Dear Friends,<\/p>\n
At the SIMC practice yesterday evening, Bob led us through a body scan practice. Like mindful breathing, body scan has formal practices you can do – I’ve\u00a0linked in some resources below – and it can be done informally, discreetly, anywhere or any time.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite places to do a quick\u00a0body scan is in the car. I notice how my hands are holding the steering wheel and invite them to relax – this is particularly true if I’m caught in traffic and feeling rushed. I’ll check for tension in my shoulders and arms. I’ll notice my bum in the seat, feet by the pedals, and check in on my posture. When the traffic starts moving again, I feel refreshed and in tune with what’s going on around me. Oh – and just a note:\u00a0if you’re doing this in the car and you’re the driver… keep your eyes open, okay? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I’ll also use the body scan at my desk at work. Someone calls or emails that they need something done ASAP. I’ll often use a few mindful breaths to help me settle my mind, and then as I’m working, I check in on my shoulders and posture and adjust. I notice how I’m feeling (nervous, anxious, stressed), and how that manifests in the body, and I notice how inviting the body to relax can affect how I’m feeling.<\/p>\n
For a formal practice, you can do this sitting or lying down*<\/span>, depending on your preference and energy levels and likelihood of falling asleep. The first few minutes are spent settling into the body by noticing the breath, and then after a while, intentionally bringing attention through the body. Head to toes, or toes to head – your preference. (I used to prefer head to toes, but I’ve since come to appreciate starting with my feet grounded and working my way up. Experiment to see what works best for you, and be willing to mix it up now and then!)<\/p>\n Here’s an article from\u00a0Mindful<\/em>\u00a0that describes the body scan and has a 30-minute head-to-toe recording: Jeanne’s Guided Meditation page has a 20-minute toe-to-head body scan, if you want to try the other direction: And if you search the web or the Insight Timer app, you’ll find many other guided meditations, of varying lengths.<\/p>\n So check into your body today, formally, or informally, or both!<\/p>\n With best wishes, *<\/span>Pro tip:\u00a0If you’re doing the body scan lying down, I learned a trick from Susie Harrington this spring that’s increased my chances of staying awake by about 80-90%! If I bend one (or both) arms at the elbow such that my elbow rests on the floor and the forearm is held perpendicular to the floor, then I’ll notice my arm starting to sag before I start to sleep – so I have much better odds of putting in a little bit of extra energy to stay awake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friends, At the SIMC practice yesterday evening, Bob led us through a body scan practice. Like mindful breathing, body scan has formal practices you can do – I’ve\u00a0linked in some resources below – and it can be done informally, discreetly, anywhere or any time. One of my favorite places to do a quick\u00a0body scan is in the\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[47,32,51],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2017","tag-body","tag-jeanne-corrigal","tag-susie-harrington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1138,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/1138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttps:\/\/www.mindful.org\/beginners-body-scan-meditation\/<\/a>
\nAnd for me, I can related to the author’s description about her initial reluctance to do body scan – I felt the same way for quite some time! But like the author, I’ve since come to enjoy the practice.<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.jeannecorrigal.com\/guided-meditations.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAndrea<\/p>\n