A useful mindfulness of body exercise that helps us get a sense of our internal landscape and the physical and emotional sensations going on in this moment is the known as the body scan.
I often use this excercise as a way to take pause and get back in touch with myself in the present moment. It is a nice way to ground and center yourself. I also suggest it to clients as way to get grounding back after an upsetting or destabilizing event or situation.
We can do this by lying down or standing up. I suppose any posture is ok for this exercise, but the lying down or standing up are the most conducive to feeling the whole body in my opinon.
We simply start at the crown of the head or the bottoms of the feet and slowly scan our attention (upward or downward depending on where you are starting). We want to feel deeply into the body. Feeling soft tissue, ligaments, and even bone. Noticing blood flow, tension or relaxation, areas of numbness int he body. Whatever is present in the body in that moment is what we notice. We move sequentially, so if we were starting in the feet we would slowly move upwards: feet, lower legs, knees, upper legs, pelvic region, lower back, stomach, upper/mid back, chest shoulders, arms, hands, neck, face and head. Spending a few moments in each area deepening and soaking awareness into whatever is present.
This can be a very quick practice perhaps finished in ten breaths, or we may linger for a few minutes or more in each body part.
Filed under: Body, Home practice, Mindfulness, Practice
