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Areas › Low mood and hard feelings › Calm the body
Emotion tightens the body; the body can loosen the emotion back. Release the grip one part at a time.
You, soul at peace (Quran 89:27). Softening the body is a way of listening back toward the settled soul.
الفجر
يَٰٓأَيَّتُهَا ٱلنَّفۡسُ ٱلۡمُطۡمَئِنَّةُ
‘[But] you, soul at peace
Qur’an 89:27read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Gently attending to the body and releasing tension steadies the emotional response; loosening the clench in the body quiets the alarm the mind is running.
Arch, J. J. and Craske, M. G. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness: Emotion regulation following a focused breathing induction. Behaviour Research and Therapy doi
Briefly focusing attention on the present, through the breath, steadies emotional responses to distressing material.
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Deliberately relaxing tensed muscles, part by part, lowers the physical arousal that feeds the feeling.
Where this sits: DBT Distress Tolerance, TIP skills; physiological down-regulation.
Overwhelmed? Take two minutes: breathe out slowly, longer than you breathe in, and let the body lead.
When emotion spikes hard, splash cold water on your face or hold something cold for a slow count.
You are allowed to put something down. Put it down with a time to pick it up again: Thursday morning, with my therapist, not tonight.