Body Scan
Guided Meditation
The aim of the body scan is to bring your attention to the different regions of your body, and allow yourself to experience how each part feels, without trying to change anything.
It is our natural propensity to run away from unpleasant sensations like pain. Just allowing a sensation to be there without the responsibility to do anything about the sensation feels a little unnatural to us. This is an opportunity for us to practice both acceptance and shifting our focus from one anchor to another.
In the body scan, we learn skills to better identify the link between emotions and physical sensations.
Sensations and Emotions: Like Two Unruly Children
As in the formal sitting practice of meditation, we observe thinking, emotions and sensations as separate experiences. Pain is often accompanied by an emotion such as despair, anger, sadness and helplessness. Identifying the emotion associated with the sensation brings realization of their separate nature.
Sensations are sensations and emotions are emotions.
Like two unruly children, they shouldn’t be allowed to play together. Perceiving the emotion and the sensation as separate experiences often reduces the level of suffering we feel from the pain sensation itself.
Enjoy your practice, be kind and curious about what you find in yourself, and as much as possible, be aware of your breath and your present moment experience.
