Mindfulness: The Body Scan Exercise Part 2 of 4

Mindfulness meditation can be used for strengthening the ability to remain calm and postpone reactions during stressful situations. Here comes the second part of a body-scan-exercise that you can record and use:

… Now pay attention to the lower back – an area where we easily feel pain, stiffness, tension or fatigue. Just breathe. Allow your breathing to be present in the whole area. Let every stimulus be just as it is. Now focus your attention on the whole stomach. Can you feel how the stomach expands outwards when you breathe in and falls inwards a little while you exhale … expands when you breathe in… contracts when you exhale … notice how it feels throughout the body – all the way in … and all the way out.

Proceed to the spine and back muscles, how does it feel there? The neck – is it tense or relaxed? … the ribs, lungs… Can you feel how the chest gets tense when you inhale – even on the sides and the backside – and sinks as you exhale. Can you feel your heart beat?

Focus your attention to both hands at the same time – what do you feel in your fingers, thumbs, palms, wrists, forearms, elbows, upper arms and shoulders – your entire hands from fingertips to shoulders. Notice all stiffness or tension that may exist here and thoughts that arise or disappear.

Now imagine breathing in through the lungs and out through your arms and back into your body through your arms and out through your nose. (!) Now focus on the neck. Can you feel how it pulses … the neck muscles up in the head – are they tense or relaxed, the muscles under the scalp. Your forehead and the area between your eyebrows … the ears, the temples – are they relaxed or tense … the nose, jaws, chin, lips. Where is the tip of your tongue? Can you feel your teeth? Can you feel something inside your head? The whole face?

Feel the body as a whole right now – all the sensations that are going on in your body: if it’s itching, squeezing or tensions … let it be as it is and just register how it is.

#bodyscan #mindfulness #mindfulmeditation