The Body Scan

Many of us live from the neck up, putting a premium on thoughts over feelings. However, the body is the most accessible aspect of our direct experience. Mindful focusing on our body allows for a more accurate experience of moment-by-moment sensations.

Body scan focuses attention on particular experiences within the body.

Benefits of the body scan:

• Helps one disengage from their thoughts or thinking brain.

• Stops us from going into the story of our thoughts, problem solving, judging, and/or analyzing.

• Through being in our bodies we learn important lessons about how we are doing emotionally and physically, as well as learning about the content of our thinking brain and the transient nature of thoughts
  • Thoughts will come and go, often thoughts are distorted, false, and/or biased
  • Your body will never lie but your thoughts often do lie.

Lets Begin:

1. Make yourself comfortable. Allow your eyes to gently close or drop your gaze to the side.

2. Take a few moments to get in touch with the movement of your breath and the sensations in the body. When you are ready, bring your awareness to the physical sensations in your body, especially to the sensations of touch or pressure, or where your body makes contact with the chair or bed. On each out breath, allow yourself to let go, to sink a little deeper into the chair

3. Remind yourself of the intention of this practice. Its aim is not to feel any different, relaxed, or calm; this may happen or it may not. Instead, the intention of the practice is, as best you can, to bring awareness to any sensations you detect, as you focus your attention on each part of the body in turn.

4. Now bring your awareness to the physical sensations in the lower abdomen, becoming aware of the changing patterns of sensations in the abdominal wall as you breathe in,and as you breathe out. Take a few minutes to feel the sensations as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

5. Having connected with the sensations in the abdomen, bring the focus or “spotlight” of your awareness down the left leg, into the left foot, and out to the toes of the left foot. Focus on each of the toes of the left foot in turn, bringing a gentle curiosity to investigate the quality of the sensations you find, perhaps noticing the sense of contact between the toes, a sense of tingling, warmth, or no particular sensation.

6. When you are ready, on an in breath, feel or imaging the breath entering the lungs, and then passing down into the abdomen, into the left leg, the left foot, and out to the toes of the left foot. Then on the out breath feel or imagine the breath coming all the way back up, out of the foot, into the leg, up through the abdomen, chest, and out through the nose. As best you can, continue this for a few breaths, breathing down into the toes, and back out from the toes. It may be difficult to get the hang of this so just practice “breathing into” as best you can, approaching it playfully.

7. Now, when you are ready, on an out breath, let go of awareness of the toes, and bring your awareness to the sensations on the bottom of your left foot-bringing a gentle, investigative awareness to the sole of the foot, the instep, the heel. You may notice the sensations where the heel makes contact with the floor. Experiment with “breathing with” the sensations-being aware of the breath in the background, as in the foreground, you explore the sensations of the lower foot.

8. Now allow the awareness to expand into the rest of the foot- to the ankle, the top of the foot, and right into the bones and joints. Then, taking a slightly deep breath, directing it down into the whole of the left foot, and as the breath lets go on the out breath, let go of the left foot completely, allowing the focus of awareness to move into the lower left leg-the calf, shin, knee, and so on, in turn.

9. Continue to bring awareness, and a gentle curiosity, to the physical sensations in each part of the rest of the body in turn- to the upper left leg, the right toes, right foot, right leg, pelvic area, back, abdomen, chest, fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, head, and face. In each area, as best you can, bring the same detailed level of awareness and gentle curiosity to the bodily sensations present. As you leave each major area, “breathe in” to it on the in breath, and let go of that region on the out breath.

10. When you become aware of tension, or of other intense sensations in a particular part of the body, you can “breath in” to them- using the in breath gently to bring awareness right into the sensations, and, as best you can, have a sense of their letting go, or releasing, on the out breath.

11. The mind will inevitably wander away from the breath and the body from time to time. That is entirely normal. It is what minds do. When you notice it, gently acknowledge it, noticing where the mind has gone off to, and then gently return your attention to the part of the body you intended to focus on.

12. After you have “scanned” the whole body in this way, spend a few minutes being aware of a sense of the body as a whole, and of the breath flowing freely in and out of the body.

NOTE:

• If you find yourself falling asleep, you might find it helpful to prop your head up with a pillow, open your eyes, or do the practice sitting up rather than lying down.

• You can adjust the time spent in this practice by using larger chunks of your body to become aware of or spending a shorter or longer time with each part.

This is a process that requires some practice each day to gain efficiency. As you practice the body scan and listening to your body, you will learn something that can transform your response to both stress and anxiety.