Happiness: Is It a Matter of Luck — or a Learnable Skill?

We all want to be happy. So why do we often feel like everyone around us is fulfilled, but we're missing something?

Is it even possible to make changes to improve your well-being?

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist who's spent decades studying how you can achieve lasting happiness. His science-based techniques help overcome your brain's natural negativity bias so you can "rewire" your brain for the better.

large quotes

Rick is a great trainer. He has a wonderful easy manner, which immediately creates an empathetic environment. And he has the knack of presenting things in an easy-to-digest and friendly way.

— C.K., SoundsTrue.com

With Train Your Brain for Happiness, you will learn how to embrace everyday experiences and use them to “take in the good” and create beneficial, lasting change in your life.

Instead of being thrown off track by life's challenges, Rick teaches you how to feel more balanced, in control, and at peace, no matter what's going on around you.

Through science-based mindfulness practices, the latest findings in neuroplasticity, and inspiring personal anecdotes, Rick guides you step-by-step in the transformational journey that is Train Your Brain for Happiness.

What You Will Learn
  • silhouette of a person with a red heart image

    Rewire Your Brain

    Use your mind to change your brain for the better.

  • hands with palms facing each other with wavy lines going between them

    Heal Old Pain

    Overcome the brain's natural negativity bias.

  • hands holding a heart

    Take in the Good

    Turn passing experiences into beneficial, lasting changes.

  • hand with palm facing the viewer with a heart in the center

    Be More Present

    Embrace positive experiences by being more fully in the moment.

  • hands passing a swiring line to each other

    Take Back Control

    Grow inner strengths that help you cope with the hard things in life.

  • silhouette of a person meditating

    Hardwire Your Happiness

    Identify key experiences that help build your path to lasting well-being.

Meet Your Teacher
Rick Hanson Photo

Rick Hanson, PhD, is a psychologist who's spent decades studying how we can achieve lasting well-being, or happiness. He's the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, a Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and a New York Times bestselling author. His books include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. His books are available in 26 languages, and he’s been an invited speaker at NASA, Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and meditation centers around the world.

Rick offers several popular neuroplasticity-focused programs through Sounds True including The Compassionate Brain, Awaken your Brain, Meditations to Change Your Brain, and The Enlightened Brain.

When he’s not researching or sharing his findings on brain science, Rick enjoys rock climbing and taking a break from emails.

A “Five-Star” Course Design, Created by One of Our Most Highly Rated Teachers
image representing the variety of devices that this product is available for: laptop, desktop, phone, ipad
    icon: star
  • Over 8 hours of video training where Rick shares exciting ideas from neuroscience, powerful guided meditations, and practical ways to “rewire” your brain for lasting inner strength and peace.
  • icon: star
  • Live Q&A mentoring session (7/12/2017 6:00 PM MDT) with Rick offering personalized feedback and guidance.
  • icon: star
  • Course workbook and daily trackers that help tap the power of positive neuroplasticity.
  • icon: star
  • Guided practices to keep you on the path to changing your brain for the better.
  • icon: star
  • Personal journaling to help you record and reflect on your meaningful transformation, work through roadblocks, and celebrate the wins.

For professionals, this course is now approved for 9 continuing education (CE) credits. You can purchase this separate product at any time after purchasing the course. See your “Purchase Confirmation” email for full details.

The Train Your Brain for Happiness Course Curriculum

SESSION ONE: It’s Good to Be Happy

What is happiness, and why is it good to feel good?
In Session One, you will dive into the benefits of happiness and explore how self-directed neuroplasticity enables us to change our brain for the better. Learn more about:

  • How to disengage from feeding our brain the bad stuff
  • How to turn passing experiences into lasting psychological resources such as resilience, self-worth, calm, and compassion
  • Harnessing the power of the mind to create a life full of peace, contentment, and love

SESSION TWO: Being On Your Own Side

Embracing self-compassion for yourself and “being on your own side” is the first step in hardwiring your brain for lasting strength, inner peace, and happiness. Session Two reveals:

  • How self-compassion opens the door to a more joyful life
  • Three powerful guided meditations to cultivate compassion
  • Working with our “inner protector”

SESSION THREE: Cultivating Your Inner Strengths

Inner strengths such as peace, contentment, love, confidence, self-compassion, courage, patience, and emotional balance are necessary ingredients to support you during difficult or uncomfortable situations in life. Session Three explores:

  • How we cultivate inner strengths by experiencing them
  • Overcoming our built-in “negativity bias”
  • How to “install” experiences of inner strength into your own nervous system

SESSION FOUR: Taking in the Good

The best way to develop greater happiness and other inner strengths is to have experiences of them, and then help these good mental states become good neural traits. This is taking in the good—activating a positive experience and installing it in your brain. Session Four discusses:

  • Coming home to a comfortable intimacy with your own experience
  • Developing a confident openness to life and greater mastery with your own mind
  • Popping open the “bottleneck in the brain” to let the good stuff in

SESSION FIVE: Why It Is Good to Take In the Good, and Working with Others to Take In the Good

As you gradually sensitize your brain, it gets faster and more efficient at converting beneficial states into lasting beneficial traits. Session Five explores:

  • Pulling weeds and planting flowers as you tend the “garden of the mind”
  • Not positive thinking, but realistic thinking
  • Mindfulness training and the mantra “Let be. Let go. Let in.”

