Body Scan Meditation For Feeling & Processing Emotions

This teaching and meditation were created to support you when you're experiencing overwhelming emotions. You'll learn simple tools to help you process what you're feeling, and you'll be guided through a body scan specific to allowing energy to flow and help you connect to yourself through it. Keep this on hand whenever you need it.

Transcript

Well,

Hello there!

Welcome back!

Today I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to guide you through a simple body scan meditation focused on teaching you how to feel your emotions.

I would love this episode in particular to become a safety blanket for you,

A guide,

A tool that you can call upon and come back to whenever you need it.

So I'm gonna start by just explaining a little bit more about this practice,

Why we do it,

Then how to do it,

And a few little tips and techniques that will give you more skill and tools going into the actual practice.

And then I'm going to guide you through this practice.

So if right now you're in the middle of doing activities or on a walk or driving,

You can still listen along and still somewhat practice this while you're in the middle of something else.

But if you also have the opportunity to pause whatever you're doing when that moment comes and go into the practice fully,

I highly recommend it.

I also want to just invite you to share this episode with someone else.

If you know that someone is going through some emotions right now and maybe having a difficult time with that,

This episode could become a support for them.

So share this episode with that person,

Maybe through a text,

Through an email,

Maybe share it on your social media.

That would be a great way to support them and to support this podcast and help me continue to put out these episodes each week.

So let's jump in.

The first concept to this practice is really teaching ourselves the value of observing an emotion versus reacting to it or shoving it down or avoiding it or numbing it in some way.

As a culture,

We have been conditioned and taught to avoid our emotions,

To shove them down,

To push them away,

Set them aside,

And suck it up and do what we need to do.

And then there becomes a point where perhaps an emotion becomes so strong that we can't do that anymore and then we end up reacting to it.

And a reaction to an emotion might be going full-on into hysterics or blowing up or just embodying that emotion so deeply that we feel like we have no control over it,

Rather that it feels like it has full power and control over us.

When you shift from this reaction or avoidance of an emotion into observing it,

You allow it to be there.

And when you allow the emotion to be there,

Then it has a chance to say its piece and move on.

So it might wash over you like a wave when you allow it to come.

It's kind of like going to the ocean and trying to stop a wave from flowing.

If you ran into a wave and tried to block it,

You would create a lot of splashing and there'd be a lot more current going against you.

But if instead you just allowed the wave to do what it needs to do,

It'll have a natural peak and then it'll dissolve back into the ocean.

And that is how emotions tend to be.

When we resist them and avoid them,

They may seem like this enormous pressure that's constantly banging against us.

When we just observe it and we allow this emotion to be there,

Then it will come and it may peak or it may not and then it will go.

It'll soften away.

So this meditation that I'm going to guide you through is just a simple visualization body scan meditation that'll start to almost hold your hand through the process of observing an emotion in your body.

Because especially when we don't have a lot of practice with this,

Since we aren't taught this at a young age in our culture,

Then it might be a bit difficult at first.

It might feel a bit foreign or strange,

Like you're not really feeling much.

You're not really sure what what it is that you're supposed to be feeling.

So I find that guiding through it can be an immensely helpful way to observe an emotion.

One mindset that I encourage you to take to help you get into a place of observing is awaken a bit of curiosity.

When you're curious,

You're more open to look and see what is.

And it's almost like there's a desire to look and see what it is when you're curious,

Right?

Also,

Imagine that you're becoming an explorer.

Now think about what an explorer does.

An explorer does not try to change or resist or fix or judge what it finds,

Right?

Instead,

An explorer just wants to know,

Just wants to discover,

Just wants to learn and gather information and discover what is.

So what if you were to go into this experience with a curious mind and seeking to become an explorer,

To explore,

Gather information,

And discover what is in this moment.

And that's all.

Setting aside judgment,

Resistance,

Avoidance,

And instead just seeking to come into this curious place.

Now I'm going to share with you four ways that you can observe your experience in this moment.

And we're going to use the focus of an emotion of that experience.

Knowing these four ways can help you discern what is the emotion and what is not the emotion.

Now first thing is that there are physical sensations we can feel that travel from the body to the brain,

Right?

Like the feeling of right now if you're sitting,

Then you can feel the chair underneath your hips,

Underneath your legs.

If you're washing dishes,

You can feel the sensation of the water,

The temperature,

The texture.

That's your hand is detecting that and sending information up to your brain to tell you what you're feeling.

And this can be things from the external world like water on your hands or a chair underneath you.

