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EXCERPT

PROLOGUE 

THINK HEALTHY

Sometimes, the whole world seems to be against us. Going outside is a dangerous adventure full of obstacles to overcome; it is as if returning home safely and sane every day was more by luck than something normal. They are out there, those villains, always on the lookout… they attack us through advertisements, noise, flashy objects, sales, rules, loud music, social media, telephones, they make us spend our money, they assault us, and they chain us and control us. Nobody talks much anymore; everyone looks at their screens. The only introspection of today’s human being is to get lost in the world of technology.

But are those villains really out there? No, the villains are only inside you.

That’s right, the villain lives in your mind and wants to destroy you, wants to lead you to spend, to eat unhealthy food, to think that you do not deserve to be happy. He talks to you and controls you; he weakens you, makes you feel less, makes you feel insecure, makes you feel that your life is meaningless, depresses you, leads to self-destructive behaviors, makes you aggressive, makes you apathetic, and even leads you to think that it is not worth living, that your dreams are not worth it, that they are impossible and that you will not achieve anything in life… Have you heard them? Of course you hear them. They all speak to us; they are always there.

ENOUGH! It is time for you to take control; for you to decide to ignore them, to weaken their power in you, you are stronger and you have the super power to get rid of them, to free yourself, to go out and live free, feel safe, feel happy, change bad habits, eat healthy, do everything you set your mind to, solve your problems, without stress, be at peace and enjoy the silence of your mind.

Every day, humanity disconnects and loses itself more. We are becoming slaves and robots programmed to react automatically. With so many stimuli, we are losing the ability to look inward. We have a growing need to get everything they offer us, to compare our life with others, thus creating a false life in a social network to feel better, with the idea that happiness is obtained from the outside or is measured according to what we have or accomplish.

In the past, people were not so interconnected with the outside world; therefore, they did not know much about what was happening around the globe.

The information was more limited and not so constant. To obtain something, you had to go buy it; to receive a mail you had to wait for days or even weeks—there was no instant gratification. Everything took time, effort and a process, which gave space to a more lasting and genuine gratification and happiness. People lived happily with what they had around them since they did not program themselves every second to need all the objects that were advertised. People spent more time with the family, contemplating over sunsets or landscapes, in endless talks with friends and family accompanied by a good cup of coffee at home, without having to spend thousands on a brand of coffee.

There was no rush; they lived with less information and with fewer needs, unintentionally living in a more contemplative state and involuntarily meditating. Their mind did not receive so much information and it was not necessary to learn so much to be successful or happy, in their mind there were empty spaces, which helped them to reorder ideas, to maintain their sanity. They used the superpower naturally, perhaps without knowing it.

Today, there are no empty spaces in the mind; it is full of information that we are unable to process and is saturated with disordered and negative thoughts, which gives the villains the opportunity to attack us and lead us straight to depression, to materialism, to giving importance to things more than to emotions. Nowadays, people measure their happiness with their bank account, with the size of their house, with the name of their friends, although surely at the end of the day they feel unsatisfied in their big house, next to their tired partner, and feeling empty inside, posting and looking at their social media with more than thousand friends, whom you perhaps don’t know or see less and less, but showing the “perfect” life they lead.

The stress generated by this growing need to have more and more and to satisfy the demands of a castrating, demanding and competitive society makes our body and mind sick. The villains are defeating us little by little.

Our mind and our body are not designed to cope with this pace of life and if we do not give them a moment of rest a day, there will come a point when it’ll begin to fail, causing both physical and mental illnesses. That is why today meditation is a vital issue.

In the past, meditation was thought to be a luxury that only the great masters, such as Buddha, could afford to do. It was not even a concept that needed definition; they just did it naturally without thinking about it. Life was so quiet and still that meditating was a natural state of life. Later, it became an exotic fashion brought from the East and with a misconception that it was practiced by people with money and a certain social status, it did not achieve its goal as it became a social club where powerful people met to perform an exotic practice to be fashionable… But now, this information is available to everyone.

Today, meditation is a primary need, an escape valve, a real alternative to prevent neurosis and stress caused by our accelerated pace of life. It is the super power that will help you beat all those villains in your head. The social and economic pressure is now forty times greater, so the pressure generated inside our body is enormous and may be on the verge of exploding. To release this pressure, it is necessary to enter meditative states at least once a day.

Meditation is more advanced than any medicine in the world; the illness was created by your stress, by your mind, so it will be your mind that has the power to heal you, but more than anything, meditation will help us to prevent these diseases, save money, live in harmony, solve our emotional and physical conflicts, sleep better and bring thousands of other benefits. 

Having a healthy body, eating healthy and exercising are constantly being promoted as good habits, but not many talks about having a healthy mind.

We only get advice on how to fight depression or fix our mental health once is already broken; meditation should be promoted as a preventive practice, a constant maintenance tool of the mind to avoid reaching chronic levels of anxiety or stress, a way to be mentally healthy.

It is said that your body is your temple, yes, but your mind… is what keeps it standing. You can have a perfect body, a perfect temple, but it can fall and be destroyed at any moment if your mind is sick or unstable. Exercise and eat healthy, yes, of course, but above all, it is time to exercise your mind. 

It’s time to THINK HEALTHY.

You must learn to meditate, to make a full stop, to focus on yourself and only on yourself, without the influence of any memory, or stimulus, or old thoughts or any fantastic unreal worlds in your mind. It is time for you to discover and awaken the power that lives within you. Dare to meet yourself, take control of your mind, of your life, wake up and learn to use that great superpower inside you.

About the Author

Rei Vila is an Entrepreneur, Author, Designer and a Mental Health advocate
and activist. To THINK HEALTHY is his priority and major purpose, promoting
meditation as the GYM of the mind, and as a tool to keep you sane and
balanced.

He is a lover of all the arts, he have studies in architecture, art history,
design, music, performing arts and literature. Traveling the world and
learning about other cultures is his other passion and it has led him to
live, study and work in various countries such as Mexico, Canada, the United
States, Spain, India and China, for which he has studied at least 5
languages.

In 2012, he decided to travel to India to become a certified yoga teacher.
It was there in Rishikesh, north of India, where he knew deeply the world of
meditation and from there, his purpose, his mission has been to share it
with the world, so he began to give workshops where he realized how needy we
all are of find inner peace and this inspired him to write his first book:
Meditation – The Ultimate Superpower.

He recently founded “The Mind Conservatory” a site where people
will be able to learn different styles of meditation and many other
techniques, exercises and workshops to improve their mental health; also a
place for people to find tools to create and sustain their own mental health
routine and improve their quality of life by thinking healthy, and learning
how to deal with the unpleasant thoughts and feelings. He will soon launch
my own meditation technique and mobile APP to keep helping people to get
closer and more engaged and interested on this amazing superpower and to
promote mental health as a priority.

He lives in Shanghai, China with his wife and son since 2014, and he is
currently the Art Director at Shanghai Disneyland.