Body Awareness Exercise

Brief beginner's mindfulness exercise designed to increase awareness of sensations in the body. Objective is to simply remain curious about what arises moment to moment, breath by breath. By acknowledging sensations, tensions, spaciousness and ease in the body, you can begin to allow for greater acceptance of the present moment. With greater acknowledgement and acceptance of what is presenting in the moment, you can begin to notice the shift from tension to ease. *This exercise includes a journaling prompt at beginning and end -

Transcript

Body awareness exercise.

Take your time,

Find a comfortable seat,

And have a pen and paper handy.

On your piece of paper,

Draw a stick figure.

Relatively large.

Maybe drawing the stick figure on one side of the paper,

Taking up the whole sheet,

And then leaving the back of the paper blank so that you may answer some questions following this exercise.

Notice how you feel when you begin,

And how you feel afterwards.

And do this practice for a few consecutive days,

So that you may develop more awareness and understanding of your body.

Take your time to come onto your back.

You may have your knees bent and your feet flat.

You may have your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground.

Or you may lengthen the legs out long.

Notice your breathing.

Feel your navel rising on the inhale,

And falling on the exhale.

Navel rising on the inhale.

Falling on the exhale.

Begin to move your attention slowly through your body as you follow your gentle breath.

Scan from your toes to the top of your head,

And take a few breaths at each body part,

Starting at your feet.

Scanning the body as you breathe,

Following the breath along the body from your toes to your head.

Scanning the feet all the way to the crown of the head.

Pausing for a few breaths at each body part.

And taking your time to notice what arises at each point.

Notice where you feel constriction in the body.

Breathe into those tight spaces.

Soften and relax.

Make mental notes of where you feel tension.

And breathing into those spaces,

Breathing into and out from.

Softening and relaxing the tension with the breath.

And when you're ready,

Taking your time to contemplate and answer the following questions about your experience today.

On the body outline that you drew,

Make notes.

Where did you feel tension or constriction or tightness in the body?

Where did you feel any pain?

Where did you feel the most flow or freedom?

Did you feel any emotion or thoughts arise as you visited certain body parts?

And what did you notice about your breath?