Areas › Your body › Touch and bodywork
Talking is not the only door in. Exercise, massage, acupressure, yoga, tai chi and the rest go at the body first and let the mind follow, which is the opposite direction from most therapy.
That is why they sit well beside talking work rather than competing with it. If words keep circling the same ground, changing what your body is doing may shift something the conversation cannot reach. Choose by what you will actually keep up, since the practice you enjoy beats the one with the better reputation.
Qur’an and Sunnah
God is described as having 'cured his wife of barrenness' when Zachariah called on Him (Quran 21:90). Bodily change sits inside the answer rather than outside it, so tending the body is not a lesser sort of care.
فَٱسۡتَجَبۡنَا لَهُۥ وَوَهَبۡنَا لَهُۥ يَحۡيَىٰ وَأَصۡلَحۡنَا لَهُۥ زَوۡجَهُۥٓۚ إِنَّهُمۡ كَانُواْ يُسَٰرِعُونَ فِي ٱلۡخَيۡرَٰتِ وَيَدۡعُونَنَا رَغَبࣰ ا وَرَهَبࣰ اۖ وَكَانُواْ لَنَا خَٰشِعِينَ
We answered him––We gave him John, and cured his wife of barrenness- they were always keen to do good deeds. They called upon Us out of longing and awe, and humbled themselves before Us
Qur’an 21:90read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
In a randomised study, fathers given oxytocin showed changes in how they behaved with their infants alongside shifts in their hormone levels. Physical state and the way a person relates turn out to be coupled, and the traffic runs in both directions. It was a single dose in a controlled setting, so it demonstrates the principle rather than telling you which body practice to take up.
Weisman O, Zagoory-Sharon O, Feldman R. (2014). Oxytocin administration, salivary testosterone, and father-infant social behavior.. Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Much of what trauma leaves behind is held as body state and habit, and the body can be addressed directly.
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
If something is safe, affordable and it helps you, the fact that the effect may be mostly expectation is not a reason to stop.
Keep offering these small practices and people start asking for them. When someone requests one by name, something has changed about who is running their regulation.
When the person in front of you starts yawning during body work, it is usually not boredom. Bodies yawn as they let go of what they were holding.