Healthcare
January 13, 2026
Rebecca Ciacchini, Alessandro Lazzarelli, Giorgia Papini et al.
Background/Objectives: The present exploratory study evaluates the feasibility and psychological effects of a structured Qigong intervention implemented in an Italian university setting. Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice combining gentle movements, breathwork, and mindful attention, aimed at enhancing mind-body integration and interoceptive awareness. Methods: A total of 332...
Healthcare
November 7, 2025
Francesca Scafuto, Rossella Mattea Quinto, Graziella Orrù et al.
Background: Contemplative practices encompass a variety of static and dynamic practices. These practices, by fostering insights, heightened awareness, and a deeper connection to a broader framework of meaning, may play a crucial role in significantly reducing trauma-related symptoms in both young and adult populations. Methods: The current narrative literature review used Scopus and PubMed to...
Preprints.org
July 15, 2025
Francesca Scafuto, Rossella Mattea Quinto, Graziella Orrù et al.
preprint
Background: Contemplative practices encompass a variety of static and dynamic practices. A theoretical introduction traces differences among contemplative and meditative states; bottom-up and top-down embodied contemplative practices; implications of polyvagal theory in trauma recovery. Contemplative practices, by fostering insights, heightened awareness, and a deeper connection to a broader...
Behavioral Sciences
November 18, 2024
Alessandro Lazzarelli, Francesca Scafuto, Cristiano Crescentini et al.
30 citations
It is increasingly recognized that interoceptive ability, the capacity to detect, interpret, and consciously integrate signals related to the physiological condition of the body, is central to emotion experience and regulation. Interoceptive ability can be trained and improved through mind-body interventions. This article attempts to provide an integrative review of the link between...
Anthropology of Consciousness
March 1, 2023
Alessandro Lazzarelli
AbstractIn Chinese body culture, the construct of qi 氣—literally translated as breath or energy—is at the heart of several programs of self‐cultivation, as well as other domains of bodily knowledge related to the subjective and inter‐subjective realm of everyday life. Also, among Chinese societies and communities, discourses on qi have assumed social significance in the milieus of politics,...
Arc The Journal of the School of Religious Studies
December 1, 2012
Alessandro Lazzarelli
A lthough religious experience is one of the core issues in the study of religion, anthropological works have not devoted enough attention to lived or felt states of being in a religious context.Rather, scholarship concerned with religious practices in mainstream anthropology has taken either an interpretative approach, put forward by Geertz's essay "Religion as a Cultural System," 1 or a...