Areas › Your body › Touch and bodywork
The best ending is often that therapy stops and the practices carry on. People finish their sessions and keep the yoga, the bodywork, the acupressure, the sitting quietly.
It is worth building towards that from early on rather than at the end. If everything that settles you happens in one room with one person, then finishing is a loss. If some of it happens on a Tuesday morning in your own kitchen, finishing is a graduation. A good question to ask yourself now: what keeps me steady that does not depend on an appointment?
Qur’an and Sunnah
The believers are pictured 'like a seed that puts forth its shoot, becomes strong, grows thick, and rises on its stem' (Quran 48:29). Standing on your own stem is the intended end of being tended, not a sign the tending was unnecessary.
مُّحَمَّدࣱ رَّسُولُ ٱللَّهِۚ وَٱلَّذِينَ مَعَهُۥٓ أَشِدَّآءُ عَلَى ٱلۡكُفَّارِ رُحَمَآءُ بَيۡنَهُمۡۖ تَرَىٰهُمۡ رُكَّعࣰ ا سُجَّدࣰ ا يَبۡتَغُونَ فَضۡلࣰ ا مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضۡوَٰنࣰ اۖ سِيمَاهُمۡ فِي وُجُوهِهِم مِّنۡ أَثَرِ ٱلسُّجُودِۚ ذَٰلِكَ مَثَلُهُمۡ فِي ٱلتَّوۡرَىٰةِۚ وَمَثَلُهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡإِنجِيلِ كَزَرۡعٍ أَخۡرَجَ شَطۡـَٔهُۥ فَـَٔازَرَهُۥ فَٱسۡتَغۡلَظَ فَٱسۡتَوَىٰ عَلَىٰ سُوقِهِۦ يُعۡجِبُ ٱلزُّرَّاعَ لِيَغِيظَ بِهِمُ ٱلۡكُفَّارَۗ وَعَدَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّٰلِحَٰتِ مِنۡهُم مَّغۡفِرَةࣰ وَأَجۡرًا عَظِيمَۢا
Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those who follow him are harsh towards the disbelievers and compassionate towards each other. You see them kneeling and prostrating, seeking God’s bounty and His good pleasure: on their faces they bear the marks of their prostrations. This is how they are pictured in the Torah and the Gospel: like a seed that puts forth its shoot, becomes strong, grows thick, and rises on its stem to the delight of its sowers. So God infuriates the disbelievers through them; God promises forgiveness and a great reward to those who believe and do righteous deeds
Qur’an 48:29read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A network meta analysis of physical relaxation for occupational stress in healthcare workers compared massage, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation and stretching, and found all of them helped somewhat with no clear winner. That is good news for self sustaining practice, since it means the specific choice matters less than having one. These were workplace stress trials rather than studies of people leaving therapy.
Zhang M, Murphy B, Cabanilla A, Yidi C. (2021). Physical relaxation for occupational stress in healthcare workers: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.. Journal of occupational health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Regulation that lives in your own week does not end when the sessions do.
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
When a treatment is described as approved, ask what it is approved for. Magnetic brain stimulation is licensed for depression, and using it for attention problems is off label.
If light touch makes you squirm but firm deep pressure feels wonderful, that is worth knowing about yourself. It is the same preference behind weighted blankets and a very tight hug.
End by pressing your palms together and staying there a moment. Each hand is giving and being given to at the same time.