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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
Closing your eyes too early is one reason relaxation exercises backfire. If your body has not registered that the room is fine, going inward means going somewhere unguarded while part of you is still on watch. Look at the corners, the door, whatever is pleasant to look at, and wait for the small sigh or the drop in the shoulders that says you have been believed. Then close your eyes, or leave them open. Both are allowed.
God 'endowed you with hearing, sight, and understanding' (Quran 67:23). Sight comes early in that list, and it is the sense that tells you where you are.
الملك
قُلۡ هُوَ ٱلَّذِيٓ أَنشَأَكُمۡ وَجَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلسَّمۡعَ وَٱلۡأَبۡصَٰرَ وَٱلۡأَفۡـِٔدَةَۚ قَلِيلࣰ ا مَّا تَشۡكُرُونَ
Say [Prophet], ‘It is He who brought you into being, He who endowed you with hearing, sight, and understanding- what small thanks you give!’
Qur’an 67:23read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review and meta analysis of greenspace exposure found associations with reduced salivary cortisol, heart rate and diastolic blood pressure among a wide range of health outcomes, linking what is around a person to what their nervous system is doing. Surroundings are not neutral. That research is about time spent in green space, not about a minute of looking round a room, so the specific instruction here goes past what was measured.
Twohig-Bennett C, Jones A. (2018). The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes.. Environmental research doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Your body checks the room before it will let go, so let it check properly instead of skipping the step.
If you want to breathe more slowly, add one count at a time over weeks. Four in and four out this month, five next month, and no hurry after that.
There are implanted devices that send small pulses along the vagus nerve, used for epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and other conditions. Breath practice is a slow, unplugged cousin of the same idea.
The calm and connected part of this system speaks through your face, your voice, your ears and your heart. That is why those are the places to work.