology of learning

shows us that this is a two-stage process.

Quickly here, it moves from one, activation, to

two, installation.

In other words, we need to have a positive,

useful mental state – typically an experience of

the inner strength itself or some factor of it.

If you want to develop mindfulness, you want to

have more moments in which you are mindful.

If you want to develop gratitude as an

orientation to life in general, you have more

moments in which you are grateful.

So now we have that activated mental state, but

we need to install it as a lasting neural state:

activation and installation.

Once we have that neural trait growing inside us

as an inner strength, it fosters states of it, which

then give us new opportunities to install it as a

positive trait.

By the way, this process of going from state to

trait to state to state, works positively and

negatively.

In other words, negative states rapidly become

negative neural traits, which then foster more

negative mental states.

The brain is in fact biased toward that process of

negative learning, and relatively poor at and

weak at the process of positive learning – even

though positive states are the primary source of

positive traits.


So that is what I have gotten very focused on,

because most positive states are just wasted on

the brain.

They are momentarily pleasant, but if they don’t

transfer those short-term memory buffers to

long-term storage, there is no lasting value” (on

p. 10-11 in the Part 1 Transcript).

Having More Positive

Experiences

According to Rick Hanson, the brain tends to

remember more negative moments than

positive ones. But he says, we can cultivate

certain inner strengths to become better at

installing positive experiences. Here he gives us

a four-step strategy for getting the positive

memories to sink into the brain.

Dr. Hanson: This acronym covers the activation

and installation process. Then, as I hope we will

talk about, you can use it for those specific inner

strengths or qualities of mind and heart that you

want to cultivate in yourself or in other people

because those are the strengths that are really

going to do the most good.

The H in HEAL stands for Have. You have the

positive experience in the first place – either

because you noticed one you are already having

or because you actually create one.


Now, you have it going. It is activated. But if you

don’t install it, it is going to be wasted on your

brain.

Then you go to E, Enrich: you can enrich the

experience. Borrowing or turning to the famous

saying in neuroscience that “Neurons that fire

together wire together” – you want to get a lot

of neurons firing together so that they start

wiring together.

There are five well-known factors in the

neuropsychology of learning that promote

installation – that promote emotional

psychological change as well as other kinds of

learning.

These are the five factors (and you can do one

or more of them).

Duration – the longer you stay with the

experience, the more it will sink in.

Intensity – the more intense you have the

experience, maybe it is an emotion, maybe it is a

body state, maybe it is an inclination of

commitment, maybe it is an insight into your

own psychology – but whatever it is, the more

intense it is, the more there will be the

formation of neural structure.

Multimodality is the third factor. The more that

you bring experiences down into your body and

have them be emotionally rich, maybe even

enact the experience, like sitting up a little

straighter to support an experience of


determination or inner strength – the more

neural structure they will build.

Novelty is the fourth factor – the brain is a big

novelty detector. A lot of research shows that

when we relate to things that are new, that

heightens learning.

Personal Relevance is the last factor – “Why

does this matter to me? Why is it salient for

me?”

Those are the factors of Enriching. You can do

one or more of them and build up any one of

them.

The third aspect, or step, of the HEAL process is

A for Absorb. This is where we prime memory

systems – we sensitize them to really turbo-

charge the installation process, by intending and

sensing that the experience is going into us.

Maybe we visualize it sinking in, like water into a

sponge. With children, we will talk about putting

a jewel in the treasure chest of the heart. This is

just a kind of giving oneself over to the

experience – letting it land inside. Those are

aspects of absorbing.

The last step in the process is L for Link, and it is

the optional one. It holds simultaneously in

awareness some positive experience with some

negative material – painful thoughts or feelings

or memories that this positive material is a

natural antidote for.


Through holding it in the mind, since neurons

that fire together wire together, the positive

material will gradually associate with the

negative material, soothing, easing, and

eventually even replacing it.

It probably it all sounds a bit complicated – but

it really boils down to four words: have it –

enjoy it and especially enjoy because that is

when the installation occurs (on p. 12-13 in the

Part 1 Transcript).

Novelty and Neuroplasticity

Many people rely on having a daily routine. But

this might not always be best for the brain. Rick

Hanson explains why it’s important to focus on

varying our experiences, and why it can be

critical for neuroplasticity.

