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Areas › Your body › Touch and bodywork
If a practice becomes something you can pass or fail, it will quietly join the list of things you are bad at. So drop the target. Ask what you notice and take the answer at face value: tight, nothing shifting, faintly irritated, all worth knowing. What you learn can go to your own therapist or supervisor rather than sitting on you as a verdict.
'their skins and their hearts soften at the mention of God' (Quran 39:23). The verse treats the skin as somewhere change is felt and noticed rather than something to be forced.
الزمر
ٱللَّهُ نَزَّلَ أَحۡسَنَ ٱلۡحَدِيثِ كِتَٰبࣰ ا مُّتَشَٰبِهࣰ ا مَّثَانِيَ تَقۡشَعِرُّ مِنۡهُ جُلُودُ ٱلَّذِينَ يَخۡشَوۡنَ رَبَّهُمۡ ثُمَّ تَلِينُ جُلُودُهُمۡ وَقُلُوبُهُمۡ إِلَىٰ ذِكۡرِ ٱللَّهِۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ يَهۡدِي بِهِۦ مَن يَشَآءُۚ وَمَن يُضۡلِلِ ٱللَّهُ فَمَا لَهُۥ مِنۡ هَادٍ
God has sent down the most beautiful of all teachings: a Scripture that is consistent and draws comparisons; that causes the skins of those in awe of their Lord to shiver. Then their skins and their hearts soften at the mention of God: such is God’s guidance. He guides with it whoever He will; no one can guide those God leaves to stray
Qur’an 39:23read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A narrative review of non contact practices such as Reiki and therapeutic touch went through the quantitative research and concluded that no measurable mechanism has been established for them. It is a fair reminder that confident physiological stories tend to run ahead of the data across body work generally. So trust what you actually notice in yourself more than any account of what should be happening.
Matos LC, Machado JP, Monteiro FJ, Greten HJ. (2021). Perspectives, Measurability and Effects of Non-Contact Biofield-Based Practices: A Narrative Review of Quantitative Research.. International journal of environmental research and public health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Curiosity keeps you interested in what your body is saying, while a goal turns the same attention into judgement.
Most people are already doing something for themselves outside your room: herbs, a chiropractor, breathing videos, a weekly massage. Ask, plainly and without a raised eyebrow.
You choose what to work on and how big a piece of it. A sore shoulder, a low mood, the belief that you are too much: all of them are allowed, and so is starting small.
Cross your hands to the opposite shoulders and stroke slowly down to your elbows and hands, like a hug you are giving yourself. Three to five strokes, unhurried.