InInshirahislamically integrated self-help
ThemeEquanimity and perspective
ApproachMindfulness
Time20 minutes
1The real skill is not spotting the hole in their reasoning. It is running the same test on the belief you hold most tightly.
MindfulnessEquanimity and perspective20 minutesQur'an 53:39

Pick something you are sure of, something you would defend at a family dinner, and ask what it would look like if it were only mostly true. Where does it fail. Who does it fail. Doing that once, honestly, on your own ground does more for your temper than a hundred rounds of taking apart somebody else's argument.

Islamic evidence

man will only have what he has worked towards (Quran 53:39). Attention drifts to what other people have got wrong, and this pulls it back to your own portion.

that man will only have what he has worked towards

Qur'an 53:39

Psychological evidence

In a randomised trial with students who had symptoms of depression and anxiety, three sessions of either the Attention Training Technique or mindful self-compassion reduced symptoms, with neither clearly better than the other. Two quite different methods arriving at much the same place is a useful reminder that no single framework holds all of it. The trial was small and short, and it was not a test of self-scrutiny.

Haukaas RB, Gjerde IB, Varting G, Hallan HE, Solem S. (2018). Frontiers in psychology · doi

Review detail

Why it works. A belief you have already questioned yourself does not need defending when someone else prods it.

angerEverydayscholar review pendinganger-0857-test-your-own-rule-first

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