Body Scan Meditation
A body scan meditation is an accessible way to meditate, helping you to build awareness of your whole body andrelease tension that you might not otherwise have known you had. Here’s our guide to the practice.
By Erin O’Connor
Meditation always seems like such a good idea for people who have never tried it before (and for good reason!), but sometimes the hardest part is knowing where to start. There are so many different types of meditation out there, that we can easily get lost in the sea of choice.
Meditation and mindfulness in the real world is the cornerstone of jb, and in the real world not everything works for everyone. so if you’ve tried meditation before and didn’t like it, maybe try a different type. It’s about finding what works for you, and this might take a bit of experimentation with different styles. A method that many people who are new to meditation find accessible is the body scan meditation.
“A lot of people tend to shy away from meditation, worrying that in order to ‘ace’ it you need to be able to have a mind emptier than a politician’s promise. Meditation doesn’t have to be this way.”
So, what is a body scan meditation?
In a nutshell, body scan meditation is kind of exactly what it says on the tin. Once you’re sitting comfortably and you have closed your eyes or found a downward gaze (some people may not feel comfortable closing their eyes completely and that’s okay), you can start to scan through the body. You can start from wherever in your body really, but what might be easier to follow is either starting from the crown of the head working down or from the toes working up. As you make your way to each bodypart, hover your mind and attention over it for about 20 seconds (or longer if you like) and notice any sensations.
Scanning the body is a great way to build awareness and start to feel better from the inside out!
Here are 5 things that happen during a body scan
1. Your mind has something to focus on
What makes this type of meditation so great and accessible for people new to the practice is that it gives your mind something tangible to focus on - your body. A lot of people tend to shy away from meditation, worrying that in order to ‘ace’ it you need to be able to have a mind emptier than a politician’s promise. Meditation doesn’t have to be this way - it’s about building awareness, so tuning into the different parts of your body is a great way to do this.
2. It helps to release tension
As you focus on the different parts of your body, you might discover that you’re holding tension - you may not have noticed this before. For example, a lot of us tend to unwittingly clench our jaw throughout the day or slightly hunch the shoulders. Once you take the time to notice this tension, you can start to release it.
A lot of us hunch our shoulders without realising, with many of us sitting at desks we can have a tendency curl up.
3. It gives you a moment to check in
Like all types of meditation, body scanning is a wonderful opportunity to check in and journey inwards. By noticing what’s going on inside of our body we can paint a bigger and better picture of how we feel, and then once we open our eyes again and get back to our day we can act, do and feel in ways that are more intuitive and mindful of ourselves.
4. It helps you feel more grounded
Many of us like to practice meditation so we can feel more grounded and present. Body scan meditation is particularly great in helping us feel this way, as we can focus specifically on our feet (or our bums) and the connection between them and the ground.
5. It helps you to build more awareness
Finally, body scan meditation is very much like an x-ray scan or any other type of scanning process. It’s about building up awareness and a clearer picture of what’s going on. Of course you won’t be able to see what’s happening, but you it does give you a chance to notice what it feels like.
While the meditation itself is focused on building internal awareness, it equally teaches us to become more aware of what’s going on externally too. When we get into the habit of checking in with ourselves, we naturally become better at becoming aware of the world around us and the people we surround ourselves with. Compassion and empathy are then what follows.
ERIN O’CONNOR
Erin is a writer based in London. When’s she’s not attending a space rave, or attempting to make her own face scrub she is writing about anything and everything to do with wellbeing and mindfulness.
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