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Areas › Your body › Posture and how you carry yourself
Closed eyes are the default in most classes and they are not always kind. When a lot is stirring, letting the eyes stay soft but open, so the light and the walls and the floor keep reaching you, is what stops inward attention from turning into a slide away from the present. Both can run at once: the breath moving, and the room still there.
Be among those who bow down to Him (Quran 15:98). The remedy offered for a heavy heart is a bodily one, and it is done among others rather than sealed off alone.
الحجر
فَسَبِّحۡ بِحَمۡدِ رَبِّكَ وَكُن مِّنَ ٱلسَّٰجِدِينَ
Celebrate the glory of your Lord and be among those who bow down to Him
Qur’an 15:98read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Brain imaging work shows people read threat from whole body posture and not only from faces, so the room and everyone in it are being assessed continually by a part of you that never asks permission. Eyes open lets that assessment come back with reassuring answers. The study measured how threat is perceived rather than testing eyes open practice, so the application here is an inference.
Kret ME, Pichon S, Grèzes J, de Gelder B. (2011). Similarities and differences in perceiving threat from dynamic faces and bodies. An fMRI study.. NeuroImage doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Staying half attached to the room is what keeps attention turned inward from tipping into drifting off.
What frightens a body is usually not how hard a thing is, it is having no way out. So put movement as an offer. If it feels alright, you might try lifting your arms.
You are not here for a longer hamstring. You are here for a nervous system that can change gear, work when work is needed and settle when it is not.
Grounding and relaxing are two different prescriptions. A squat with your back against a wall puts you back into your legs. Deep guided rest takes you downwards. Reach for whichever one is missing.