Have you heard of the Body Scan? Been curious about what is it? Why you would want to do it? And how would you do it? Let’s take a look.
A few years ago, when I was doing my Urban Zen Integrative Therapy training, I got serious about the body scan on a practical level. I had used variations of the scan in meditation, yoga, and visualization for years, but this was a new approach. It was simple, practical, easy to teach and self-administer. For Urban Zen I used the scan to help relieve pain, anxiety, and insomnia for patients and staff in hospital.
We spend so much time disconnected from our bodies, just expecting them to keep up, keep going. We spend a lot of time in our thinking analyzing mind. A body scan allows you to get out of that ‘thinking mind,’ to connect with a more sensory state, to what is going on with your body at any given time.
When you bring mindfulness to the body, you can really learn how stress and anxiety affect you and your body. You can investigate moment-to-moment experiences of the body and begin to understand how you may live better even with physical pain and illness. You realize that the body has its own wisdom. One of the profound affects of the Body Scan is that you begin to notice a change in your relationship to discomfort. You begin to see that you can stay present and mindful even if you don’t like what you are feeling.
A Body Scan brings awareness to each part of the body sequentially, to notice the physical sensations. This is very distinct from thinking analytically about the body, you are not having a dialogue with yourself about it, or judging, or manipulating your body in anyway. Simply acknowledge whatever is present.
We travel through areas of the body that we might not often be aware of, to others that may cause us problems or give us pain, we spend no more or less time with each, we are simply open to whatever comes up.
Physical sensations you might notice with the body scan:
Release, itchy, pulsing, throbbing, aching, heat, coolness
Emotional reactions you might notice:
Impatience/wanting to stop, neutral, enjoyment/wanting to continue, joy, surprise, sadness, fear, grief, anger, frustration, anticipation, shame, disgust, reviewing the past, planning, wishing/hoping/comparing
Thoughts that may occur:
Imagining the future
Evaluating/analyzing
Labeling/cataloguing
Thinking about others
Circular thinking
Judging your experience
Try a body scan.
1. Set the scene – either lie on a mat on the floor or on your bed. You may well go to sleep and you may find that your sleep is much more restful having done or started the Body Scan Meditation.
2. Begin by sinking into your body. Feel the weight of your body being supported by the bed. Be aware of your breath and its flow in and out of the body. Notice the sensations that it brings.
3. Bring your attention to the crown of your head. Feel the weight of the back skull resting on the pillow. Feel the brain, the left side and the right side dropping down. Notice any spreading and wideness on the forehead between the eyebrows. Notice the soft part of the skull at the temples. Be aware of your eyes dropping, not holding any more. Feel the inner and outer corners of the eyes.
4. Bring your awareness to your nose, feel the in-breath, slightly cooler on the nostrils, the out-breath warmer. Let the breath come to you gently. And savor and enjoy the release in the exhale. Feel your belly dropping as you release the breath.
5. Notice the cheekbones and where the jaw meets right at the ear. Notice your teeth and your tongue resting on the bottom on your mouth. The tip of the tongue sitting behind the two front teeth. Feel any softness in your lips.
6. Be aware of the back of the neck and the spine traveling the length of your body, feel the tail bone dropping. Notice again the support of the bed.
7. Feel any opening in the heart area, and feel the rise and fall of the belly. Watch the breath in and out: two-three-four. In and out, two-three-four. Feel the out-breath helping you to release.
8. Feel the drop of the arms, their weight on the bed, notice any space in the elbows. Bring your awareness to the palms and the space you find there. Feel the light curl of your fingers.
9. Feel the weight of the pelvis. The backs of the legs dropping into the support of the bed. Notice any releasing in the knees. The calf muscles – feel the texture of the sheet on the calves, the heels, your feet, notice the temperature.
10. The breath in the body, the belly rising and falling.
Feel the exhalation throughout the body from the crown of your head where we started and down to the soles of your feet. Breathe smoothly in and then a full beautiful breathe out, releasing.
Brogan Ganley
Urban Zen Integrative Therapist, Meditation Teacher, Reiki Master, and Yoga Instructor
Brogan’s contemplative care approach includes meditation, restorative yoga, breath awareness, essential oils, Reiki, and fine arts. In her integrative treatments, she may focus on one modality or combine them to restore balance to mind and body. Brogan responds to each individual’s needs and constitutions, and teaches her clients skills they can use independently at home to maintain the balance they’ve achieved in the studio.
Brogan works with children and adults, individually and through workshops. She specializes in anxiety, insomnia, pain, and stress relief. She often works with both parent and child, separately and together. Recently, she developed an integrative therapy program at a public school to address anxieties facing children and their teachers. She has also worked at LICH Hospital teaching meditation, Roosevelt Hospital as an artist-in-residence, and Beth Israel Hospital as an Urban Zen therapist. She continues to collaborate with the non-profit organization The Creative Center, bringing creative arts to people with cancer and chronic illness.
Brogan is a Reiki master and has been a practitioner for over 7 years, having trained at Mahamudra Buddhist Centre in New Zealand and with renowned Japanese healer Mika Ichihara in New York. She has a Usui-shiki Ryoho Reiki Certificate, a Healing Practitioner Certificate, and Reiki Master Qualification. Brogan has been practicing meditation for 15 years (including study with Mika Ichihara), and has taught meditation and body/breath awareness for 5 years. Yoga is something she has practiced for the majority of her life, and continues to study at Prajna Yoga with philosopher and author Tias Little (himself greatly influenced by B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois). Brogan teaches using a therapeutic and restorative approach, and has also trained specifically as a children’s yoga teacher at Bija Yoga. She is a certified Urban Zen integrative therapist trained by Rodney Yee, Colleen Saidman, Richard Rosen, and Mary Taylor. Her degree in fine art from Wimbledon College of Art in London has led to a continually-evolving art practice, and to her teaching art in tandem with meditation.