I've been a big fan of Rick Hanson since I first read his book, Just One Thing. This new book, Making Great Relationships, is presented in a similar pattern as there are 50 small sections that give practical advice on love and improving relationships, internally and externally. I took my time with this book and really put a lot of the advice into action. I recommend this one!

This is a really great book to read whether you're in a dating/marriage relationship or not because who can't benefit from some helpful advise. This book will give you a new perspective that will cause you to honor yourself and enhance your relationships. I highly recommend this book.

We all deal with relationships and could, no doubt, benefit from some ideas to make them better. Hanson provides 50 such ideas in short chapters suitable for reading one a day. He writes about changes within our power to make, things we can do.

His book is divided into sections:

support for yourself and developing a warm heart for others.
groundwork for dealing with conflicts and challenging people
effective communication
expanding to communities and the world

I was pleasantly surprised to find a book on relationships starting out with the relationship with one's self. How can one have healthy relationships with others without one with one's self? Hanson goes on to provide really practical teaching on relationships. I really like the structure of the book. The chapters are short. Each one contains a “how” section offering practical ideas to implement that chapter's ideas.

Hanson covers many topics such as noticing the needs of others, being kind, ideas for opening your heart when you see someone you don't like, and handling criticism. I really appreciated his teaching on communication. He offers lots of practical ideas, sometimes even providing the words to say. He frequently gives examples from his own life to illustrate his ideas.

If you have read many self help books on relationships, there may not be any revolutionary new ideas to be found in this one. However, this book is a good collection of the best and most useful ideas and strategies for working on great relationships.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

In Making Great Relationships, psychologist and counselor Rick Hanson offers practical guidance in how to develop a more positive mindset and improve all of your relationships. He does so with warmth and humor in short chapters that are easy to understand. I loved the author’s gentle, encouraging tone; he leads by example with compassion and humility. He has a knack for explaining concepts clearly. He then discusses the seven ways of being that he considers the essence of awakening: steadiness, lovingness, fullness, wholeness, newness, allness, and timelessness.

The book includes 50 lessons organized into the following parts: Befriend Yourself, Warm the Heart, Be at Peace with Others, Stand Up for Yourself, Speak Wisely, and Love the World. Each lesson includes a short discussion and then guidance for how to implement that skill. Although I was already familiar with most of the ideas in this book, we can all use occasional reminders of things we already know, and I particularly like Hanson’s presentation of these ideas.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in developing a more positive mindset, improving your relationships, communicating more effectively, and living a happier life. Practical and encouraging, this book should have wide appeal.

Thanks to the publisher, Harmony Books, for providing me with an unproofed ARC through NetGalley, which I volunteered to review.

Making Great Relationships casts bare the secrets of connection. Drawing upon decades of experience as a practicing psychologist and author, as well as a devoted husband and father, Dr. Hanson combines the scientific and the poetic in order to deliver an insightful guide to being with others. Making Great Relationships explores striking truths with gentleness--Hanson cloaks his sage advice in genial kindliness and clarity. At the same time, his words are frank, instructive, and dignified, creating a uniquely relatable discourse. One would be hard-pressed to find a better book on the subject of relating.

This book is divided into parts including Befriend Yourself, Warm the Heart, Be at Peace with Others, Stand Up for Yourself, Speak Wisely, and Love the World. Throughout, author Rick Hanson offers 50 brief thoughts on how to develop the many relationships in our lives.

I found Making Great Relationships a bit underwhelming and thought it read more like a magazine article. I was disappointed that opportunities to provide research-based advice were only offered as a referral to the author's previous books. I think this book offers a primer in mindfulness and self-inquiry that would be beneficial for those newer to the practice, but experienced meditators and yogis will find it lacking.

Thank you to Rodale Inc. and NetGalley for providing me with an advance readers copy to review!

Making Great Relationships was recommended and it was an interesting book. I liked the introduction and how it lays the book out.
It was filled with great advice and how to make your relationships with others thrive.

Rick Hanson's "Marking Great Relationships" is a superb distillation of psychological research on relationships in a down-to-earth and compassionate manner. After reading this book, you will undoubtedly have a healthier sense of self and happier and healthier relationships. I highly recommend it!

This author has proven time and time again that his books will be of benefit to to you wherever you are in your life. I think all of us would be helped by the advice in this book.