But it can also be more in the actual physical body like if you were to cut your finger that would send sensation from your finger to your brain.

If you had an injury,

Now this can get a little bit confusing at times,

But if you had an injury,

If you broke your ankle,

There's a physical sensation of the bone breaking sending information to your brain.

Then on the flip side we have emotional sensations and they start in the brain and travel to the body.

So if you think about when you get butterflies in your stomach,

That's something happened in your mind,

A thought about something that would make you nervous or excited that would send a signal into your physical body.

So creating a feeling of butterflies in your stomach.

Now when I say that injuries can get a little more complex in detecting sensation because there are often emotions tied to an injury,

Right?

We might feel something emotionally about the injury and so when we're feeling the pain or discomfort from an injury or a sickness or an illness,

There might be physical sensations that are there and there might be emotional sensations that are there.

And learning to observe and then looking to see if you can discern between the two is one way that you can really process this pain but also lessen the pain,

Make the pain a little bit more tolerable rather than making it compound when we're resisting it so much.

That's just a side note.

But so we have physical sensations that travel from the body to the brain,

We have emotional sensations that travel from the brain to the body.

Now the other two ways that we can observe is what we're experiencing in our mind.

The first is mental pictures.

If you're more of an auditory person,

You may not experience a lot of mental imagery and that's okay.

So mental imagery and pictures.

You might be hearing a story or speaking or thinking.

There might be images tied to that.

If you're having an emotional experience,

There might be images that arrive that you're seeing and that's tied to that.

And you can observe the images,

You can take it even deeper,

Get even more complex here and observe where exactly you're seeing the images.

Are you seeing the images like you're watching a movie?

Are you seeing the images as if you are immersed in the movie and you're the main character?

Are you seeing the images displayed in front of you or behind you or on the side of you?

Now the fourth way to observe our experience is mental talking,

Mental words.

The voice we might hear in our mind.

Maybe we hear more than one voice and that is very normal.

It's not a sign that we're crazy necessarily,

But that is one way you can get curious.

Is there just one voice talking?

Are there two voices talking and overriding each other?

Are there three or there four?

Does it sound like the voice is talking to you on the right side of you,

On the left side,

In front of you,

Behind you,

Or just within you,

All around?

Now all these questions that I'm posing,

You may have an urgent desire to answer them and you might not have an answer for them right away.

So instead I want you to go into this with these questions like just curious.

I'm just asking this question to give my point of focus a place to go and then I'm going to look and observe and explore.

Asking a question is like giving an explorer a place to go and explore.

Then they're going to search that place looking to find something.

So they may not find anything that they were looking for in that place and that's okay,

But just by giving some direction gave them a place to actually explore.

So we'll ask questions in a way to not demand answers and not generate a feeling of inadequacy or we're doing it wrong if we don't get an answer.

Rather,

Ask a question to give your mind a place to focus,

A place to explore.

Okay,

So I think that's about it.

Let's just dive right in.

So if you would like to practice along,

Take a moment to get yourself comfortable.

You can do this sitting in a chair.

You can also do this lying down.

Whatever works for you.

If you're going to do this with your eyes closed as the full practice,

Then I recommend finding a place that you're as comfortable as possible.

So if you're going to do that,

Hit the pause button,

Get yourself comfy,

And then join me in a moment.

If you're going to just keep on doing the activity that you're doing and listen along,

See what it's like to do something else and pay attention to what's going on in your physical body.

This is actually a really great way to practice this meditation in addition to doing it with your eyes closed.

Especially if you are more practiced at experiencing and processing and observing emotions,

Then being guided through this experience while you're in the middle of something else can be a great way to deepen the skill.

Because it's kind of like martial arts where a martial artist will learn the techniques and the moves and build the skills in the calmness of their space,

Of their studio.

They don't learn new moves in the heat of a fight.

They develop confidence and skill and muscle memory so that when they're in the heat of the fight,

They can just go.

So if we can practice observing emotions in a calmer environment,

Maybe with your eyes closed,

Maybe when you're not really experiencing huge tumultuous emotions,

Then you're building the skill so that the next time when you really need to process a very overwhelming emotion,

You have the muscle memory already.

Or taking it even further,

More advanced level here,

If you're in the middle of a heated argument with someone,

You can play around with observing and processing your emotions as you're doing it and that will bring you to a calmer more grounded place,

Rather than just reacting to your emotions and putting that on the experience of the interaction,

Putting that on the other person or the relationship itself.

