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Have you ever been through this? It starts with determination. A new book, a gym membership, a program. Days or weeks later, the motivation fades. The habit disappears — or is replaced by another that brings that feeling of ⟨1>this is really it.⟨/1> And then it passes. And the cycle starts over. I don’t know how…
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A few years ago, a professor of mine mentioned in a class that in certain cases he avoided giving very deep meditation at the end — because he had a student who, after an intense session, had crashed the car. We all laughed. Some time later, after a deep meditation session at home, I went…
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Every week, while I wait for my son at jiu jitsu, I go to practice Chi Kung at my own pace, to the crossfit space where the dojo is located. And during the more contemplative moments of my practice, it is possible to observe the athletes in that gym. What I see is impressive —…
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It’s common, when the topic of meditation and its challenges arise, that I recall a conversation with a friend. Someone with years of practice and study in this field. We were talking about meditation, about the expansion it has experienced in recent years, and about how I had been gaining increasing benefits since I started…
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There is a pattern I have seen repeat for over 25 years — and that has even happened to me. Someone reaches the end of a difficult period in life — work, caring for others, giving more than they received — and decides that this is the moment to make the change their life demands.…
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In September 2025, I was on the TEDx Braga stage and, for the first time out loud, asked a room with more than 100 people this question: How much does it cost you to be alive? How much does it cost to be here, present, attentive, functional? I wasn’t referring to money. I was referring…
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For millennia, the greatest enemy of human survival has been infection. An infected wound, a high fever, an epidemic. The body that could not fight the invader would die. This was the logic of survival: defend, attack, eliminate. The immune system was shaped for that world. And it did its job with extraordinary effectiveness. That’s…