Practicing Courage #16: Taking in the Good

Is it possible to turn beneficial states like gratitude, joy, calm, courage, grit, and compassion into enduring traits?

And if it is, how do we go about doing it?

I remember hearing these questions many years ago when I first came across the work of Dr. Rick Hanson

At the time he was making a research-backed argument that said...yes, indeed we can and then provided a road map for practice.

Here's the gist of what he shared:

As we begin training our mind to cultivate these internal strengths (gratitude, resolve, patience, calm in the face of challenge etc),

Over time, and with practice, our brains can change.

And as our brains change it supports more frequent (and on-demand) experiences of these beneficial states.

Today I would like to offer the essence of this practice with you, a practice that I have learned from Rick over the years as I've studied with him.

He calls it "Taking in the Good."

In this episode you will hear a clip from a past conversation with Rick on the podcast where he will offer an introduction to his HEAL framework. 

HEAL stands for: 

• Have a beneficial experience 
• Enrich it 
• Absorb it
• Link it to 'negative material'

In essence this practice involves having a beneficial experience like calm in the face of challenge, and then really feeling into it and staying with it (enriching and absorbing the experience) which helps to install it in the brain. Over time this can lead to transformation. 

The practice itself will center around these questions: 

1. Can we pursue our work, or our aspirations in life without attachment? 
2. Is it possible to approach our goals, priorities and tasks seriously while also holding them lightly? 

The invitation as always would be to listen, test out the practice, and see how it works (or not) in your own experience.

Till next time,

-Joshua

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