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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
Repetition is what makes a practice smooth, in the way a piece of music or a gear change stops needing your whole attention after a few weeks. Early on you are doing it badly and noticing that you are doing it badly, which is the least pleasant stage. Pick something small enough that you will actually repeat it most days, and judge it after a month rather than after Tuesday.
'Believers, remember God often' (Quran 33:41). The instruction is about frequency, which is usually the part people skip.
الأحزاب
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱذۡكُرُواْ ٱللَّهَ ذِكۡرࣰ ا كَثِيرࣰ ا
Believers, remember God often
Qur’an 33:41read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A randomised clinical trial with brain imaging found that daily heart rate variability biofeedback practice changed an MRI measure of the brain's main arousal hub in younger adults. Repeated breathing practice seems to reach structures well upstream of the heart. It was one trial in younger adults with an imaging outcome, so it supports the value of daily repetition rather than settling how much changes or for how long.
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.
Repetition is what makes a pathway quick and automatic, and quick is what you need when you are too rattled to think.
Wanting sugar, salt and something sharp at the end of a punishing week is physiology talking, not a defect in your character.
Heart rate variability is not about how fast your heart beats. It is about how much the gaps between the beats vary as you breathe.
Before picking a calming technique, work out which way you are off. Revved up and shut down need opposite things.