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Areas › Your body › Moving your body
Some of what trauma leaves behind sits underneath words: the flinch, the going blank, the pull towards hurting yourself. Practices that work through the body can reach some of that. Give it a run of weeks rather than one attempt, and keep hold of whatever else is helping.
Strike the rock with your staff (Quran 2:60). The water came after the physical act, not before it.
البقرة
۞وَإِذِ ٱسۡتَسۡقَىٰ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوۡمِهِۦ فَقُلۡنَا ٱضۡرِب بِّعَصَاكَ ٱلۡحَجَرَۖ فَٱنفَجَرَتۡ مِنۡهُ ٱثۡنَتَا عَشۡرَةَ عَيۡنࣰ اۖ قَدۡ عَلِمَ كُلُّ أُنَاسࣲ مَّشۡرَبَهُمۡۖ كُلُواْ وَٱشۡرَبُواْ مِن رِّزۡقِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَا تَعۡثَوۡاْ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ مُفۡسِدِينَ
Remember when Moses prayed for water for his people and We said to him, ‘Strike the rock with your staff.’ Twelve springs gushed out, and each group knew its drinking place. ‘Eat and drink the sustenance God has provided and do not cause corruption in the land.’
Qur’an 2:60read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In adults with serious mental illness, exercise programmes improved physical fitness and brought modest mental health gains alongside it, across a systematic review and meta-analysis. These were people with substantial ongoing difficulty rather than a mild sample. The mental health benefit was described as modest, which is worth holding onto so the hope stays the right size.
Pearsall R, Smith DJ, Pelosi A, Geddes J. (2014). Exercise therapy in adults with serious mental illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.. BMC psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Words and sensation are handled differently by the body, so an approach that works through sensation can reach what talking has not.
If self harm or dissociation is frequent, set this up with a therapist who knows your history rather than starting on your own.
Move just before the difficult task, not after it as a reward. Five minutes of skipping, stairs or running on the spot, then sit down to the thing.
Do not stop dead. Give the end of anything energetic a few minutes of winding down, so the change of gear is a routine rather than a demand.
Arrange to meet someone. A neighbour at the gate at eight, a friend expecting you, even an app counting a streak. Turning up for someone else is easier than turning up for yourself.