The Body Scan

[Gareth]

I hardly ever do the body scan. I am not really sure why, and I guess that is what this topic is all about.

We all know that the attention is sometimes easy to hold and sometimes it's really difficult. For me, it's always much more difficult with the body scan. Does this mean that I should practice it more often and get better at it? I'm not sure. I always feel like the sitting meditations are better for me, and that's probably why I do them more.

I lie there and circulate my body, trying my best to pick up any messages. Often, there aren't many messages coming, and I find my mind repeatedly wandering. Much more so than when I am focusing on breath or sound.

My instinct is that this doesn't matter so much, what matters is leaving the thinking mind alone for a while and that's where the brain changes and the benefits come from. However, many meditators including the legendary JKZ are very big on the body scan. I just wonder if I should try a little harder with it.

What do you think?

Gareth

[One Aware]

The body often responds with sensations from thoughts or feelings in the mind. Some of these sensations can be alarming at times (for instance if you experience anxiety the heart beats faster, you may sweat, your senses are heightened - fight or flight response). Although the fight or flight response is usually not in response to a life or death situation, the body doesn't know any better and will prepare you for battle - the danger can seem quite real to you. Since there really isn't a man eating tiger chasing you, when you notice these sensations, fear (that you are dying of a heart attack for example) increases the anxiety response in your body and so it goes back and forth in a loop between the mind and the body, building and building and if unchecked, you can become quite agitated (but usually not dead LOL).

Becoming familiar/ aware of the sensations in your body helps to reduce the unnecessary fear that you might experience. It can also be an advance warning to you that you should look at the situation that you are in and determine if there really is a serious threat. Body scan is also useful if the mind is very busy and it is difficult to do a sitting meditation. If you have chronic pain for instance becoming aware of it, welcoming it with compassion for yourself, can help to build your tolerance to painful sensations and situations and can allow you to become more at ease with the pain..

To be honest I don't do the body scan much either because usually my body is quite calm and I don't feel too many physical sensations either that last for any length of time.

I hope you can get the gist of what I'm saying from the above. There is a very good book called: " The Mindfulness Solution - Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems" by Ronald Siegel, PsyD - (Guilford Press is the publisher). I find this to be my go to source for guidance many times over. Perhaps you can check it out at your local library or purchase it if it helps you.

[Gareth]

The problem is that I hardly ever notice any sensations from my body, so it is very easy for my attention to wander. Maybe I am not looking hard enough. I have added that book to my Christmas list, thanks.

Gareth

[One Aware]

That is interesting. Once during a sit, I followed an itch on my face through 7 different face locations before it finally disappeared LOL. But really, I don't think that trying harder will necessarily be better. Remember, that when we meditate we strive do so without forcing anything. Perhaps you might try extending the length of time of your scan to allow for more opportunity for a sensation to arise, or perhaps extend your mindfulness of breath "settling the body" time before moving into the scan. That might heighten your awareness somewhat. Just some suggestions.

[Gareth]

It's funny, the bit at the end where I hold the body in awareness comes to me quite easily, because I have the whole body to pay attention to. When I have to pay attention to my feet, and there is nothing going on with my feet, then my attention can wander easily. I think that the answer is to keep going, no matter how difficult which is what I intend to do; the more that you train your attention the better is the way that I see it.

[larorra]

My main problem is not having enough time to do the body scan. Actually doing it i can concentrate, but as you say gareth, you don't feel its something you have to do but Will try to do it more often , i will too. Have a week off work next week so Will do it then.

[Gareth]

I did another bodyscan today. I think that I haven't been paying enough attention to my own advice, in that, I shouldn't be bothered about the attention going the whole time. This is the mind, and this is what it does. It stands to reason that I would become better at paying attention to the various parts of the body if I were to practice more.

I still have the nagging feeling that this isn't doing me as much good as a sitting meditation. I always come out of a sitting meditation feeling more relaxed and more centred, but this is not always the case with the body scan. I don't need convincing that mindfulness of body is important, especially for somebody with MS like me. I am going to start a regime of yoga in the new year, maybe that will be a better way of working toward mindfulness of my body.

