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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
If you have learned to distrust your own energy, anything lively reads as a warning: a fast heart before a party, the buzz of an argument you are actually enjoying, laughing until you are breathless. Two things usually tell you which one you are in. Is somebody with you, and could you stop if you wanted to. Arousal with those present is generally play. Arousal without them is the kind that needs care.
'and the day for your livelihood' (Quran 78:11). Activity has its own place in the design, and your capacity for it is not a fault in you.
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.
A systematic review and meta analysis of physical activity in children and adolescents found it was associated with better mental health, with small pooled effects across a very large number of studies. Lively, vigorous activity sits on the healthy side of the ledger rather than the risky one. The effects were small and much of the evidence observational, so this supports the direction rather than any specific claim about play.
Rodriguez-Ayllon M, Cadenas-Sánchez C, Estévez-López F, Muñoz NE, Mora-Gonzalez J, Migueles JH, Molina-García P, Henriksson H, Mena-Molina A, Martínez-Vizcaíno V, Catena A, Löf M, Erickson KI, Lubans DR, Ortega FB, Esteban-Cornejo I. (2019). Role of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in the Mental Health of Preschoolers, Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The same bright, fast activation feels completely different depending on whether you are safe with somebody while it runs.
The first several attempts at any of this will feel awkward and slightly fake. That is not a sign it is not for you.
Thinking about a feeling tends to slow it down. Feeling it in your body tends to speed it up. Between those two you have a throttle.
Before picking a calming technique, work out which way you are off. Revved up and shut down need opposite things.