Prayer, meditation, singing, contemplation, journaling, reading, and singing are just a few ways to tap into your inner energy and bring more meaning into your life. But as we mentioned at the beginning, the spiritual path can be different for each of us.And it doesn't just make you connect to a higher being that you believe in, but to yourself.

What is spirituality for?

Spirituality reduces stress, decreases anxiety, and prevents depression. Becoming a great ally of mental health and, consequently, physical health.

1. Psychological

The social support of spirituality, especially for those who attend a group with the same purposes, also brings benefits in improving social life.

2. Social

Increased resilience and building a positive view of the world are directly related to this connection with the higher divine or yourself.

3. Behavioral

Spiritual people tend to cultivate a healthier and more disciplined lifestyle, which reduces cortisol and adrenaline levels, generating a better response from the body to oxidative stress.

4. Biologicals

I tried to put only positive points since everything in excess is bad and becomes alienation, I don't consider myself a very spiritual person, but I see these advantages in other similar ones that I live with. Of course, not all spirituality believes in a God, but if practiced with awareness, respect and love, it is something extremely welcome to society and to care for yourself.Peace

Observation:

"May your faith be greater than your fears."

"Determination, courage, and self-confidence are decisive factors for success."

In a general context, spirituality is an inner journey that involves change in consciousness, dealing more with inner understanding than with outer worship.

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

mentalhealth

Mental Health

meditation

Meditation

Benefits of Spirituality for Body and Mind

The brain's reward system is a group of brain regions responsible for reward-related cognition, or in other words, pleasure, motivation, and desire, in addition to associative learning. These regions of the brain are activated whenever there is a reward stimulus, which means there is a release of dopamine.

Reward system

There are different types of video games, but there's a basic idea: you need to progress through the game to get something rewarding. It's a goal-directed experience.

Dopamine with video games?

In the first case, the feeling of accomplishment may be greater after struggling for a long period and the pleasure may be associated with an important activation in the reward system. In the second case, the difficulty is lower, but the gratification is more frequent, keeping the reward system activated for longer.

Dark Souls and Candy Crush

What is common is this: when a certain behavior is rewarded, it tends to persist. And this is one of the reasons why you might not like Dark Souls. Due to the level of difficulty, the reward may never be reached

Hard enough/ rewards enough?

We often cover its graphics, the story, or the gameplay. A selling adjective often used by those who enjoy games is that it's addictive, but have you ever wondered what are the mechanisms that make our brains enjoy games so much?

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

health

Health

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

entertainment

Entertainment

Video Games and Their Effects on the Brain

Ippo's life fight sleeve that ascends in boxing was my biggest influence to start training and developing in sports

it all started with Hajime no ippo

It fit like a glove on my hands. I had to come and tell you that you are interested in training at home and want to develop in boxing, kickboxing and Mauy Thai. It is extremely complete and teaches the basics of the movements even to beginners like me.

HeavyBag app

It's the foundation of success and I'm building mine, I don't plan to be a competitor, but defense education is essential even for our own safety, physical and mental health.

Persistence

"For him to fall, the damage needed is not to his body, but to his spirit!"

<a href="https://heavybag.pro/blog-2/">Blog - Heavy Bag Pro</a> taught me a lot and I feel grateful to both the UFC, Hajime no ippo, heavyBag for helping me develop this interest.

Thank you

I've always been a big fan of fighting, especially UFC, and with the HeavyBag pro app I was able to develop well in that regard. Link: https://heavybag.pro/

productivity

Productivity

habits

Habits

My Martial Arts Story

Osamu Dazai is a well-known writer in Japan, and at first this work seems to us just a narration of the life and state of mind of a character, but what this character describes is nothing more than the author's life being almost his own biography.

A book that is difficult to digest

“What did he mean by "society"? The plural of human beings?”

The cover of the book, which represents a jester, exemplifies well the character who dresses up as this figure in order to hide himself and his feelings towards life in society. Thus following in a life of "Divine Comedy" and I put it in this sense of living life as a happy "clown" for others, but living a hell inside.

Is wearing a dress mask acceptable?

I don't recommend it if you are a sensitive person, especially because of the topics that this book addresses and it gains even greater weight when you realize that everything narrated was in fact the life of a real and physical being of our world and not just a fictional character. You connect with the feelings of existential emptiness.

Current themes of a life of the past

I highly recommend the experience to anyone who feels ready and interested in books that put you in an already unbalanced state of mental health.

