"She arrives at our meeting like a ray of sunshine. Vital, cheerful, and kind, Nazareth Castellanos, 48, runs a laboratory where she researches the neuroscience of meditation and the relationship between the brain and the rest of the body. A few months ago, she published the highly successful book El puente donde habitan las mariposas (The Bridge Where Butterflies Live), which discusses how with willpower and a lot of effort we can sculpt the brain through breathing."
"Drawing on the work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of neuroscience, and Martin Heidegger's essay Building, Dwelling, Thinking, Castellanos suggests that we shape ourselves by protecting our own growth, that we truly dwell when we learn to take care of ourselves, and that thinking begins with gratitude. This requires cultivating an inner dialogue that strengthens rather than harms us letting go of what is damaging, refining our thoughts, and practicing self-compassion. Through conscious breathing, she argues, we can even sculpt the brain."
Research links the neuroscience of meditation and brain–body interactions to practical methods for improving mental health. Conscious breathing, paired with consistent willpower and effort, can promote neuroplastic changes and sculpt neural circuits. Protecting personal growth and practicing self-care create conditions for true dwelling and the emergence of gratitude-based thinking. Cultivating an inner dialogue that strengthens rather than harms, releasing damaging patterns, refining thoughts, and practicing self-compassion reduces avoidable mental suffering. Persistent societal neglect of mental health sustains preventable suffering that awareness, medicine, and targeted practices can help diminish.
Read at english.elpais.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]