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Sigh the throat open, then put both hands on your breastbone and let the breath drop lower. If you have ever had a lump in your throat and a tightness behind the ribs at the same time, this is that road being travelled the other way. What you end up with is a rough working map of yourself, usable later in the middle of an ordinary bad afternoon.
The revelation is called 'a healing for what is in [your] hearts' (Quran 10:57). Healing language aimed at the inside of the chest suits a practice that works its way down to exactly there.
يونس
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدۡ جَآءَتۡكُم مَّوۡعِظَةࣱ مِّن رَّبِّكُمۡ وَشِفَآءࣱ لِّمَا فِي ٱلصُّدُورِ وَهُدࣰ ى وَرَحۡمَةࣱ لِّلۡمُؤۡمِنِينَ
People, a teaching from your Lord has come to you, a healing for what is in [your] hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers
Qur’an 10:57read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A review supporting an American Pain Society and American College of Physicians guideline found good evidence for massage in long standing low back pain, alongside exercise and behavioural approaches. Working one region of the body does change how a person feels more broadly. The idea that throat and chest release together is anatomy and lived experience rather than something those trials measured.
Chou R, Huffman LH, American Pain Society, American College of Physicians. (2007). Nonpharmacologic therapies for acute and chronic low back pain: a review of the evidence for an American Pain Society/American College of Physicians clinical practice guideline.. Annals of internal medicine doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
The same nerve carries on from the throat down to the heart and lungs, so those regions sit on one line.
Finish by letting your eyes travel slowly from one side to the other a few times, open or closed, then bring them back to the middle and notice how you are.
The first twinge often brings back every previous episode with it, and that dread is not separate from the pain. Fear tightens the muscles and turns the volume up.
If several medications have failed, ask whether anyone else in the family had the same experience. A pattern of non response runs in some families.