First reading which I felt inexplicably sad and empty at the end

This book made me want to share such an experience with you.Thank you to those who read it and who encourage me to post here. If you are interested in a subject for me to address here, feel free to recommend it.

The poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.

philosophy

Philosophy

movies

Movies & Shows

books

Books

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Osamu Dazai

No Longer Human

Being positive is a difficult reality for many people, so just thinking positive is not enough to shape your entire reality, taking this into account creating new healthy habits that help in this process is essential.Some important habits are: <ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Meditation;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Regular physical exercise;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Healthy eating;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Hobbies that regulate your mood.</li></ul>

What does it mean to be a positive person?

Too much positivity is not cool, as it blinds us from facing, welcoming and understanding our and other people's feelings and emotions in difficult times. Positive thinking like "this will pass and get better" is ok and indeed very necessary, but crossing that line and devaluing your feelings of dissatisfaction is a dangerous point.

Toxic positivity

Realistic people know how to recognize the negative and positive points of situations and not let themselves be influenced by just one of all the possible views available, such as the example of:<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Negative person: a glass half empty;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Positive person: a glass half full;</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Realistic person: a glass with only water in half.</li></ol>

Realistic person

"I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter".

"Because we have learned to believe negativity is more realistic, it appears more real than any positive voice".

"It is important for you to have a goal. You simply can't get there if you don't know where you are going".

If you are a very negative person, here are some tips on how to manage these thoughts and be more positive and realistic with the world around you.

How to be more positive?

He was an Austrian neurologist and important psychoanalyst. Freud was the creator of psychoanalysis and the most influential personality in history in the field of psychoanalysis and psychology.Freud was born into a Jewish family in the town of Freiberg in Mähren, then part of the Austrian Empire, now called Příbor in the Czech Republic. He began his studies by using the technique of hypnosis in the treatment of patients diagnosed with hysteria at the time, as a way of accessing their mental contents.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1867)

The conscious level is nothing more than everything that we are aware of in the moment, in the now. It would correspond to the smallest part of the human mind. In it is everything that we can perceive and access intentionally. Unconscious refers to all that mental content that is not available to the person at any given time. It is not only the largest slice of our mind, but also, for Freud, the most important.Almost all the memories we believe are "lost forever", the feelings we ignore are in our unconscious.

Conscious X Unconscious

For psychoanalysis, dreams can reveal desires and traumas or other elements present in our unconscious. For psychoanalysis, dreaming is one of the ways to access the unconscious, a part of the mind that we do not have easy access to.In the book "The Dream Interpretation of Dreams" Freud states that dreams are the fulfillment of a wish. These are hidden desires, desires that we often do not fulfill due to social impositions.

Dreams for Freud

Our conscious mind tries its best to protect us from the "truth" hidden within the unconscious, because for the individual it is painful, so dreams appear confusing and difficult to interpret. However, through free association with a proper psychoanalyst, your dreams can be analyzed in their life context, desires, and reality

Why don't our dreams make sense?

"The dream is a (disguised) fulfillment of a (repressed) desire".

I am particularly passionate about psychoanalysis and Freud's theories, so I will explain a little about dreams in Freud's view in a very punctual and basic way since it is a very dense content. (I remind you that it was the content I saw in psychology school and I make these stashes mainly to exercise my brain, memory and help you and your curiosities, thank you)

history

History

Freud and Dreams (Basic Explanation)

We understand that life is not only made up of happiness and easy paths, so sometimes we feel unmotivated with work, college or even with the practice of some physical activity.So, keeping the conscious thought of the goals, taking into account your positive characteristics and gains that you have already obtained previously on this path, is a way to stay motivated.

How can I be more motivated?

Thought 1- "I have a difficult task at work, I don't think I can do it" My tip: Think back to difficult tasks in the past that you've overcome, you've probably experienced a lot of pressure moments in your life and you've been able to get through them several times. Calm down and think about the situations you have experienced and that you can take advantage of the lessons you have learned.

Example 1 :

Thought 2- "The gym is not working, I don't feel motivated to continue this activity, I think I'll stop and in the future I'll try again more focused"My tip: Why put off until tomorrow what can be done today?The first step is always the hardest, constancy makes perfect and a day, week or month that you stopped following your diet or training correctly, don't throw away all your previous effort and in case you have "slipped" a lot, there is always time to return and try again. Never give up on your wants and dreams.

Exemple 2:

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

"You can win big just by being the last one to fold".