Dr. Hanson: “Novelty promotes neuroplasticity

– the capacity of the brain to be changed by its

experiences. And we have heightened learning

for what is novel.

To bring it down to earth, if a person is having a

fairly familiar positive experience like, ‘Oh, that

coffee tastes good,’ or they are touching

someone they care about – maybe their

intimate partner, or they are experiencing a

little gratitude, or maybe they are doing some

meditative practice and it is getting more

peaceful – it is easy to take those experiences

for granted.


But if instead, we see them, as the poet put it,

‘Through the eyes of a child;’ or to use the Zen

idea of beginner’s mind, then we bring that

beginner’s mind to what it feels like to relax

while breathing or to feel grateful for the

blessings in our life.

If we bring that beginner’s mind—and therefore

a sense of novelty and freshness to the

experience—it will build more neural

structure” (on p. 18 in the Part 1 Transcript).

Letting Go of the Negative

Rick Hanson explains three practices for

engaging the mind and letting go of the

negative.

Dr. Hanson: Negative experiences obviously are

an essential part of life – I think of the Buddha’s

Four Noble Truths, which are utterly

psychological.

The first truth is, “There is suffering.” To my way

of thinking about it, Ruth, I use a framework

that has helped me tremendously, personally

and professionally, to think about the three

ways to engage the mind. In effect, there are

three ways to practice and engage the mind.

The first way is to simply be with what is there,

witness it, feel the feelings, experience the

experience, maybe investigate it, maybe feel

down to where it’s softer and younger; certainly


try to hold it in a big space of spacious

awareness.

We are not trying to change it directly. It might

shift as a result of being witnessed rather than

identified with, but we are not deliberately

trying to change it in the moment.

The second way to engage the mind is to

deliberately try to release what is negative – in

other words, try to help tension drain out of the

body, for example, or to argue against negative,

foolish thoughts, or release unwholesome

desires like getting buzzed every night . . . That is

the second way to engage the mind.

The third way to engage the mind is to cultivate

the positive – to “grow flowers,” as it were.

If you think of the mind as a garden, we can

witness it, pull weeds, or plant flowers – or, in

six words, we can let be – let go – let in.

That gives us a natural framework, and an

appropriate one, for how to deal with negative

experiences.

In the first place, we want to witness them – we

can just be with them.

We try to hold them in spacious awareness;

maybe we try to bring to bear other factors that

help us feel our negative feelings, like self-

compassion or mindfulness or a sense of inner

allies with us.

At some point, it feels right – like the “Goldilocks

point” – not too tall, not too short, not too hot,


not too cold – the just right place – when it feels

like it is time to move on, “I am not suppressing

the emotion but it is time to help it move on out

of Dodge.”

Then we move on to the releasing phase –

reducing the negative in various ways – draining

tension out of the body, venting, turning it over

to God, or whatever it is – we let it go as best we

can.

In the third phase, when it feels right, we try to

replace what we have released with some

positive alternative.

The cycle that I have gone through might take

half a minute with some familiar negative

material like maybe just a momentary irritation

or something that didn’t go well, or maybe

something from the past that is well understood

– “Oh that was my critical stepfather; that’s my

little inner critic yammering away. I know what

you sound like, dude – I’m not going to listen to

you anymore.”

From all that, we can move on fairly quickly.

On the other hand, sometimes it takes a year or

more, like grief over a serious loss, to move out

of the being with way of relating to the negative,

to then shifting into helping it release, and then

eventually replacing it with something positive.

(on p. 18-20 in the Part 1 Transcript).


The Importance of Evolution for

Neuroplasticity

A lot has happened to the brain over the past

600 million years, and it can be hard to keep

track. But, according to Rick Hanson, it’s

important to understand how the brain has

evolved. Here, Kelly McGonigal elaborates on

Rick’s view, and discusses how evolution can

help us better understand brain change.

Dr. McGonigal: “I think one of the most

interesting and important things that Rick talked

about was how evolution operates on the brain

– that it doesn’t basically take an ‘old brain’ and

completely overhaul and give you a ‘new and

improved brain,’ but that evolution is more like

getting upgrades that will increase the flexibility

and diversity of human responses.

But, you know, evolution doesn’t get rid of what

he would refer to as the ‘lizard brain’ and the

other aspects of the brain that seem more

primitive.