So anyway,

Let's get started.

I'm going to guide you through this meditation with the mindset of you processing a specific emotion now.

So if you're not experiencing an obvious emotion right now,

You can still go through this practice and it'll be a great practice in observing and discerning between what you're observing.

But I want this meditation to be something that's available to you for when you are processing an emotion specifically.

Now I'm going to suggest that right now you take a peek at the time on this podcast episode and make a mental note or even make a physical note so that the next time that you want to be guided through this meditation,

You can just skip this whole intro and come right to this moment.

So get yourself comfortable and if you're closing your eyes,

Go ahead and do that now.

Let's take a full breath in together.

Breathe in deeply through the nose,

Open the lips,

And exhale through the mouth,

Letting a bit of sound go like you're sighing.

Let's do this twice more.

Breathe in a little bit deeper through the nose,

Feel the breath traveling into your body,

Open the lips,

Exhale through the mouth with a bit of sound,

Feeling the warm air swirling against the back of your throat.

Last time,

Breathe in as deeply as you can now,

Pause at the top of the breath,

Exhale as long and relaxing,

As slow as you can,

Dragging it out.

Feel your whole body sinking into the surface beneath you.

Close the lips,

Breathe normally in and out of the nose now.

Bring your focus into your physical body.

Take a moment to notice the most obvious sensations you're currently experiencing.

Become aware of physical sensations in your body traveling from your body to your brain.

Notice the feeling of the surface underneath your body,

The point of contact underneath your feet,

Your legs,

Your hips,

Your spine,

Your arms,

Your head.

Become curious about the temperature of your body.

What's the temperature of your fingers and your toes?

What's the temperature of your core,

Your chest,

Your belly?

Now begin to explore emotional sensations.

Let's start by bringing the emotion you're currently feeling to your mind and notice what words or mental talking is going on,

What story is being told around this emotion.

Take a moment and listen.

Notice if you can detect this talking.

Notice if you can detect the sound of the origin of this talking.

Does it sound like someone is on your right or your left talking to you or is it more general or global?

Is it above you,

Below you,

In front or behind you?

Notice if there is images or pictures linked with this talking.

What do you see?

Get curious about the images that flutter through your mind when you think about this emotion.

As you think about this emotion,

Observe what physical sensations light up,

What part of your body lights up when you feel this emotion.

Perhaps it's just global all over and if that's the case,

Just observe that.

Breathe,

Soften into the surface beneath you and get curious about the feeling of this global emotion.

Could you describe it?

Explore your body to notice if there is one area that's more heightened.

Perhaps it's your gut or your chest,

Your forehead that feels more sensation when you think about this emotion.

Breathe and soften and just feel that sensation,

A pure sensation.

Get curious about what this sensation really feels like.

Could you describe it using adjectives as if you were trying to explain this emotion to someone who's never been able to feel it and is curious to know what it's like.

Use words like tightness,

Looseness,

Clenching,

Vibrating,

Tingling,

Warmth,

Coolness,

Fluttery,

Electric,

Sharp,

Dull,

Heavy,

Light,

Cloying,

Tugging,

Lifting.

Bring your focus to this place in your body.

Breathe and explore the sensation as if you're trying to gather as much information about it as possible.

Describe it and if at first the word pain comes up,

Is it possible to get more specific than pain?

What if someone had never experienced pain before and you could not use that word to describe this sensation?

What does this particular pain feel like?

Breathe,

Soften into this,

Stay here.

What would happen if you were to breathe into this part of your body?

Imagine that you can breathe right into the heart of this sensation and as you inhale you bring curiosity,

Expansion,

Energy.

As you exhale you bring softening,

Releasing,

Letting go.

Now let's get curious to see what the rest of your body feels like while experiencing this emotion.

Become aware of your feet.

Breathe and feel the pure sensation of just your feet.

Notice physical sensations,

Notice if there are emotional sensations,

Notice mental talking that may arise when you focus on your feet or mental imagery.

Now move your awareness to your lower legs and focus now just on your lower legs.

What physical sensations can you observe?

Emotional sensations,

Mental talking or imagery.

Become aware of your thighs.

Tune into the experience of your thighs right now in this moment,

Observing what is present here.

You may discover that at any area of your body that there might not be a lot to explore.

It might feel more disconnected and that's okay.

Just imagine that you're an explorer getting curious about what this numbness is like.

Just sitting with it,

Sitting with that disconnection.

