Articles
Some of my favorite writing on psychology, personal growth, and how we can become the person we want to be.
Relating to Death, and Living a Better Life
On today’s episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I talk about what's helped us come to terms with mortality, the reality of our limited time, and how we can use that knowledge to refine our focus and live a more fulfilling life.
Changing Your Relationship to Shame
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I take a deep dive into what shame is, and how questioning our assumptions about it can help us identify its origins in our lives so we can make an informed decision on how to respond to it.
The Grieving Brain with Mary-Frances O'Connor
On today’s episode of Being Well, I am joined by Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, to help us better understand grief and grieving. We explore why grief is such a unique and intense emotion, how grief works in the brain, and how we can learn to live with loss.
Borderline Personality Tendencies: Regulation, Nurturance, and Compassion
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I look at what to do when borderline tendencies show up in our lives even at sub-clinical levels. We discuss how to cultivate a healthy amount of sensitivity, how to regulate ourselves, and how to navigate relationships.
How to Make Learning STICK
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I dive into Rick’s recently published study on our capacity for deliberate growth. We talk a bit about the neurological components of learning, how the study worked, and what the practical takeaways are to help us make learning stick.
Rediscovering Your True Self: Parentification and the "Gifted Child"
On today’s episode of Being Well Dr. Rick Hanson and I explore how to heal from the effects of parentification through the lens of Alice Miller’s 1979 classic The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self.
Connecting With Your Best Parts
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I focus on how to accept, appreciate, and connect with our positive aspects, and how to deal with some of the blocks that prevent us from embracing the good in ourselves.
Recovering from Complex PTSD with Elizabeth Ferreira
On this episode, we are joined by Elizabeth Ferreira to discuss the experience of CPTSD. Elizabeth shares how CPTSD came about for her, what it can feel like, and how to create a compassionate environment with or without a therapist to safely heal.
Attachment, and Cultivating Nonattachment
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I discuss the challenges of attachment, what differentiates healthy and unhealthy forms of attachment, and what we can do to relax our attachments over time.
Intimacy, Individuality, and Breaking the Trauma Cycle with Terry Real
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I are joined by author and therapist Terry Real to talk about how to successfully metabolize our trauma and experience real intimacy in our relationships.
Accepting Ordinary with Dr. Ron Siegel
On this episode of Being Well, we are joined by psychologist and author Ronald Siegel to discuss how to drop the myth of the extraordinary, how to heal from feelings of inadequacy, and what healthy self-esteem looks like.
Working with Anger
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I explore the varied ways anger surfaces, how we can relate to it, and how in recognizing what it has to tell us we can channel its energy towards positive changes in our lives.
Becoming More Self-Aware
In this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I explore what it takes to develop self-awareness over time, why maintaining awareness can be such a struggle, and how much of what self-awareness reveals is our natural movement towards health and integration.
Changing Old Patterns, Self-Awareness, and Repairing with Family: Mailbag
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I open up the mailbag to explore a variety of questions from our listeners.
Maximize Your Motivation: Dopamine, Discipline, and Accepting Our Nature
On this episode of Being Well, we explore how to optimize our motivation.and how to best frame our outlook so we can feel relaxed, diligent, and uninhibited from being who we want to be and accomplishing what we want to accomplish.
Recovering from Secondary Traumatic Stress with Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
On this episode of Being Well, Forrest talks with trauma expert Laura van Dernoot Lipsy about how we can better manage secondary traumatic stress, how to avoid burnout and overwhelm, and what it looks like to stay hopeful and live fully in the face of daunting societal challenges.
Rumination: Disrupting Obsessive Thoughts
On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick Hanson and I spell out what rumination is, where it comes from, and how it functions in the brain. We then explore what practices and strategies we can use to move through it compassionately and effectively.
How to Not Die Alone: Navigating Modern Dating with Logan Ury
On this episode, I talk with Logan Ury to discuss the mechanics of dating - chemistry, romance, apps, and how to reframe our self-limiting tendencies so we can find love.
Understanding Stress: Causes, Biological Basis, and Increasing Resilience
On this episode of Being Well, we take a deep dive into defining stress, how it functions, how it impacts our lives and bodies, and what we can do to repair from its effects.
Using the Enneagram to Rewrite Your Story with Ian Morgan Cron
On this episode, I have a conversation with Ian Morgan Cron about how to use the Enneagram personality typing system to aid us in identifying and changing our underlying personal narrative.