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Areas › Your body › Your nervous system
Promised effects set people up to fail. When the promised calm does not turn up, the usual conclusion is that their body is broken, rather than that the claim was too general to be about anybody in particular. An experiment has no failure condition. You notice what happened, and that is information either way. Keep two lines somewhere about what you tried and what it did, for a week or two.
Abraham asked to be shown something 'just to put my heart at rest' (Quran 2:260). Wanting to see for yourself is not treated as a lack of faith.
البقرة
وَإِذۡ قَالَ إِبۡرَٰهِـۧمُ رَبِّ أَرِنِي كَيۡفَ تُحۡيِ ٱلۡمَوۡتَىٰۖ قَالَ أَوَلَمۡ تُؤۡمِنۖ قَالَ بَلَىٰ وَلَٰكِن لِّيَطۡمَئِنَّ قَلۡبِيۖ قَالَ فَخُذۡ أَرۡبَعَةࣰ مِّنَ ٱلطَّيۡرِ فَصُرۡهُنَّ إِلَيۡكَ ثُمَّ ٱجۡعَلۡ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ جَبَلࣲ مِّنۡهُنَّ جُزۡءࣰ ا ثُمَّ ٱدۡعُهُنَّ يَأۡتِينَكَ سَعۡيࣰ اۚ وَٱعۡلَمۡ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَزِيزٌ حَكِيمࣱ
And when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead,’ He said, ‘Do you not believe, then?’ ‘Yes,’ said Abraham, ‘but just to put my heart at rest.’ So God said, ‘Take four birds and train them to come back to you. Then place them on separate hilltops, call them back, and they will come flying to you: know that God is all powerful and wise.’
Qur’an 2:260read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
A meta analysis of biofeedback and neurofeedback for depression found benefit while describing the evidence base as contested, with effect sizes sensitive to which control condition the studies used. Even interventions with real research behind them carry that much wobble. It is a good reason to test things on yourself rather than assume the average result is your result.
Fernández-Alvarez J, Grassi M, Colombo D, Botella C, Cipresso P, Perna G, Riva G. (2022). Efficacy of bio- and neurofeedback for depression: a meta-analysis.. Psychological medicine doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Turning a promise into an experiment means every outcome tells you something instead of judging you.
Relaxation exercises make some people feel worse, and there is a reason for it. The branch that gives you rest when you are safe is the branch that gives you shutdown when you are not.
Hum a note you like for a few breaths, and try covering your ears with your palms so the sound fills your head.
Before you close your eyes for anything calming, spend a minute looking round the room. Let your eyes land wherever they want to.