Everyday Mindfulness

Hi all

Just wondering if this happens and how you manage.

Many times when I sit to meditate I immediately become aware of sensations in my body, but I sometimes get overwhelmed with them all. For instance, I can feel tension or knots, in my tummy, in my shoulders, throat all at the same time, and they seem to move about and the sensations change too. When this happens I'm not sure what to do. Should I try to focus on one sensation at a time or just be aware of all of them. Also at the same time, emotions will come up to. I sometimes try to associate the emotion with the sensation in the body, but then again it all becomes very confusing.

Appreciate any input.

Best

Sensi

Hi Sensi

I used to have this happen a lot but now it’s less frequent. If I had multiple sensations or feelings then I would just watch them all if that was what I was feeling. So I would watch them all until one of the sensations became more apparent than the others. And If that never happened, then I would just continue to watch all of them. My logic was that if I was indeed feeling multiple sensations, then that is what I should be watching……I didn’t want to choose what sensations I focused on (and as a result sort of ignore any others).

I also tried to make sure I wasn't doing any thinking about how there were multiple sensations going on, but instead just observe however it felt. Just my two cents.

Thanks Scooter

Have you been meditating for a long time? I will go with your suggestion and see how it works out
Best
Sensi

Hi Sensi,
How often do you practice the body scan?
All best wishes,
Jon

Hi Jon

The past two weeks, formally, I've been practicing almost everyday. I've done the body scan before as well in a formal manner, but always found it difficult to sustain because of the issues I mentioned. I would say though that I've been aware of these sensations in my body for a few years usually during mini moments of just becoming aware of my body.

Sensi

"Have you been meditating for a long time? I will go with your suggestion and see how it works out"

I've been meditating for about 6 years. Much of that time though I sort of missed out on some of the main points of mindfulness though so it hasn't been until the last year or so where I've really started to focus on it more.....and see the benefits more.