Body Scan Centering + Focusing Exercise

We begin with a body scan, that includes some muscle relaxation, to get centered and grounded in the body. We then switch into Gendlin's Focusing, to invite the body to speak to us about something. You might experience a felt sense and a felt shift. And hopefully a new perspective and some action step ideas to move you forward too!

Transcript

So we're going to begin with a centering practice.

I'm going to do a body scan with that.

And then we'll do a guided focusing experience.

So I invite everybody to either close their eyes or lower their gaze just kind of your attention to slowly shift more to your body.

Down if we will.

So and as you do that,

You might notice if your body needs anything,

It might want to stretch or adjust the way you're sitting or,

Or it might be too cold or too hot.

So any any big adjustments like that,

We can just kind of do those.

And then I'll invite you to take a few deep breaths.

Maybe breathing out of your mouth.

And we're going to begin with a body scan.

And we're going to start with our jaw.

I invite you to just notice if you're holding your jaw tight,

If it wants to yawn or move around and maybe your temples are a bit tight,

You might want to give some self massage to the temples.

Start to release some tension.

I'll invite you to just smile.

Body up to the mind.

Okay,

Okay.

And then I'll invite you to bring your attention more to your cheeks and your nose.

And then up into the eyes and seeing if you can soften your eyes,

Might squeeze them and then release.

And then we'll go up to the forehead,

Softening the brow.

And then bringing our attention to the crown of the head,

The top of the head and then coming back down the back of the head and coming to the bottom of the head and the neck and you might want to stretch your neck.

You might want to raise your shoulders and release them or roll the shoulders,

Roll the neck.

Nice semi circles.

And then letting your attention drift down your back down your spine from the top of the back into the middle.

You might notice if your body wants you to twist on your spine and then coming down to the lower back and the sit bones where you're making contact with your chair,

Your thighs,

The back of the thighs and then the back of the knees and down the calves in the back there until you come to your feet.

Maybe your feet are making contact with the floor or maybe they're tucked under you.

And then we could move back up to the front of the legs,

Your knees and your hamstrings.

And then I invite you to go up the sides of your body,

Like your ribs,

Your underarms and down the inside of your arms.

That elbow crease down the forearms to the palms of your hands and out the fingers on the back of the hand.

And then coming back on the fingers on the top of the arms.

All the way up till we come to the collarbone.

And then I'm going to invite you to take one of those hands and put them on your heart and maybe the other hand on the cheek as we bring our attention to the front of the body,

The throat,

The chest and the belly.

Just bringing some tenderness there.

And if you'd like you could go inside as well.

See what's happening in there now.

Just seeing if your body needs anything in order to be able to try some focusing right now.

So you might be feeling fairly calm and grounded now.

You might feel like,

Okay,

I'm ready to begin.

Or you might notice something in there is in the way.

Something's not ready.

So if there's something that's not ready,

You might see if it wants some attention.

It might want to tell you something.

Or maybe it would be okay to put it beside you just for now.

In the way that we would stack up a pile of papers on a desk if we needed to do something on the desk.

So you might be able to just say,

Okay,

I see you Hello.

And just for now,

Can I put you down beside me?

And just finding the right distance,

It might want to be beside you really close.

Or you might want to put it over there,

Across the room,

Or even outside the door.

So if you do that,

Then you can check how am I doing inside?

Is there anything else in the way of me and feeling just fine?

There's anything else you can do that again?

You can say hello.

I didn't know you'll come back to it at some point.

And then just for now,

Put it beside you.

Maybe do it again.

And then when you're ready,

We can invite something to come back in,

It might be one of those things you've moved out or your body might want something else to have some attention.

So I'll invite you to ask your body,

What wants my attention right now?

What wants my attention and just notice physically,

If some sensations come?

Where do they come in the body?

And I'm going to invite you to notice what sensations are most prominent.

Maybe we can start there.

If you have sensations in more than one spot.

The invitation is to notice where in the body and then to notice if there's a shape or size to those sensations.

How big are they?

How much room do they take up in the shape of round or long?

How are those sensations in your body?

And then noticing if there's some substance that the physical sensations,

Maybe it feels dense or light,

Solid or liquid.

Maybe it feels like a gas.

And noticing if there's a stillness to the sensations or a movement quality.

And if it's moving,

How fast or slow.

And then noticing anything else that you could say to describe it.

Maybe there's temperature change in the sensations compared to the rest of you,

Or maybe there's a color.

Noticing any of the description words that you could use to describe these sensations.

And then I'll invite you to notice if there's an emotional quality or qualities in this physical felt sense that's forming in your body.

And I'll invite you to notice if it feels familiar,

If these are sensations you know,

Or if they feel really new.

And if they feel known,

I'll invite you to ask your body just kind of for a snapshot,

Like a Polaroid picture of when you felt this way before.

So not going deep into a memory,

But just getting a little bit of information from your body of when you felt this way before,

If you have.

And now we'll ask our bodies to tell us what this is all about.

And we'll ask the body to either give us a word that summarizes it all,

That points to its essence,

Or maybe a phrase or image,

A metaphor,

It could be a poetic combination of words.

And just let that bubble up.

Just let it come.

We don't need to think about it,

We just let it come.

What's this all about?

You might notice the options that are coming forward,

There may be more than one.

So if there's more than one,

I invite you to go back and forth between the physical sensations and the symbol options that are coming.

Notice if one feels closer,

Maybe one's really clear.

Maybe one gives you that message of like,

Ah,

Yeah,

That's it.

I invite you to keep going back and forth until you have that kind of resonating feeling of this is what this is.

Your body saying,

Oh,

Yes,

That's it.

And then we'll ask the body once you have kind of a sense of something about what this is about,

What else it wants you to know about this?

If it has a feeling of a problem,

Maybe you want to ask your body,

What's the worst about this?

Or maybe you're creating something and you could ask it,

What's most important?

What else does your body want you to know here?

I invite you to really tune your attention back to the physical again and just notice.

Have the feelings changed?

Have the physical sensations changed?

Are they smaller or bigger than before?

Or maybe they've moved to a new place in your body?

How has it changed?

And you might notice what fresh thoughts you're having.

What's really new that's coming into your awareness now,

As you're with all of this?

You might have a question for yourself,

You might want to ask your body something more specific.

You could do that now.

And if it feels helpful to your process,

You might like to ask your body for what would be a right next step.

Bring whatever your body is telling you into,

Into being into motion.

Really,

If we ask this question of the body,

We really want to make sure we're hearing it from the body.

So if you get an answer,

That's quick and kind of something you would normally think you might want to ask your body again.

What would be a right next step?

I'll invite you to notice where you are in the process.

There might be more that wants to come.

So you might want to bookmark where you're at.

Let your body know you'll come back to where,

Whatever edge you are at now.

And then I'll invite you to thank your body for whatever wisdom it shared with you today.

Thank yourself for taking the time to listen to those parts of you that wanted to share.

And I'll invite you to slowly round this off and come back to the group.

For those of you live and for those of you who are not live,

You might take some time to journal or do a body card and take some notes.

And those of you who are live,

We can do that too now.

Actually,

But take a few moments.

If you want to jot anything down that came that you want to remember.