Areas › Your body › Grounding and settling
Whenever you offer a standing practice, offer the seated version in the same breath, and mean it. Say plainly that people should look after their own bodies and change anything that does not suit them.
Say it before you begin, not afterwards, so that nobody has to interrupt to ask. If you cannot see the people you are guiding, say that too, and say you are trusting them to make their own calls. Choice over your own body is precisely what hard experience takes away, so a practice that quietly removes it can undo what it was meant to teach, however good the technique.
Qur’an and Sunnah
God does not burden any soul with more than He has given it (Quran 65:7). What is asked of a person is measured to that person, which is the principle underneath offering a version that fits.
لِيُنفِقۡ ذُو سَعَةࣲ مِّن سَعَتِهِۦۖ وَمَن قُدِرَ عَلَيۡهِ رِزۡقُهُۥ فَلۡيُنفِقۡ مِمَّآ ءَاتَىٰهُ ٱللَّهُۚ لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفۡسًا إِلَّا مَآ ءَاتَىٰهَاۚ سَيَجۡعَلُ ٱللَّهُ بَعۡدَ عُسۡرࣲ يُسۡرࣰ ا
and let the wealthy man spend according to his wealth. But let him whose provision is restricted spend according to what God has given him: God does not burden any soul with more than He has given it- after hardship, God will bring ease
Qur’an 65:7read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A systematic review of randomised trials of mindfulness based programmes for university students found improvement in mental health overall, but effects that varied widely, with many trials of moderate quality. Wide variation is a reason to leave people room to adjust rather than press everyone into one shape. The review looked at programme outcomes, not at how options are offered.
Dawson AF, Brown WW, Anderson J, Datta B, Donald JN, Hong K, Allan S, Mole TB, Jones PB, Galante J. (2020). Mindfulness-Based Interventions for University Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials.. Applied psychology. Health and well-being doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Being free to choose what happens to your body is part of the very thing you are trying to rebuild.
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
Tap the fleshy side of one hand with the other and say it plainly: even though I am feeling all this in my body right now, I can accept that this is how I am.
Offer any movement in three sizes: small, medium and full. Let people take the one that fits today, and let them change their mind halfway through.
Finish a check-in by asking what actually brought you here. Not the task in front of you, the thing underneath it that you want.