You might have heard the line “attachment is the root of suffering.” It comes from the Buddha, but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to recognize that becoming overly attached to a particular outcome, person, or view of yourself can lead to a lot of suffering. At the same time, there are clearly things that are sensible to be attached to – like our loved ones, a basic moral compass, and fundamentals like food and shelter. So, what’s the problem with attachment?

On this episode of Being Well, Dr. Rick and Forrest Hanson discuss the problem with attachment, what differentiates healthy and unhealthy forms of attachment, and what we can do to relax attachment over time.

Watch the Episode: Prefer watching video? You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Key Topics:

0:00: Introduction

2:10: Learning from Buddhism without trying to be a Buddhist

8:45: Two kinds of suffering

12:00: Distinguishing healthy desire and unhealthy desire

19:40: Markers of problematic attachments

24:10: Self-concept, and an example from Forrest of relaxing attachment 

30:25: Balancing "Right View" and nonattachment

42:25: Pain and release

50:55: What’s useful for you?

55:45: Recap

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