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If you announce that an exercise is calming, most people will agree with you whether or not it was. Asking leaves room for the honest answer, including nothing much and that was horrible, both of which are more use to you than politeness. It works the same way alone. Ask, then wait a few seconds before answering.
We are closer to him than his jugular vein (Quran 50:16). What is happening inside a person is not visible from outside, which is reason enough to ask instead of assume.
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وَلَقَدۡ خَلَقۡنَا ٱلۡإِنسَٰنَ وَنَعۡلَمُ مَا تُوَسۡوِسُ بِهِۦ نَفۡسُهُۥۖ وَنَحۡنُ أَقۡرَبُ إِلَيۡهِ مِنۡ حَبۡلِ ٱلۡوَرِيدِ
We created man––We know what his soul whispers to him: We are closer to him than his jugular vein––
Qur’an 50:16read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
In a randomised comparison of mindful breathing, progressive muscle relaxation and loving kindness meditation, only mindful breathing produced greater decentering, meaning the ability to stand back and observe your own experience rather than be carried along by it. That capacity is what an open question exercises. The study compared practices rather than ways of closing a session, so the link to the question itself is reasoning rather than a finding.
Feldman G, Greeson J, Senville J. (2010). Differential effects of mindful breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and loving-kindness meditation on decentering and negative reactions to repetitive thoughts.. Behaviour research and therapy doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
People report what they expect to be true unless you leave them room to check what actually happened.
Holding your breath for a moment makes the next one deeper, which sounds backwards until you know why. The urge to breathe is driven by carbon dioxide, not by a shortage of air.
There is no breath that calms everyone. The one that settles your friend may leave you worse, and that is information about your body rather than a failure in you.
These practices are not only pleasant. They change things you could measure, which is worth knowing on the days when pleasant is not reason enough to bother.