Now shift your attention to your hips,

Your pelvis,

Your lower belly,

Lower back.

Get curious about what you feel in this place.

Physical sensation,

Note them in your mind.

Is there emotional sensations present here,

Mental imagery or talking?

Move your attention to your abdomen.

Focus on exploring your abdomen and mid to lower back,

Observing four walls of your abdomen,

The back wall,

The side walls,

The front wall.

Physical sensation,

Emotional sensation,

Mental imagery,

Talking.

Become aware of your ribcage and upper back.

Breathe,

Soften and just feel your ribcage and upper back,

Observing what is present.

If you find emotional sensation,

Just stay there.

Breathe,

Explore it.

Notice how it might shift and change,

That it's never quite constant.

It's always vibrating or dancing.

Observe your arms now,

Arms and hands.

Breathe and stay here,

Feeling pure sensation,

Your arms and hands.

Observe your neck and your head.

Physical sensation,

Emotional,

Mental imagery,

Mental talking.

Now flood your whole body with awareness,

Expanding your focus to feel your whole body together.

Whole body physical sensation,

Whole body emotional sensations,

Whole body imagery,

Talking,

Whole body breathing.

Now bring your attention to the base of your spine and breathe in deeply.

Imagine you can breathe right into the base of your spine.

Bring your attention to the crown of your head and breathe out.

Imagine you can release anything no longer needed through the crown of your head.

Bring your awareness back to the base of the spine and breathe in.

Awareness to the crown of the head,

Breathe out.

Let everything go.

Base of the spine,

Breathe in.

Crown of the head,

Breathe out.

Good.

Wiggle the fingers and the toes.

Let's take a moment to offer your self-gratitude for this experience,

For the wisdom and the intelligence of your body and your mind,

Offering you these messages,

This information,

Connecting you deeper to yourself and your inner truth,

Your inner wisdom.

If your eyes are closed,

Gently blink them open.

Now before we part ways,

I just want to note that there may have been a couple of times or maybe even the majority of the time where you did not have answers to the question,

Especially when noticing mental talking.

The mind,

When we tend to listen for thoughts,

When we stop and listen for thoughts,

We become present.

And when you're present,

You're not thinking anymore.

So you may notice that your mind might be thinking and there might be talking and the moment you stop to really listen to it is the moment that it goes away,

It gets quiet.

So if that happened,

Note that that's very normal and you might have noticed that feeling sensations in your body might have brought some things up for you that maybe you noticed that there was a lot of disconnection or numbness or you didn't really have the language to be able to describe the sensations.

You almost had an urge to use other emotions to describe it.

Like,

Oh it feels happy or joyful or sad or depressing.

So if that happens,

That's okay.

You're just,

Like I was talking about in episode 38,

You're developing your emotional palette.

So at first you just won't really have the ability to feel the details just yet or explore the details just yet.

And the more you practice this,

The more you develop that awareness and that ability to observe.

You might be asking,

Okay why?

Why do I want to get better at feeling this emotion?

And I talk about that a lot in episode 38 if you haven't listened to that.

But mainly,

The more you're able to observe emotions,

The better you get at experiencing them and processing them and developing a certain level of control over them rather than feeling like they are taking your world over and controlling you.

So that you can even develop a little bit of intelligence that if you discover that,

Let's say you are just processing sadness and that now you just learned some information about sadness,

That for you,

When you're feeling sad,

You feel a tingliness and a clenching in your heart.

So that the next time you're out in the world trying to do something,

You might notice the tingliness and the clenching in your heart before you even notice that you're actually sad.

And that can be helpful for you because then you might go,

Wait,

Hey wait a second,

This is the sensation of sadness.

Am I sad?

Oh my goodness,

Yes I am.

No wonder I'm doing this thing.

No wonder I'm acting this way if I'm feeling sad.

There's endless ways that this practice can help us,

But most importantly,

It allows you to move through the emotion rather than holding it back and letting it build and build and build until it one day explodes or manifests in other ways like anxiety or depression or illness.

To practice this on your own without the recording,

Just go through with a curious mind,

Breathe and soften into it.

Search for those four areas,

Searching for physical sensations,

Emotional sensations,

Getting more specific,

Use descriptive words and then noticing if there are mental imagery or talking associated with this.

So come back to this episode and let me guide you through it whenever you need to.

And that's all I have for you today my friends.

Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you again soon.

Bye for now.

Reviews

I loved this meditation. 🧘‍♀️ I will definitely be coming back to this one! Thank you so much-needed.