Convincing Ourselves

Just watched a video on BBC reel, talking about yogic breathing and the many related health benefits it brings. There were people in the video learning the art in India and claiming that it had helped them change their life forever.   Whenever I look at such videos or articles about breathwork and its benefits, my mind simply goes back to the classic book 'Relaxation Response' by Dr Herbert Benson . This book, I believe was a seminal work in western literature and brought the idea of breath and relaxation to the general scientific-minded audience. In fact, it helped to ‘rationalize’ these spiritual and esoteric practices to a large extent. When discussing the introduction of breathwork and other spiritual practices to the west, one cant go without talking about Jon Kabat-Zinn who essentially made meditation secular, and accessible in the west. These two authors and researchers have done the most to introduce, clarify, and explain the benefits of breathwork in the mod...

Having followed Dr Philip Zimbardo since sometime, I was thrilled to know that Rosemary Sword had come up with a therapy based on the "Time perspective", how individuals relate to time and how that relates pure perspective on everything from past events, to future hopes and present behavior. Following on from their work, Rosemary Sword and her team went to create meditation apps. I had been talking to Rosemary after the app was launched on iOS and I was lucky enough to buy the Aetas 2 minute meditation app as soon as it came out on the playstore on android phones. After having tried several meditation and hypnosis tracks and apps, I was excited to see what Aetas 2 was going to be like. What is it?  The purpose of the app is to provide a small, handy, 2 minute meditation tool that one can use anywhere, anytime. 2 minute meditations are well known and understood, however very few apps, or tracks exist for individuals to use these meditations through out the day.  Aetas...