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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
You might watch a plane that flies smoothly when your brain produces the pattern being encouraged and wobbles when it does not. Nobody tells you how to do it and there is nothing to work out. Over repeated sessions the pattern gets easier to produce. It needs a trained practitioner and a fair number of appointments.
'by the soul and how He formed it' (Quran 91:7). The work happens inside what you already are, and nothing is added from outside.
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
That repeated practice can reach brain structures is not fanciful. A randomised clinical trial with imaging found daily heart rate variability biofeedback changed an MRI measure of the brain's main arousal hub in younger adults. That was a different kind of biofeedback with a different target, so it supports the general principle rather than this particular method.
Bachman SL, Cole S, Yoo HJ, Nashiro K, Min J, Mercer N, Nasseri P, Thayer JF, Lehrer P, Mather M. (2023). Daily heart rate variability biofeedback training decreases locus coeruleus MRI contrast in younger adults in a randomized clinical trial.. International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The brain drifts towards whatever pattern keeps getting rewarded, without you needing to know how you are doing it.
Irritability, a hot face, itchiness, a mild earache or feeling slightly off balance are common while doing this. People often say it feels like getting off a long flight.
Coming up out of numbness usually feels worse before it feels better. Restlessness, irritation and a jumpy stomach are often the way up rather than a relapse.
When someone cannot take in your reassurance while they are frightened, that is the receiver and not their willingness. Wait for the wave to pass and try again.