A surprising section in the beginning talks about how to actually like yourself. Throughout the years if we have been outright verbally put down by others, ghosted by friends and partners we cared about, or personally screwed up some aspect of a relationship so badly that we still feel upset weeks, months or even years later, this is the best place to start,

From all the current political arguments to disagreements about hot topics, this book could be of great help to everyone on this planet.

5 stars!

There is not a person alive who can not benefit from knowing how to improve the relationships in their life. Rick Hanson, PhD, offers some practical knowledge as to how to make that happen.

Broken into short yet helpful chapters, the author offers readers new perspectives and 52 ways that they can honor theirselves, meet their own needs, and improve their relationships.

A very readable and interesting book, it gave me food for thought and personal change when held up against some of my own more challenging relationships. It's encouraging and exciting to be given the knowledge to break out of a rut and learn how to fine-tune your life for the better!

Well done and highly recommended!

My thanks to Harmony for allowing me to read and ARC of this book via NetGalley. Publication is scheduled for 1/17/23. All opinions stated in this review are my own and are freely given.

I have been a fan of Rick Hanson's work for many years now, and have taken several of his courses, so I was excited to be given this chance to read and review an advance copy of Making Great Relationships. The book is, unsurprisingly, extremely accessible for the lay reader. It's organized into 50 chapters, each one tackling a different relationship skill, which can be read in any order. Rick also uses his own experiences as an example, which makes the book relatable (and demonstrates that even the expert can have dealt with these issues). I recommend this book to readers who want to develop better relationships with others—and with themselves.

Making Great relationships by Rick Hanson PhD is a book that gently and thoughtfully opens up a conversation that allows space to think about the relationships we all have in our lives. Whilst reading Ricks's thoughts about how we communicate and how we can improve our relationships, I had some moments when I realised that this book is full of practical ideas we can all benefit from.
The real test is putting it into practice which is why will most definitely be reading it again and again simply because each time I read it, I notice there is something else to learn in creating great relationships. like anything good in life, it takes time and practice. This book has come at a time when all our relationships have been through so many challenges and would highly recommend reading it. Ive noticed small and meaningful differences in my relationships simply by taking the time to digest what it means in Making Great Relationships and taking practical steps .in the right direction. A truly thoughtful read especially during these challenging times. ,

MAKING GREAT RELATIONSHIPS builds upon 50 truths to a holistic view of his practical teachings of how to strengthen and leverage feelings of safety and satisfaction to optimize our connections to the self, others and the surrounding world. Being a student of Dr. Hanson since the mid-teens via his books, online classes, podcasts, and generous mailings has afforded me the opportunity to be on the journey of many of these learnings. This book is holistic encapsulation and builds upon those teachings, which with work (as Dr. Hanson reminds us change does not come without practice) sets forward a divine meditation building upon a simple breadth, extended to the embodied-self and ending in moving beyond the self to connection to all that lies beyond. And as with all meditations, a single practice is a gift while a consistent heart-led Practice is a blessing. Through these 50 teachings, Dr. Hanson provides the foundation for the latter.

This book is awesome, and it is eloquently written. Dr. Hanson empowers his readers by teaching them different ways to strengthen, repair and heal their relationships. Dr. Hanson is convinced that the three most powerful ingredients to repair relationships are love, compassion, and forgiveness. This book is informative, educational, transformative, profound, inviting, and easy to read. Making Great Relationships is a must read.

Making Great relationships by Rick Hanson is a book I highly recommend. In this book you will learn how to stand up for yourself, bring compassion to yourself, and learn techniques to take life less personally. We need to be calm, see the big picture, be patient and not get hijacked by negative emotions. In this book, you will learn how to communicate more effectively with others, and understand yourself better. Rick instructs us to take care of our own responsibilities in relationships before expecting others to change.

Helpful and insightful. Takes a Buddhist approach which is interesting. You can learn a great deal from this book about relationships in general, not romantic relationships per say but everyday relationships work, friends etc. good resource to read. Thank you NetGalley!

This is quite good, and has lots of helpful ideas and suggestions. I like the short chapters and concise info. At the same time it doesn't seem meaty enough to address the deeper issues that may cause problems. So I"m conflicted about that. Nonetheless, this will be helpful for many readers.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!