Books that are like meditation exercises

Psychological well-being is a skill. This is supported by Richard Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who identifies in meditation a very strong tool for modifying brain structures, taking advantage of neuroplasticity. And like all skills, even the art of feeling good is something that can be learned, refined, trained, and for this there are meditation exercises.

Mindfulness or meditation?

Today they are two widely used and often overlapping concepts. As he explains Daniel Lumeraone of the leading international experts in wellness science, in the Gianluca Gotto podcast The happiness of research available on Audible: «Downloading an app is not enough to learn to practice. There mindfulness is something other than meditation, it is a presence technique, but it is not meditation. To pray is not to meditate, to think is not to meditate, it is not to visualize. Meditation is a state of pure awareness of being, where there are no thoughts, definitions, where there is no type of identification ». For Lumera, the meditative state is comparable to what a three-month-old baby perceives who is not aware of having an ego, but his being is pure identification with that unitary field we call life. “We can reproduce that state consciously. Meditation has very powerful positive side effects: it allows the mind to enter very strong regenerative processes, improves intuition and creativity. The meditative mind is enthusiastic and grateful for life, full of wonder. It is configured as a return to the general state of purity, one becomes an ocean of pure awareness ».

With meditation one enters a state of happiness that is not connected to doing. It is something that comes first, a generative happiness, a resource rather than a final destination. “Meditation leads to the experience of existential happiness, which does not depend on anything and for this revolutionizes the paradigm: instead of doing something to seek happiness, I find it within me, as a state of awareness. And starting from this integrity I choose, I decide, I move in life. Thus the happiness of research becomes the expression of a fullness ».

Happiness can be trainedexplains Sandro Formica, Professor of Science of Happiness and Positive Organizations at Florida International University in Miami. He calls her Self Scienceis based on 9 pillars and an axiom: happiness is not a simple emotion, but it is a state of being: we are dealing with thousands of emotional states a day, if happiness were simply an emotion, it would be something that comes and goes for a few seconds, perhaps several times a day. To be happy, therefore, one must go beyond the state of pleasure, one must strive to be happy and find a motivation to be happy. Thus happiness becomes a muscle to be trained.

Meditation exercises

We need happiness and this is also demonstrated by the proliferation of courses on happiness and positive psychology, one above all that of Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of psychology at Yale who in a short time has transformed into the most followed course in the history of the prestigious university. A journey that focuses on the exploration and promotion of the resources and potential of the individual that we can all listen to thanks to the podcast created by Santos: The Happiness Lab. Among the techniques to increase your well-being is to write five things every day for which you felt gratified during the day, the long-term result is surprising.

It is true that meditation and mindfulness they are not the same thing, but also mindfulness, the state of presence that can be put into practice in every moment of daily life, has positive effects on the body and is a fundamental form of training for well-being.

As Carolina Traverso, founder of Simply mindfulness: “It reduces stress because it lowers cortisol levels, improves sleep quality, memory and concentration ability because it raises the level of gamma waves, the fastest brain waves that allow the simultaneous processing of information from different areas of the brain , decreases the possibility of a depressive relapse and raises the immune defenses ».

Mindfulness develops sensory perception. This is why the natural element is the environment that allows you to enter into more resonance with yourself, through conscious walks in the woods, the embrace of trees, breathwork exercises to improve and free the breath and barefoot walking to increase the own sensoriality. Or through reading a book that leads to a state of presence. As the great Zen master said Thich Nhat Hanh washing dishes is also meditation. “If you don’t know how to wash the dishes with awareness, you won’t even be able to sit in silence and meditate.”

Being present has to do with the relationship with time, as the ancients already said. Did St. Augustine argue that we make the past present through memory, the future through hope and the present? We make the present present through attention, that we could define the prayer of the layman.