Mindful Schools Testimonials from Adults and Children

Brain Imaging Illuminates Neuro Basis of Meditation

Mindfulness Politics and Society (Wisdom2.0)

Meditation #13 - Focusing on change (Rick Hanson)

This is a meditation focusing on the transient nature of our experience. Everything is constantly changing moment by moment. Everything appears and everything will disappear, from the most single things (eg. a sound) the the most complex ones (ex. a human being, a galaxy, etc.). The idea is to find peace within the acceptance of this fact of nature.

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Verdict: A good practice to become more aware and conscious of our own experience and of the roots of some of our suffering. 

In this moment... have fun!

Meditation #12 - Taking in the good (Rick Hanson)

This a meditation designed for get in touch with the good things that arrive to us through 4 different brain systems: avoidance, approach, attachment and undefined. The idea is not only to evoque good emotions that arise but, after bringing them to awareness, actively stick them to our implicit memory system, has it was proveen scientificaly to be possible. It is also a practice that the author suggests to be used every day, with your eyes open to the good things that happens everyday in your life.

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Verdict: All the results points to a great practice. A really valid resource to use in our daily life.

Meditation #11 - Deepening your responsive mode (Rick Hanson)

This a meditation to get in touch with the simple good things that happen all the time in our lives. We are, for instance, invited to remind some positive episodes, people with whom we feel good with and to accept the present moment as a perfect one.

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Verdict: It is a very good and simple meditation to activate positive emotions. These can be cultivated and trained to use as a valid resource in our daily life.


Meditation #10 - Being on your own side (Rick Hanson)

This is a compassion meditation. We are first asked to recall some situations so that we can sense how compassion feels in the body (note: everytime we felt a strong compassion during the meditation, the HRV changed immediately to a coherent cicle). Then we take this same emotion and project it throughout our whole life: since the beggining, when we were a child, until our last moments.

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Verdict: It is a simple meditation which can activate some positive emotions. These can be cultivated and trained to use as a valid resource in our daily life.


Meditation #9 - The True Nature of Awareness (Eckhart Tolle)

This is a very simple meditation, of just being in the present moment, accepting what emerges in the now, and observing the true nature of awareness. Because it is so simple and subtle, it turns out to be very difficult, mainly for people who aren’t familiarized with practices like mindfulness.

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Verdict: the results, in the overall, are medium, because although simple, this meditation require some experience from the meditator.

Meditation #8 - Discovering the Unchartered Territory (Gangaji)

This is a meditation focused on guiding questions, beginning with the classic "who am I", and evolving into others like "where do the words come from?", "where do they go next?", etc. Her calm and smooth voice, in conjunction with the questions, originated a great stillness and deepness inside me, like the data also show.

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Verdict: the objective data as well, as the subjective one, pointed out to a recommended meditation practice.


Meditation #7 - Guided Meditation (Brian L. Weiss)

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Man at work thinking about golf, golfing thinking about sex, having sex, thinking about work.

Do you understand now the importance of being present?

Meditation #6 - Blissitations - Melow (Brian Johnson)

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Meditation #5 - Mountain Meditation (Ronald Siegel)

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Meditation #4 - Thought Labeling (Ronald Siegel)

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Check this quick minute video about the process

Scientific benefits of meditation techniques - I

According to Daniel J. Siegel, here are some benefits of Mindfulness:
- improve the capacity of regulate emotion
- combat emotional dysfunction
- improve patterns of thinking
- reduce aggressive mind-sets
- treat and prevent depression

More to come in future posts!

Meditation #3 - From stress to success (Robin S. Sharma)

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Meditation #2 - Breath awareness meditation (Kim Eng)

 

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Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Meditation #1 - Allowing Everything to Be as It Is (Adyashanti)

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Here is how it is going to work

I will go through different types of meditation (check the list in the previous post) and the idea is to keep a log of each experience. I'll share two types of data: subjective and objective.

