example, take five breaths, inhaling and exhaling a little more fully than usual. This is both energizing and relaxing, activating first the sympathetic system and then the parasympathetic one, back and forth, in a gentle rhythm. Notice how you feel when you’re done. That combination of aliveness and centeredness is the essence of the peak

Every time you calm the ANS through stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), you tilt your body, brain, and mind increasingly toward inner peace and well-being.

We suffer that we suffer. We get upset about being in pain, angry about dying, sad about waking up sad yet another day.

For example, you could increase your motivation to keep doing something healthy (e.g., exercise) by being really mindful of its rewards, such as feelings of vitality and strength.

Bring to mind someone you naturally feel compassion for, such as a child or a person you love—this easy flow of compassion arouses its neural underpinnings (including oxytocin, the insula [which senses the internal state of your body], and the PFC), “warming them up” for self-compassion. Extend this same compassion to yourself—be aware of your own

each of us lives in a virtual reality that’s close enough to the real thing that we don’t bump into the furniture.

Most fears are exaggerated. As you go through life, your brain acquires expectations based on your experiences, particularly negative ones. When situations occur that are even remotely similar, your brain automatically applies its expectations to them; if it expects pain or loss, or even just the threat of these, it pulses fear signals. But because

The best-odds prescription for a long, good life is a baseline of mainly PNS arousal with mild SNS activation for vitality, combined with occasional SNS spikes for major opportunities or threats.

Since your brain learns mainly from what you attend to, mindfulness is the doorway to taking in good experiences and making them a part of yourself