We are not a working machine that needs basic maintenance like oil and a screw. Human beings are endowed with awareness and feelings, not every day we will be 100% and everything is fine, but get up and move forward after welcoming yourself and your needs.

It's okay to feel unmotivated sometimes

"As difficult as life may seem, there will be something you can do about it and you will succeed."

Lately, in our high-tech generation and need for high productivity, we have the desire to advance tasks and lack of motivation to follow the chosen path. With that in mind, I'm here to talk a little about this subject and provide you with certain tips that can help you

According to Dr. Simão Bacamarte, the reason would be the balance of the faculties and everything coming out of this sense would be insanity.He believed that everyone in the city was crazy for the most diverse reasons, but he accepts that the imbalance is in fact the "normal" and exemplary as far as humanity is concerned.

What is the limit of reason?

We have the habit of comparing ourselves to others and who hasn't thought "argh, why am I not normal like others?"But normal or abnormal is just one piece of our feeling that makes us feel inferior. If you think about all the 7 billion people that exist on this planet, none are the same as you or me, so it is not possible to define a metric of normality because being ourselves is the beauty of our self.

What would be normal and abnormal?

If so many men in whom we suppose judgment are imprisoned by the insane, who tells us that the alienated is not the alienist?"

Machado de Assis was born on June 21, 1839, in Morro do Livramento, in Rio de Janeiro, in the Regency Period.

The book tells the story of Dr. Bacamarte, an alienist (the designation of psychiatrist at the time), who creates the Green House, a place to carry out unprecedented studies on the human mind, but ends up getting lost in his own madness.

A classic work of literature by “the greatest author ever produced in Latin America.” (Susan Sontag)   Brilliant physician Simão Bacamarte sacrifices a prestigious career to return home and dedicate himself to the budding field of psychology. Bacamarte opens the first asylum in Brazil hoping to crown himself and his hometown with “imperishable laurels.” But the doctor begins to see signs of insanity in more and more of his neighbors. . . . With dark humor and sparse prose, The Alienist lets the reader ponder who is really crazy. *** This is a Hybrid Book. Melville House HybridBooks combine print and digital media into an enhanced reading experience by including with each title additional curated material called Illuminations — maps, photographs, illustrations, and further writing about the author and the book. The Melville House Illuminations are free with the purchase of any title in the HybridBook series, no matter the format. Purchasers of the print version can obtain the Illuminations for a given title simply by scanning the QR code found in the back of each book, or by following the url also given in the back of the print book, then downloading the Illumination in whatever format works best for you. Purchasers of the digital version receive the appropriate Illuminations automatically as part of the ebook edition.

Machado De Assis

The Alienist

If you're a very shy person, try to put yourself in small social situations, such as wishing a stranger good morning, ordering a coffee at the bakery, or asking someone for some information

1- Challenge yourself

If when you hear that in college you will have a presentation and immediately think that you are not capable, you will be embarrassed, you will do something stupid, at this moment you convince your brain with this repetition that in fact you are not enough for this task, then always fight these thoughts with positive things, always looking at past situations that you have already gone through and overcome shyness.

2- Be positive

“If you want something as bad as you want to breathe, then you can do it.”

Don't overwhelm yourself, you need to know and recognize your limits. The journey can be long and arduous, but over time it becomes easier and with each overcoming you recognize and receive the feeling of reward for your behavior

3- Recognize your limits

As a psychology student and also a patient, I recognize and recommend therapeutic help, because with it you will get support and also work on your self-knowledge, confidence, respect and self-love. Take care of your feelings and value them.

4- Don't be afraid to ask for help

"Discontent is the first step in the evolution of a man or a nation."

Shyness and fear of public speaking has been part of my life for many years and here I have tips that made me lose this behavior

Tips on how I overcame shyness

1- You take it everywhere;2- Books are cheaper (cost effective);3- There are subscription options, and you'll get books for just one monthly fee;4- Built-in dictionary in reading;5- Readability such as source, colors, and light;

Digital

1- You can use decoration after reading;2- Doesn't have a chance to forget the app password or lose your data;3- It doesn't run out of battery, i.e. it doesn't need a charger;4- You can borrow or barter;5- You can sell

Physical Books

Here I show you a comparison of positive points in each of the ways you can read your favorite book, let your favorite type in the comments.

Benefits of Spirituality for Body and Mind

Video Games and Their Effects on the Brain

My Martial Arts Story

No Longer Human

How to be more positive?

Milena Barbosa