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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
When you are shut down and heavy, an active practice can be more than you are able to start. When you are wired and watchful, lying still while something is done to you may be unbearable. Rather than deciding which type of person you are, have both within reach and choose by the state you are actually in when you arrive.
'In His mercy He has given you night and day, so that you may rest and seek His bounty' (Quran 28:73). The resting and the going out are both given, and neither is the superior half.
القصص
وَمِن رَّحۡمَتِهِۦ جَعَلَ لَكُمُ ٱلَّيۡلَ وَٱلنَّهَارَ لِتَسۡكُنُواْ فِيهِ وَلِتَبۡتَغُواْ مِن فَضۡلِهِۦ وَلَعَلَّكُمۡ تَشۡكُرُونَ
In His mercy He has given you night and day, so that you may rest and seek His bounty and be grateful.’
Qur’an 28:73read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A systematic review and network meta analysis compared physical relaxation methods head to head in healthcare workers and found several, including yoga and massage, reduced occupational stress, with small differences between them. That list holds both the active and the receptive kind, and both did something. Because the differences were small, this supports having options rather than ranking them.
Zhang M, Murphy B, Cabanilla A, Yidi C. (2021). Physical relaxation for occupational stress in healthcare workers: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.. Journal of occupational health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
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