MEDITATIVE PRACTICES
We are all going through a difficult period, with uncertainties, fears and doubts that risk undermining our trust and serenity. In particular, people in the red zones are subjected to severe stress due to the quarantine and the health emergency experienced at first hand. We are all interconnected and interdependent and the suffering of one of us can only be reflected on all of us.
We believe that we can react to fear and danger in different ways: with escape and isolation or with the courage of compassion and solidarity. Positive feelings such as love, compassion and gratitude increase the sense of social cohesion and immune defenses.
For this reason, we want to create a space here where we can offer meditative practices that everyone can use to find serenity, well-being, connection with themselves and with others.
May this emergency become a moment of awareness and change! May it bring peace, compassion and greater respect for ourselves, others and all of nature of which we are a part.
PRESENTATION
"Small Practices for Red Zones and Surrounding Areas" curated by Dr. Maria A. Bàlzola, is a space dedicated to small meditative practices that everyone can use to find serenity, well-being, connection with themselves and with others.
Dr. Maria A. Bàlzola, a psychiatrist, is a member of the board of directors of the Tonglen Association and conducts seminars on compassion and awareness.
LET'S BRING THE MIND HOME
This little Mindfulness practice (secular meditation) helps us find the connection with ourselves, re-establish quiet and centeredness, not get distracted by things to do, by stress and learn to bring the mind home in every situation with three conscious breaths, to be able to help ourselves and others in everyday life. A positive influence of Mindfulness (MBSR) on the immune system has been demonstrated.
LET'S RECONNECT
This second practice introduces the great theme of connection with oneself, with Mother Earth and with other living beings. Feeling part of a whole greater than ourselves is the basis of mental and physical health as the need for connection is of fundamental importance for human survival. In Western society, rich and technological, we tend to take this theme for granted or not give it due weight. When difficult health and economic conditions solicit the survival instinct, the theme of connection and interdependence become a priority. We can enjoy the sense of well-being and gratitude that develops in us with this simple practice.
LET'S CREATE OUR OWN SAFE PLACE
Many psychologists, such as Paul Gilbert from the University of Derby (UK), emphasize the importance of the sense of connection and security through the imagination of a safe place that we can see and feel with all our senses, to nourish the instinctive need for protection and belonging. It is not important to see all the details but to have the intention to create this place in our mind and repeat the practice several times to learn the path that can bring us back there whenever we feel the need. We can perceive that the place itself is happy with our being there. From this place we can bring forth the loving-kindness, compassion and gratitude that support us in difficult moments, creating well-being.
BLUE BREATH
For children aged six and up, freely adapted from "Children without stress" by Klaus Vopel, Elledici ed. 2000.
In situations of strong environmental stress, children can feel overloaded and react with hyperactivity, boredom, nervousness or crying for no apparent reason. With this small, simple and sweet practice, we want to help children relax and regain their strength and self-confidence. The first few times, it is useful for parents or grandparents to guide the child to understand and follow the instructions. Hygienic rules, such as washing hands well, can become a game of mental presence and awareness for both adults and children.
I AM A TREE
For children aged seven and up, freely adapted from "Children without stress" by Klaus Vopel, Elledici ed. 2000.
This practice can be followed by the child's free drawing with the colors he/she wants. It is very important that the drawing is totally free and not followed by comments from parents and siblings. It is an experience of contact with oneself, deep and relaxing, not a school test. There is no error. Adults can also do the practice and drawing, always without judgments or evaluations.
THE PRACTICES OF COMPASSION
In this difficult period that challenges us at all levels, health, economic, social, relational and spiritual, it is important to focus our intention in the right direction. If we decide to put the ministerial indications and directives into practice, we do not suffer them but implement them with awareness and with the clear intention of protecting ourselves and others. Making ourselves useful in a genuine and deliberate way, not only to support the decisions of others, changes our perspective by stimulating compassion and therefore well-being. Many studies confirm that compassion increases resilience and reduces burnout in healthcare workers and others. However, all this is not possible if we do not clearly choose to cultivate compassion. We will therefore make available practices that aim precisely to stimulate compassion towards ourselves and others, starting from the practice of intention.
THE PRACTICE OF INTENTION
From a brief practice of attention and focus on the body and breathing, we move on to cultivating our intention, also encouraging it with simple phrases to recite mentally. This practice is very useful at the beginning of the day, but it is also important to give it space during the day, when we feel lost in the chaos of work, at home with children who are agitated because they cannot go out as they would like, in the hospital, in the factory, in the office. We repeatedly seek our clear intention nourished by our compassion, because this gives us joy, strength and determination.
THE PRACTICE OF LOVING KINDNESS
Tania Singer and other neuroscientists have shown that compassion, lived wisely, benefits those who receive it and those who give it, increasing their resilience. On our YouTube channel you can find two videos on "Mind and Life", with Tania Singer and the Dalai Lama (Empathy and Compassion - 1 and Empathy and Compassion - 2), translated into Italian by us. We begin with the ancient practice of loving-kindness, called Metta in Pali, which has also been used in experiments on compassion. We focus first on ourselves to be able to restore our well-being, and then we can dedicate ourselves to others. Our own well-being becomes the basis and strength to help others.
SELF-COMPASSION
In order to be able to stay in a difficult situation and also be of help to others, it is of great importance to be able to empathize with oneself, recognize one's suffering and welcome it with an open heart, with awareness and compassion. This is the first step. The second is to be able to feel the connection with all those who, near and far, feel the same suffering. We are not alone, we come out of psychic isolation. And then we comfort ourselves, with a gesture such as placing our hand on our heart by saying simple words that comfort us. This is the practice of self-compassion proposed by Kristine Neff and Chris Germer, scholars of Self Compassion. Once you have become familiar with this practice, you can then apply it very quickly in emergency situations. For doctors and nurses it can become an effective and rapid tool to reduce stress and find immediate relief.
OPEN-HEART MINDFULNESS
With this practice we open our heart with our breath to our experience in this moment, welcoming every feeling without judgment. This openness can help us calm anxieties and doubts. It is like an open question that does not require an answer but opens us to the infinite resources of our being, to the compassion of the heart towards ourselves and towards the world. This practice is freely taken from a meditation by Kelly McGonigal.
LOVING KINDNESS FOR CHILDREN
This practice is aimed at children aged 7 to 10. It begins with the search for a safe place that gives space to loving kindness and a sense of security from which the child can open up to the world by offering love through the phrases "may you be happy, may you feel good, may you feel safe". Parents can share this meditative moment with their little ones and at the end exchange impressions and visions with them. At the end it is nice to freely draw your own safe place and any other vision that has emerged. It is important that the adult never comments and never criticizes what emerges in the child's verbalizations and drawings, but simply welcomes them with an open heart.
MOTIVATION AND SHAMATA
The first of the Compassion practices useful for facing difficult moments like the one we are experiencing.
Daniela Muggia leads the practice.
PRACTICE OF LOVING KINDNESS
The second of the Compassion practices is useful for facing difficult moments like the one we are experiencing.
Daniela Muggia leads the practice.
TONGLEN PRACTICE
The third of the Compassion practices is useful for facing difficult times like the one we are experiencing.
Daniela Muggia leads the practice.