Areas › Low mood and hard feelings › Calm the body
Overwhelmed? Take two minutes: breathe out slowly, longer than you breathe in, and let the body lead.
You cannot think your way calm mid-storm, but you can breathe your way there. Slow exhales, then decide.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Seek help with steadfastness and prayer (Quran 2:45). A pause to breathe and turn to Him is the help being pointed to.
وَٱسۡتَعِينُواْ بِٱلصَّبۡرِ وَٱلصَّلَوٰةِۚ وَإِنَّهَا لَكَبِيرَةٌ إِلَّا عَلَى ٱلۡخَٰشِعِينَ
Seek help with steadfastness and prayer- though this is hard indeed for anyone but the humble
Qur’an 2:45read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
Slow, controlled breathing measurably shifts the body toward calm and a greater sense of control; the body settles first, and the mind follows.
Zaccaro, A., Piarulli, A., Laurino, M., Garbella, E., Menicucci, D., Neri, B. and Gemignani, A. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psycho-physiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience doi
Slow, controlled breathing shifts the nervous system toward calm and increases feelings of comfort and control.
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Slow breathing with long exhales settles the body's alarm and brings the calm the mind cannot force.
Where this sits: DBT Distress Tolerance, TIP skills; physiological down-regulation.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Scan your body, unclench the jaw, drop the shoulders, soften the hands. Let the tension out on each breath.
When emotion spikes hard, splash cold water on your face or hold something cold for a slow count.
Before anyone concludes that nothing works, go back over the ordinary explanations: a dose that never went high enough, a trial that stopped after three weeks, doses missed on the hard days.