Practices

Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.

Narrowed down

8 practices

Your nervous system Twenty minutes Coping, mostly Clear all

How long you have · Twenty minutes

A minute 15 Five minutes 37 Twenty minutes 8 Longer 1

Who it is written for

A practitioner 8 Me 8 Someone I care about 6 My husband or wife 1

Where you are right now · Coping, mostly

Coping, mostly 8 Struggling right now 4 Getting ready for something 2

On your own, or with someone

On my own 7 Both of us together 1

Theme · Your nervous system

Systems for daily life 21 Medication and how it works 19 Moving your body 17 Getting assessed and diagnosed 11 Get started 11 The cost of avoiding 11 Screens and attention 10 Your nervous system 8 Touch and bodywork 8 Treatment and medication 7 Shared spiritual life 7 Feelings and focus 7 What anger actually is 6 Staying regulated in conflict 5 The moment before you snap 5 Bringing the future closer 5 Exercise, food and other supports 5 Breaking the worry loop 5 Food, caffeine and fuel 5 What ADHD actually is 5 When everything feels flat 4 The fear underneath anger 4 Growing empathy 4 Grounding and settling 4 When anger turns to harm 4 Repair after rupture 4 Righteous anger and perfectionism 4 Rituals of connection 4 Your sense of time 3 Rebuilding trust 3 Structure and routine 3 Breathing 3 Emotions as signals 3 Making it stick 3 Knowing your partner 3 Reading, numbers and learning differences 3 Anger, alcohol and the body 2 Use your strengths 2 What worry does 2 Feeling from the inside 2 Equanimity and perspective 2 When you use something to cope 2 Cool the body first 2 Answering bids 2 Shame and stigma 2 Rest and pacing 1 Keep the bond 1 Safety and grounding 1 Facing it a step at a time 1 Choosing your response 1 Tolerate distress 1 Practising under provocation 1 Care for yourself in loss 1 Posture and how you carry yourself 1 Obsessions and compulsions 1 Listen to the body 1 Remembering to do it 1 Treatment and medication 1

Connection settles people, but the right amount of it varies enormously. Some settle with a house full of family and some with one person and no talking at all.

If closeness costs you something, plan around that rather than pushing through. Shorter visits, sitting side by side instead of face to face, a walk…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 2:260

A regular sitting practice is training rather than a treat. What you practise when things are calm is what your body can find when they are not.

The state people describe in mindfulness and the state of feeling safe in your own body overlap almost completely. That is a good reason to keep the…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 33:41

If you understand your history perfectly and nothing has changed, you are not failing at this. Insight alone is pushing water uphill against the current of information coming from your body.

Articulate people get stuck here often, because talking is the thing they are best at. What tends to be missing is an actual experience of being safe…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 13:28

None of this makes thinking useless. Making sense of what happened, and changing what you concluded about yourself, does work that no breathing exercise touches.

The body work settles the alarm. The thinking work deals with the verdict you passed on yourself afterwards: that you are weak, that it was your…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 3:191

Deep rest needs a dose like anything else. If a long daily relaxation is leaving you flatter each week rather than steadier, make it shorter.

Someone can start a forty day programme of long guided rest with the best intentions and find that by the second week they are sinking instead of…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 25:47

If you are the person who steadies every room, ask yourself when a room last steadied you.

Some people are very good at this because they were handed the job at six years old, in a house where somebody had to keep everyone level. It becomes…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 28:73

Real rest, closeness and unhurried prayer all ask for the same thing: being still while feeling safe. That is harder than it sounds if stillness has ever been dangerous.

It is why some people cope beautifully in a crisis and find a quiet evening unbearable, and why intimacy and slow worship are often the last things…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 78:10

If you cannot feel your own state yet, a device that shows it on a screen can stand in until you can.

Ear clips and phone apps that display your heart rhythm turn something invisible into a light changing colour, and for people who have spent years…

Twenty minutesYour nervous systemBody basedQur’an 2:260

Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.