And that is really important for people to

understand – that there is no way to

fundamentally remove some of the experiences

we have that feel maybe irrational or emotional

– things like stress or anxiety, things like social

conflict.

These are things that are part of what it means

to be human, and evolution has given us also


diversity and flexibility about which systems are

dominant and our choice of responses.

And that gives us a lot of, I think, common

humanity and self-compassion.

And even to be able to recognize which system

might be dominant – what mode you might be

operating from, and to recognize that as a

fundamental human need, that evolution has

maintained because it is important to our well-

being.

And I think this just goes a long way in helping

people not feel like there is something

fundamentally wrong with them because they

have these experiences that we sometimes

devalue or are looking to escape or evolve away

from” (on p. 4 in the Part 2: TalkBack

Transcript).

Balancing the Brain for

More Happiness

Rick Hanson discussed the idea of rewiring your

brain for greater happiness. Specifically, he

mentions the need to balance between our

recognizing and embracing mental states. Kelly

McGonigal shares why she believes this idea of

balancing is so important.

Dr. McGonigal: “One of the things that Rick

talked about that I think is incredibly insightful

and important is that when you are in a red-light


state, it is often because a need is unmet and

something happened that triggered the felt

sense of that need being unmet – whether a

lack of safety or a lack of getting your basic

needs met for rewards or mastery or flow, or a

sense of disconnection or social conflict.

And he says that the antidote to that will be

balancing the positive state with embracing the

unmet need. And then, look for strategies that

allow you to connect the essence of that need,

even while you are experiencing pain around

the fact that it is unmet or that it has been

triggered in you.

One of the examples that he gives is that if you

are feeling lonely or disconnected or rejected,

that practicing loving has the same effect as the

experience of being loved, and that when you

are experiencing that need being unmet, you

don’t necessarily need to go out and find people

to prove that they love you, but to choose an

attitude of love or be able to commit an act of

love will meet the need in the same way

biologically and psychologically.

I think this is a true act of self-compassion he is

talking about here – how when we are suffering

from a sense of not having these basic needs

met, it is a tremendous act of courage as well as

self-compassion to say, ‘I’m going to honor this

need rather than deny it or reject it or try to

meet it in an unhealthy way, and I’m going to

actually really dive into what it would mean to


meet this need in a way that is possible in this

moment,’ or see how it’s already met” (on p. 6-7

in the Part 2: TalkBack Transcript).

Getting Rid of Fear

According to Rick Hanson, ‘taking in the good’ is

so helpful for overcoming the brain’s negative

bias. Here, Ron Siegel shares his ideas on the

importance of taking in the good, and gives

another way to go about changing perspective.

Dr. Siegel: “Rick has famously said that the mind

is like Velcro for bad experiences and Teflon for

good ones – the bad ones stick and the good

ones slip away.

And this makes perfect sense, evolutionarily,

because it would be a real disaster for us in

terms of passing on our DNA if we were to

mistake a lion for a beige rock – but mistaking a

beige rock for a lion we can do time and again

and still survive.

Simply noticing that this is the case is very, very

helpful – you know, that we are all, like Mark

Twain famously said near the end of his life

when he said, ‘I’m an old man now. I’ve lived a

long and difficult life filled with so many

misfortunes – most of which never happened.’

You know, when I read that, I thought, ‘Oh, yes,

well it sounds like he’s been living in my mind’ –

this is how it works.


So simply seeing this phenomena, simply seeing

that the mind is going to default to expecting

the worst; the mind is going to default toward

remembering the bad things, the trauma, and

tending to forget about the good ones – simply

keeping this in mind I think is our greatest asset

because then we don’t believe in the cognitions

as much.

Then, when the fearful thought comes up that,

‘It’s going to be a disaster,’ or, ‘Once again I’m

going to be hurt’ and all of that, we can have

another voice that says, ‘Oh, yes – there’s that

old tape. Yes, there I am being Mark Twain

again; there I am playing out my evolutionary

fate to avoid getting eaten by a lion.’

I think the other thing that is very, very helpful

that when we do find ourselves involved in this

kind of negativity, to think, ‘What exactly is it

that I am fearing or trying to ward off here? Is it

that I am desperately trying to preserve my rank

in the primate troop? Is it that I am desperately

trying to make sure that I don’t experience some

bodily discomfort? Is it that I’m afraid of some

fantasy I have of what death is like? What is it

that I am so afraid of here?’