SESSION SIX: Growing Your Key Strengths

Our brain evolved to meet our three core needs—safety, satisfaction, and connection. These three operating systems that avoid harms, approach rewards, and attach to others are actively alive in our brain today. Session Six illuminates:

  • How our brains take their shape from what our minds repeatedly rest upon
  • Turning peace, contentment, and love into your default states
  • Increasing your sense of unconditional joy

SESSION SEVEN: Your Resource Experience

Knowing what experiences and resources we personally need more of in life unlocks a world that we have been searching for our entire lives. In Session Seven, you’ll explore:

  • Identifying your personal “Vitamin C"—that which nourishes your sense of connection and wholeness
  • Self-soothing negative thoughts and feelings
  • A guided meditation for experiencing your inner resources

SESSION EIGHT: Staying in the Green Zone

When we are not deficient in one or more of our core needs, and instead there is a sense of fullness and balance, the brain and nervous system will tend to default to our resting state of peace, contentment, and love — “our true home base.” Session Eight explores:

  • How to use “responsive states and traits” to manage difficult situations
  • The possibility of resting in peace, contentment, and love the majority of the time, both individually and collectively
  • A guided meditation on “Coming Home to Happiness”
What You Will Receive

Our online students praise Rick Hanson’s courses as immersive, deeply informed, and interactive.

Here’s a summary of everything you’ll receive when you register for Train Your Brain For Happiness:

    icon: number one
  • Over eight hours of video training where Rick shares exciting ideas from neuroscience, powerful guided meditations, and practical ways to “rewire” your brain for lasting inner strength and peace.
  • icon: number two
  • Live Q&A mentoring session (7/12/2017 6:00 PM MDT) with Rick offering personalized feedback and guidance.
  • icon: number three
  • Course workbook and daily trackers that help tap the power of positive neuroplasticity.
  • icon: number three
  • Guided practices to keep you on the path to changing your brain for the better.
  • icon: number three
  • Personal journaling to help you record and reflect on your meaningful transformation, work through roadblocks, and celebrate the wins.
image of a boxed gift
Plus Bonuses
    the cover of Rick Hanson's The Compassionate Brain Course that has Rick Hanson's photograph and a background with tree branches covered green leaves
    The Compassionate Brain
    Rick Hanson, PhD
    $197 value
  • Rick Hanson meets with world-class teachers to explore the mind’s ability to change the brain. Eight video sessions featuring Richard Davidson, Dan Siegel, Tara Brach, Dacher Keltner, Kelly McGonigal, Kristin Neff, and Jean Houston.
    the cover of Rick Hanson's The Neurodharma of Love Course that has a silhouette of a profile
    The Neurodharma of Love
    Rewire Your Brain For Healthy Relationships
    Rick Hanson, PhD
    $15 value
  • A practice-rich audio program where Rick Hanson shows you how to transform your relationships using brain-savvy methods.
    icon: word bubbles
  • Live Q&A Via real-time video broadcast, Rick Hanson responds to your specific needs, challenges, and questions.

For professionals, this course is now approved for 9 continuing education (CE) credits. You can purchase this separate product at any time after purchasing the course. See your “Purchase Confirmation” email for full details.

Join the Program Today
We invite you to join Rick Hanson's Train Your Brain For Happiness today.

Course starts May 17, 2017

Registration is now closed

Please sign up below if you would like to be notified when we reopen registration.

We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with Train Your Brain for Happiness for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund.

Signed by Tami Simon

Tami Simon, Founder of Sounds True

100% Guarantee Seal
What Students Are Saying About Online Learning with Rick Hanson

This program saved me after a year of depression and anxiety following the end of a love relationship. No more overwhelming crying spells or anxiety bouts. Highly recommended.

I've taken several meditation-based classes, but this one with Rick Hanson has been the absolute best. I've learned so much academically, personally, and for my use as a clinician.

I’ve been so pleased with the ease and flow of this course. Well organized, easily accessed, and rich with information and practice opportunities.

Thank you, Rick, for so many practical and varied tools. I looked forward to each of the sessions, and have appreciated being able to return to them for ongoing practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I access the free Masterclass after I input my email?

You will receive an email with the download or a link.

How do I purchase Train Your Brain For Happiness?

You can purchase it here.

How do I access my course once I have purchased?

To access your course, you will need to:

  • Log in to your Sounds True account.
  • Click on “my library” (located in the green navigation bar at the top right of the page.)
  • Click on “Online Courses” (located on the left side of the page.)
  • Find Train Your Brain For Happiness.
  • Click on “go to course.”

How do I access The Compassionate Brain or The Neurodharma of Love?

It will be in your Digital Library after purchase.

Can I download the course to a computer or mobile device?

You can download the course onto your computer. At this time, courses are also available in your Sounds True App and can be streamed on your mobile device but can not be downloaded. However, you can download the sessions on your computer and then sync to your device, where it will be available in iTunes.

Join the Program Today
We invite you to join Rick Hanson's Train Your Brain For Happiness today.

Registration is now closed

Please sign up below if you would like to be notified when we reopen registration.

We unconditionally guarantee your satisfaction with all Sounds True products for one year when purchased via our website. If you are not 100% satisfied with Train Your Brain for Happiness for any reason, simply return it with receipt for a full refund.

Signed by Tami Simon

Tami Simon, Founder of Sounds True

100% Guarantee Seal