Gareth

[pranna]

It seems that in this discussion, the Body Scan is being contrasted with sitting meditation. In my experience, the body scan was learned in the sitting posture. I did my first long retreat in 1996 in Nepal and it was a Goenka retreat. The method of vipassana was essentially 3 days of building concentration followed by 7 days of body scanning. In the beginning I felt normal sensation, and then lots of pain from long periods of sitting.. but by the end, I was feeling huge parts of my body absolutely glowing.. pulsing, alive, and vibratory. Ever since that time, I've been attuned to feeling the "aliveness" of my skin.

Other teachers have focused a lot on body sensation, like Shinzen Young. He's great and works a lot with different flavors of sensation. His techniques have taught me a lot about paying attention to sensation and really allowing yourself to dive deep inside a painful place -- or seeing the connection between our thoughts, emotions, and our body sensations. Watching as a sensation spreads, moves, changes.. all of these things can be great lessons in equinimity and impermanence.

Grounding ourselves in body sensation is always available as a tool when we need to quickly gather ourselves and be present. Body scanning lets us get more familiar with ourselves and the various sensations from all over the body - not just the breath.

There are many kinds of meditation, as we all know. They provide many of the same qualities (awareness and equanimity, for starters). But they also have their special benefits. I think it's good to develop a deep practice with some form of meditation - but it can also be very beneficial to get familiar with other practices. If your mind wanders when you do body scans, it tells me that the sensitivity may be lacking there.. you are hitting 'dead spots' where there is little feedback and your mind is picking up where the sensation leaves off. Sounds like an opportunity for you to get to know yourself better and fill in some of those spots.

Yoga and meditation is a super combination - at least in my experience. Both can be very good for mindfulness. Both can develop a sense of spaciousness in their own way. Big thumbs up, Gareth.

Peace, everyone. I'll try to check back more often.

[SteveE]

Although I'm an imposter here (only been meditating 13 months), I thought I'd contribute, ifthat's ok.

I've found the body scan very helpful. I have MS, and one of my symptoms is severe tingling in my right hand. The body scan helps to relax me, I know it's not really the true objective but it sure is a useful by-product, and it also helps me think about, and increase awareness of, other parts of my body other than my right hand which has a lot of awareness all day.

There is a wonderful 40 min body scan by Mark Williams, which is gentle, compassionate and indispensible. I wonder how I coped without it.

[LoveBeforeAllElse]

Steve, guided body scans are awesome! The thing I've learned from them is to get creative inside the body. ShinZen Young actually helped me realize that also. I've gotten in the habit of practicing body awareness every time I go to sleep. It's helped me become aware of my subtle bodies also. I think that's probably because of the change in brainwaves while your going to sleep. Gareth I would recommend just being aware of your body lying on the bed when you go to sleep tonight. Feel your weight pushing down on the bed and the comfort that gravity is bringing you. I alternate between that feeling the blankets on top of me. Paying attention to it from the stand point of gravity helped me a ton and still continues to help me hold that attention for longer. Also if you guys are interested in lucid dreaming (which is just mindful dreaming), then you can get a lot out of practicing this going to sleep. When my intention is right and I am able to stay focused on my body as I fall asleep, I almost always get lucid. Here's an awesome lucid dream yoga video to listen to next time you are taking a nap or maybe going back to sleep in the middle of the night. I wouldn't recommend it when first going to sleep unless you feel very confident in your ability to meditate yourself to sleep (which will come in time if you start practicing this). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC7G95tdXYo

I would also say that one major benefit that comes along with more body awareness is a heightened sense of emotion (as emotions are in the body). It leads to greater emotional intelligence and compliments mindful thinking quite well.

Practicing posture is also a great way to gain more body consciousness. I set the intention of being aware of posture as often as I can when I go to sit down. Looking up posture exercises helped me a lot when it came to that.

Also yoga is amazing for body awareness!! I've gotten in the habit of practicing this short Kundalini Yoga wake up series almost every morning and then following it with a meditation. It's an amazing way to start the day and brings a lot more consciousness to your entire day. Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of awareness so it will of course have a great impact on mindfulness practice but this wake up series has effected me the most in making it virtually impossible to get a smile off my face during the day! I highly recommend it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsSWWLo9g7s