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Areas › After harm › Listen to the body
Fear is physical energy. Letting the body move helps it complete and settle what it could not before.
When the prayer has ended, disperse in the land and seek out God's bounty (Quran 62:10). Movement back into the world is part of the design, not a distraction from healing.
الجمعة
فَإِذَا قُضِيَتِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةُ فَٱنتَشِرُواْ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَٱبۡتَغُواْ مِن فَضۡلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ كَثِيرࣰ ا لَّعَلَّكُمۡ تُفۡلِحُونَ
then when the prayer has ended, disperse in the land and seek out God’s bounty. Remember God often so that you may prosper
Qur’an 62:10read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Because trauma settles in the body, gentle movement helps discharge the charge that fear leaves behind. The body finishes what it could not finish in the moment.
van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking
Trauma is held in the body; calming and moving the body helps restore a sense of safety alongside talking.
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Gentle movement helps the body release the residue of a threat response it could not discharge.
Where this sits: Bottom-up, somatic processing (van der Kolk).
Notice where the fear sits in your body, the chest, the throat, the gut, and breathe gently toward it.
When you are ready, face the hard memory in small, bearable doses, with support, not all at once and not never.
Healing is not pretending it never happened. It is letting it become part of a life that still grows.