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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
It is a referral rather than something your therapist adds to a session, so you are taking on a second appointment, a second bill and a second journey across town. Most people who drop out do so because nobody told them the shape of the commitment. Ask how many sessions, what the assessment costs, and what happens if you stop halfway.
'and the day for your livelihood' (Quran 78:11). Earning and spending are part of the picture the Qur'an draws, so counting the cost of your care is not unspiritual.
النبأ
وَجَعَلۡنَا ٱلنَّهَارَ مَعَاشࣰ ا
and the day for your livelihood
Qur’an 78:11read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
If the cost rules it out, you are not out of options. A randomised trial with a hundred and twenty six participants found physical activity, mindfulness and heart rate variability biofeedback reduced stress, anxiety, depression and sleep problems to a comparable degree, with no clear winner. That trial did not include neurofeedback, so it cannot say the cheaper routes match it. It does say the cheaper routes do something real.
van der Zwan JE, de Vente W, Huizink AC, Bögels SM, de Bruin EI. (2015). Physical activity, mindfulness meditation, or heart rate variability biofeedback for stress reduction: a randomized controlled trial.. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Knowing the real commitment in advance is what lets you finish something rather than abandon it.
If you start shaking or trembling after a fright, or partway through a difficult conversation, that is usually your body finishing something rather than falling apart.
Your heart speeds up slightly on every breath in and slows on every breath out. Sit quietly with a hand on your chest and you can feel it.
Excitement and panic run on the same fuel. What turns it into play is feeling safe while it happens.