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Areas › Your body › Grounding and settling
A long deep look inward is not always the better one. On a day when you are already far from yourself, going deeper can take you further out rather than bring you back. Short and shallow is a real option and often the right one. If you guide others through this, do not deliver it identically every time; watch the person in front of you and cut it short without making anything of it.
who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down (Quran 3:191). Remembrance is described in whatever posture a person happens to be in, which is the same permission to let the practice fit the day.
آل عمران
ٱلَّذِينَ يَذۡكُرُونَ ٱللَّهَ قِيَٰمࣰ ا وَقُعُودࣰ ا وَعَلَىٰ جُنُوبِهِمۡ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلۡقِ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقۡتَ هَٰذَا بَٰطِلࣰ ا سُبۡحَٰنَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ ٱلنَّارِ
who remember God standing, sitting, and lying down, who reflect on the creation of the heavens and earth: ‘Our Lord! You have not created all this without purpose- You are far above that!- so protect us from the torment of the Fire
Qur’an 3:191read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In a randomised trial, brief mindfulness after a stressor raised heart rate variability in ordinary participants but not in people high in maladaptive perfectionism. Settling practices, in other words, do not land the same way for everyone. It is one study with one specific group, but it is fair warning against a single fixed dose for all.
Azam MA, Katz J, Fashler SR, Changoor T, Azargive S, Ritvo P. (2015). Heart rate variability is enhanced in controls but not maladaptive perfectionists during brief mindfulness meditation following stress-induction: A stratified-randomized trial.. International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology doi
Strength of evidence: long taught, never tested. Widely used and long taught. No trial has established that it works.
Attention turned inward can steady you or unmoor you, and how long you hold it there is what decides which.
Four steps you can do in ten seconds in the middle of anything: stop, take one breath, look at what is actually happening, then carry on.
Attention problems often travel with anxiety or low mood, and those two eat working memory as well. Settling that layer can make everything else look quite different.
Your eyes are an input too. A photo of someone who loves you and a plain soft coloured wall will settle you; a busy bright screen will lift you.