Subjective data
- Difficult rate: from -- (low) to ++ (high)
- Stillness/deepness rate: from -- (low) to ++ (high)
- Relaxation rate: from -- (low) to ++ (high)
- Some comments about the experience

Objective Data
- Duration (in minutes)
- Heart Rate Variability: from -100 (low) to +100 (high)
- Meditation Rate: from 0 (low) to 100 (high)
- Concentration Rate: from 0 (low) to 100 (high)

I hope you enjoy!

Important Note for the "sceptics"/"puritans": 
This is not a scientific experiment. I will do it just for the fun of doing it. :)

"Where" I'm going to "dive"

Here goes the list I have "in mind":

Allowing Everything to Be as It Is	Adyashanti
Shamatha	Alan Wallace
Holosync - The Dive	Bill Harris
Holosync - Immersion	Bill Harris
Blissitations - Melow	Brian Johnson
Blissitations - Ocean	Brian Johnson
Blissitations - Rain	Brian Johnson
Guided Meditation	Brian Weiss
The True Nature of Awareness	Eckhart Tolle
Anti-Stress	Francisco Nobrega de Lima
Discovering the Unchartered Territory	Gangaji
Redução da fadiga	Hearth Math
Resonant Tuning	Hemi-Sync
Meditation	Hemi-Sync
Guided Meditation	Jon Kabat-Zinn
Meditating on the breath	Kim Eng
Meditating on sense perceptions	Kim Eng
Inner body meditation	Kim Eng
A meditation for dissolving the pain-body	Kim Eng
Walking meditation	Kim Eng
Meditating on nature	Kim Eng
Drinking and eating meditation	Kim Eng
A meditation for entering sleep consciously	Kim Eng
Natural Meditation	Lama Surya Das
The Experience of Unconditioned Awareness	Peter Fenner
The doorway to your dreams	Robin Sharma
Connecting to your life guide	Robin Sharma
From stress to success	Robin Sharma
The Treasure Box	Robin Sharma
Happiness Visualization	Robin Sharma
Craft your Ideal Day	Robin Sharma
Breath Awareness	Ronald Siegel
Breath Practice Sampler	Ronald Siegel
Breathing Together	Ronald Siegel
Listening Meditation	Ronald Siegel
Thought Labeling	Ronald Siegel
Befriending the Changes	Ronald Siegel
Body Scan	Ronald Siegel
Raisin Meditation	Ronald Siegel
Loving Kindness	Ronald Siegel
Mountain Meditation	Ronald Siegel
Separating the Two Arrows	Ronald Siegel
Stepping into  Fear	Ronald Siegel
Stepping into Sadness	Ronald Siegel
Tonglen Practice	Ronald Siegel
Urge Surfing for Cravings	Ronald Siegel
Urge Surfing for Pain	Ronald Siegel
Raja Yoga Meditation	Sahaj Marg
Cleaning	Sahaj Marg
Body Scan	Strosahl & Robinson
Mindful Standing Yoga	Strosahl & Robinson
Mindfulness of the Breath	Strosahl & Robinson
Mindfulness of the Breath and Body	Strosahl & Robinson
Mindfulness of Sounds and Thoughts	Strosahl & Robinson
The Breathing Space	Strosahl & Robinson
Body Meditation	Upaya
Breathing Meditation	Upaya
Mind Meditation	Upaya

Any suggestions / practices are welcome.

Please let me know your thoughts and ideas!

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes (Carl Jung)

Today I'm are going to start a new experiment. We know from science that practices of focused attention develops the pre-frontal area of our brain, which is responsible for many important functions (eg. body regulation, empathy, idea generation, fear modulation, etc.) and that is even associated with happiness and well-being.

My goal with this blog is to go trough different types of meditation and gather different kinds of information:
Objective data - Heart Rate Variability and brain waves
Subjective data - difficult rate, relaxation rate, "deepness", other comments

Come with me and dive into my own inner world!

I hope you enjoy it!