And I think that often, if we do that with some

care and some detail, we notice that, you know,

we are afraid of experiencing an unpleasant

cognition, an unpleasant affect, an unpleasant

body sensation – and that all of these things

that we fear are actually tolerable if we see


them for what they are rather than get caught

up in their symbolic meanings and their

narrative.

So I think that also helps us to not get so stuck in

the negative” (on p. 7-8 in the Part 2: TalkBack

Transcript).

Recognizing a Reactive Brain

Rick Hanson compared the brain’s reactive and

responsive models to a red and a green zone.

Here, he explains why it’s so important to keep

the brain out of the red zone, and how we can

train the brain to stay in the green zone more

often.

Dr. Hanson: “One of the most powerful things

that I read in the research was that being upset

feels bad because it is bad for us; in other

words, the red zone feels bad. It feels bad to be

angry, or anxious, or sad, or ashamed, or

stressed in general. So one thing we can do is

recognize that that is a signal developed in us

over six hundred million years of evolution of

the nervous system, that is Mother Nature’s

flashing red light: ‘Danger, Will Robinson! Get

out of the red zone as fast as you can.’

So that is one thing, to actually pay attention to

the discomfort, the upset, the unease in the red

zone, and take it seriously, rather than doing

what many of us have done –to kind of plod

stoically through life, flogging that little, what


Mary Oliver calls ‘Soft animal of the body,’ to

keep it going, rather than really listening to its

signals.

You know, the distress and discomfort of the red

zone is an inner signal planted by Mother

Nature to get out of this zone as fast as you can.

Her plan is for animals to spend a little bit of

time in the red zone and get out of it quickly –

so chronic stress is really bad for us.

The second thing I think is to really build up

green-zone experiences. Because if you

gradually grow green zone experiences inside

yourself and you really help them sink in, you

will be increasingly able to handle challenges

without going into the red zone. There is no end

of challenges in this life, obviously, including old

age, disease, and death. It is how we meet those

challenges that really determines whether we

experience stress and the related wear and tear

in the body or not.

So one of the wonderful things is to appreciate

how repeatedly internalizing everyday green

zone experiences – a moment of calm, a

moment of pleasure, a moment of ease, a

moment of connection with your cat or your

friend – is the best possible way, actually, to

build up the neural substrates of the green zone

so that you can deal with challenges, without

‘going red’ with them” (from Part 3: Next Week

in Your Practice).


Applying the Positive

Rick Hanson talked a lot about developing a

positive mindset and why it is so important to

do that. Here, Bill O’Hanlon gives an easy way to

approach each day with more positivity.

Mr. O’Hanlon: “One of the most powerful things

that I read in the research was that be“I was

talking about gratitude, and someone said, ‘I’m

a psychology professional and I have my

students do an exercise I call “Twenty-five

gratitudes before breakfast.”’ And I said, ‘I

would never get to breakfast if you gave me

twenty-five!’ He said, ‘No – they’re simple ones;

you know: I get up. I switch on the light and it

comes on. And I get up and turn on a tap and

water comes out. I have a roof over my head.’

And I thought, ‘Oh, I could do twenty-five of

those.’

The things we take for granted – which is one of

the things the brain does: once it is there a lot,

we get used to it; we don’t notice the good, as

Rick said. We are not taking it in – partly

because we don’t notice it. And it is those

things: if you just went through a hurricane or

the lights are out and you don’t have any heat,

you don’t really appreciate that until it goes

away.

But if you can deliberately orient yourself to

what you have that you have taken for granted,

that is a really good thing that sometimes even

kings and emperors five hundred years ago


didn’t have. I have this amazing Skype thing that

we’re talking on, that I can talk to you in a

different part of the country. That’s incredible!

Twenty-five gratitudes before breakfast – and

you can make it five, you can make it three, you

can make it ten or whatever you want – you do

need to get up and have breakfast eventually!

But I think that is a great habit to get into, and it

sets the tone for the day. As Rick said, you start

to reorient your neurology, your brain, your

attention to the good rather than just the

negative – and that gives you some resilience,

even when the negative comes during the

day” (from Part 3: Next Week in Your Practice).

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