Body Scan (November 1, 2021)

Have you ever felt like your mind and body are living divided? Does the busy-ness of your day or the chaos of the world around you propel you into overidentifying with your thinking? This practice offers brief reflective teaching on mind-body connection followed by a body scan practice.

Transcript

Good morning,

Good day,

Good evening,

Welcome and thank you so much for joining this week,

This meditation,

Whenever you might be joining.

We're gonna be working on meditating with the body today through body scan and I'm really excited.

I could use a body scan right about now.

I'm gonna share a couple reflections as I typically do and then we'll get right into practice.

Eve Ensler in 2010 did a TED talk called suddenly my body.

It was a really transformative and beautiful TED talk for me and she begins the TED talk saying for a long time there was me and my body.

She goes on to talk about how there was a separation,

How she was in many ways a floating head.

She describes it.

She had a therapist who said to her Eve you've been coming to me all this time and it's never occurred to me that you have a body.

This way of operating in the world potentially hyper intellectualized potentially sort of living in the mind.

I'm not sure what her experience exactly is but that experience of a floating head this control tower mind that lives in my head and does not connect to my body and really doesn't want to connect to my body is such a such a visceral experience that I've had in my life.

And so a body scan and getting familiar with the body can be a really powerful tool.

A really powerful practice to become more embodied.

When I was a teenager I went to a therapist and at the time it was called biofeedback therapy.

Actually haven't seen it or heard of it much since so I don't know if it's still happening.

But with this therapist we would talk about things and she would invite me to get in touch with my body in different ways and she would do a body scan.

And I was experiencing a lot of physical symptoms,

A lot of nausea,

A lot of lack of appetite around my depression and anxiety at the time.

And one of the things that she would do was she'd attach sort of these sensors and electrodes to measure temperature and sensation and then do a body scan and sort of show me the results.

And for whatever reason those body scans really did not work for me at the time.

You know I may have gotten a couple of the results that she was looking for but I would become hyper vigilant about thinking about the parts of my body.

Right so she'd invite me to bring my awareness and attention into my feet and I'd start thinking about my feet.

Right that mind-body separation was still very active.

I was thinking about my feet.

What do my feet look like?

Trying to imagine them in my mind's eye.

And so I just tell this story because what I've learned since and it really took me a long time because of those experiences of body scan with temperature elect.

.

.

They weren't electrodes.

.

.

Temperature sensors and various things attached to me because of those early experiences with this biofeedback.

I always resisted a body scan like it was objectifying me in some way.

And what I've discovered since really building out a meditation practice and a mindfulness practice is that the body scan is about feeling in,

Expanding our awareness to include the body,

Feeling into the places where we have embodied sensation,

Not thinking about our finger.

That might happen too but that that subtle shift that subtle difference actually took me years and years and years to learn.

So as we practice today I just invite you to reflect on that a bit.

What is the difference between feeling into the sensation of our body versus thinking about our body?

And for those of us that might struggle with getting caught up in the mind,

That's a really important differentiation that actually we can begin to experience in this practice.

This integration of the mind and body and spirit that can happen and can unfold in this practice,

The bringing us to presence in the body.

So with that I think we'll turn to our practice and I'll invite you to take a posture that feels right for you today to practice with and really pay attention to the what posture feels like it will help you connect to the body.

I know for me sometimes the most beautiful way to do a body scan is lying down.

If I'm feeling particularly tired that can be challenging.

I might fall asleep but it really actually has supported me in building a practice and a more embodied practice to meditate with a body scan lying down.

I also really like standing up with a body scan or walking can be an interesting way to feel the whole body but whatever feels like it will be most natural and easeful for you right now is what I'll invite you into.

Alright so finding yourself in that posture perhaps closing your eyes or simply relaxing your gaze,

Softening.

As we settle into this moment taking a few deep breaths might feel supportive.

Simply noticing your breath,

Noticing the rhythm and the movement of the breath as we arrive,

As we set aside this time for practice.

And we'll start with the top of our head.

Feeling into the sensation of where this space around you the air meets the top of the head.

Allowing our awareness to expand,

To sense the head as body.

Spending some time softening,

Releasing tension that might be held in the face,

The brow,

The cheeks,

The jaw.

Sometimes a gentle smile can release a lot of tension,

Open up the softening and unawareness of what the head feels like.

Becoming aware of the sensations in the back of the head,

The neck,

The back,

All the way around to the front.

Settling as our awareness develops of what this body feels like,

What this body feels like right now.

Bringing our awareness into the shoulders,

Where the neck meets the shoulders.

Again,

Noticing tension,

Noticing relaxation,

The way the muscles and the bones connect and interact.

Not thinking about them,

Rather feeling,

Sensing,

Becoming aware of them as part of this whole.

Allowing our awareness to expand down the lengths of the arms into the hands.

Not disconnecting from where we've been in the head,

The neck,

The shoulders.

Rather expanding our awareness into the arms and the hands,

Feeling it all together,

Connected,

Interdependent.

What are the sensations of this body?

Allowing those sensations just to be as they are.

No analysis or judgment needed.

Allowing your awareness to fill the chest,

To sense in to everything held in this chest,

This core,

The torso as a whole.

Feeling the movement of breath that's held in the chest,

The ways that breath can fill the full torso,

The belly.

Sensing in to the fullness of the experience of this body in the chest,

In the belly.

Rooting our awareness down into the sense of the pelvis,

The sit bones,

The root chakra area.

Filling,

Grounding,

Connecting,

Becoming present to the body.

And into the hips,

The upper thighs.

Making our way to our knees.

And moving down through the calves and into our feet.

Perhaps the feet and the ground,

Touching,

Making contact.

Perhaps the feet elevated or moving.

Whatever posture has invited your feet to be where they are,

Sense into the experience of becoming aware of the feet as the body connected to the whole.

And if our attention feels gathered in this feeling sense of the feet,

Just invite you to open up the awareness and attention so that it makes space for the whole body.

Opening up from the tips of your toes to the tops of your head.

One way that might support you in doing this is imagining a light centered and focused,

Expanding and shedding light,

Shining upon the whole body.

That light is very centered and then expands outward,

Making room for it all.

Feeling into the wholeness of this body.

The wholeness might include sensations that are unpleasant,

Sensations that are pleasant,

Those that are neutral.

We make room for all of it.

And with this expanded awareness of the wholeness of the body,

All of the parts invite you to connect in to the ways that this body connects to the earth body.

The body of the earth beneath us.

Invite this awareness of our body connected to the earth to generate compassion,

Kindness,

Respect for.

How can we be gentle and tender with the body?

How might connecting with the body show us the way to care for not only ourselves but each other and the planet?

Invite you to place your hand on your chest or wrap your arms around you or bring up a feeling,

Sensation of compassion,

Kindness and love.

Maybe even say to yourself,

I love this body.

I'll show her care.

If that feels like too much right now,

I care for this body.

Where even I am connected to this body,

I see her.

And if all of that feels like too much of a stretch right now,

Just that touch,

Gentle touch of kindness,

I'm here.

I'm here right now.

And in your own time,

Bring your awareness back into the space that you're in.

That might mean opening your eyes or looking around.

Maybe moving your body gently side to side,

Stretching or a few deep breaths.

And bring this period of practice to a close for now.

Thank you so much for practicing with me.

Until next time.

Reviews

Perry, my thanks and appreciation. Great scan and enjoyed your talk