06/06/2019

IMPA will host a Mindfulness lecture this Friday (7)

To help alleviate the daily stress and overload of tasks for students, researchers and staff, IMPA will host a lecture on Mindfulness (mindful attention, in Portuguese) this Friday (7), at 4 pm, in the Ricardo Mañé auditorium.

Mental training based on meditative techniques follows a secular and scientific model and has been studied at world-renowned universities such as Oxford (England) and Harvard (USA).

“There are studies that confirm the psychological, neurophysiological, and also epigenetic [area of biology that studies changes in gene function that are not caused by alterations in the DNA sequence] benefits induced by the regular practice of Mindfulness ,” points out speaker Fabiano Valerio, instructor of Mindfulness applied to health at the Open Mind Center of the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp).

A graduate in medicine from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Valerio will address the history, mechanisms of operation, and scientific evidence of mindfulness, in addition to offering brief guided practices and discussion of the experience.

The lecture is the first step in the plan to establish a mental health program at IMPA, with workshops and other practices.

“We have many international students, for example, who have to deal with being far from their families, in another country, in addition to facing the workload at IMPA. A course focused on mental health could also help in this regard,” explains Manuela Cervo, administrative manager at IMPA.