Lhe historical phase that we are experiencing amidst stress, anxiety and pressure requires us to stop, breathe and reflect. Life is not taken for granted. And what happens is anything but a coincidence. Re-establishing the connection with ourselves, with our self, even from a spiritual point of view, can help us understand our mission, the footprint we can leave in this life. But above all, as Daniel Lumera says, one of the four authors selected this week, it helps us “to generate in us an authentic awareness of our inner gardenwhich we must take care of more and more to create stability and depth in our lives”. Yoga, meditation, but also musiccan help us on this journey as they tell us the four books to read of the week.
1/ Books to read. Irreducible
Why read it
Federico Faggin is the father of the microprocessor and the touch screen. Bill Gates once said of him that if he hadn’t been there, “Silicon Valley would have been just a simple valley.” Vicentino, 81, has lived in America since 1968. In the memoir he describes the deep spiritual crisis which, at one point, led him to repudiate materialism. And to discover that man is truly irreducible and that conscience really exists. In 1990, he feels a “very strong energy radiating from his chest” and from that moment the way of seeing and perceiving reality changes. It tells that matter is made of vibratory energy and shows the “spiritual nature of the universe.”
After years of study and advanced research he concluded that there is something irreducible in the human being, something for which no machine can ever fully replace us. “For years I have tried in vain to understand how consciousness could arise from electrical or biochemical signals, and I have found that, invariably, electrical signals can only produce other electrical signals or other physical consequences such as force or movement, but never sensations and feelings, which are qualitatively different… It is the consciousness that understands the situation and what makes the difference between a robot and a human… In a machine there is no ‘pause for reflection’ between symbols and action, because the meaning of symbols, doubt, and free will exist only in the consciousness of a self, not in a mechanism”.
Info. Federico Faggin. Irreducible. Consciousness, life, computers and our life. Mondadori. 22 euros
2/ Books to read. Yoga to heal
Why read it
With over 500,000 users on YouTube, Sara Bigatti is one of the most influential yoga teachers on the web. Originally from Milan, 44 years old, she lives in the Netherlands. Known as “The Yoga Monkey” she has now decided – as she writes – “to make available to everyone an extremely simple manual to share the concrete applications of yoga to solve problems that afflict body and mind”.
In the volume Yoga to heal tells how to rediscover the well-being of body, mind and spirit with yoga techniques. From nervous hunger to anxiety and laziness. From slow digestion to low self-esteem and circulatory problems. Hence jealousy, neck strain, lack of concentration. In a path dedicated to beginners and non-beginners, the author explains how yoga acts on the body with some basic notions on the chakras, then guides the reader in the concrete application of this discipline by offering paths and exercises aimed at solving problems that afflict body and mind.
Page after page – writes Sara Bigatti in her introduction – I really hope to help my readers understand each other better by starting, or starting again, to take care of themselves. A book with a strong motivational, practical and simple power to heal the body, let go of stress and regain serenity and energy. Yoga can heal: it calms the mind, stimulates the immune system, helps the body react to pain.
Info. Sara Bigatti. Yoga to heal. Mondadori Electa. 18.90 euros.
3/ Books to read. Tear-off meditation
Why read it
Bestselling author Daniel Lumera, expert in the sciences of well-being and in the practice of meditation, he returns to the library with Tear-off meditation. 60 ideas to educate the mind to silence, harmony and love. It is a book with sixty aphorisms and reflections to inspire and guide the reader into the world of meditation and clarify the issue. Meditating is not a process of visualization, imagination, breathing or an experience related to inner phenomena; it is not praying, reflecting or deeply relaxing.
Meditation begins exactly where these experiences end, when in the absolute silence of the mind shines only a profound awareness of being, capable of generating in us a lasting psychophysical well-being.
Over 16,000 scientific studies published to date highlight its benefits for fighting inflammation, cell death and the control of free radicals responsible for much damage to DNA. And to slow down aging, reduce stress, consequently controlling the onset of heart disease, obesity, anxiety disorders, or contributing to their cure.
Furthermore, it has been proven that Long-term practice of meditation increases the density of gray matter in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, self-awareness, compassion and insight, thereby enhancing cognition, mental focus and memory, as well as reducing risk and aiding in the treatment of depression.
4/ Books to read. My analyst is a bass guitar
Why read it
Already from the title it promises well and, in fact, it is absolutely enjoyable and to be read with happiness in the heart. Multi-instrumentalist and journalist, director of Cosmopolitan for eight yearsthe author built an autobiographical essay dedicated to the “imperfect”, a constant invitation to challenge the status quo, to break the mold and explore the unknown, without fearing vulnerability, because in itself there is something magical that allows us to create connections with ourselves and with others.
The book – with a preface by Virginia Stagni, the youngest manager in over 130 years of history of Financial Times who sings the blues in his spare time – shows the infinite similarities between the chaos of life, newspapers, fashion and music, through the magnifying glass of the three tools that have marked the life of Francesca Delogu, piano, bass and trumpet.
Musical instruments are thus unusual reading grids for understanding reality and to cure our digital loneliness, they make us understand that every emotion has a sound, every fear can contain an extraordinary melody, every difficulty has the privilege of unleashing an original creative impulse.
Because perfect tuning doesn’t exist and musical instruments are masters out of the box who teach us to love failures, to care less about perfection and to find the punk side hidden in us. To get by while always arriving at the wrong time, starting off against the beat and producing false notes. We free the musician trapped in each of us and maybe we’ll really start letting our wildest, most fragile and unpredictable side flourish. To dive from the stage of life backwards, trusting the void.
Info. Francesca Delogu. “My analyst is a bass guitar.” Do it Human. 18 euros.
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED