Week 1 formal practice: Body Scan

[ro****]

I fell off the wagon and have restarted. I’m three days into the body scan. I feel frustrated with it. I constantly fight with wandering thoughts, trying not to fall asleep, and getting distracted by sensations like feeling cold. I had noticed some improvement between the first two sessions but this one was not following. The solitude and silence feels good for me, but I have much to learn yet to just be. 

[wa****]

I just came back from a 14-day meditation retreat yesterday and did my first laying-down body scan today. I literally fell into deep resting state many times during the scan and have to pick up again where I dropped off. The directed focus on the inner parts of the body seems to "pull the trigger", that is much more forceful than a normal body relaxation. I'm not disturbed by the constant disruptions, knowing that this is what my body actually need. By the end of the session, I'm pretty well charged up, and looking forward to my next body scan.

[Kr****]

I loved the video by Shapiro . The model of mindfulness helped make it clear. paying attention with kindness.  

[jo****]

Hello everyone! This is my first post. My first body scan reminded of cranio-sacral massages, with certain unexpected sensations coming up for me. The scan on my inner ankles felt like someone was cutting me there (!). Less surprising was the compression I felt on my chest, how weighed down my body felt, much like my psyche right now; the body doesn't lie, does it? Surprising was the scan of the inside of my mouth. I have an auto-immune disease which leaves my mouth with sores & burning, but I realized during the scan that in the moment, in the 'now', I felt no pain in my mouth... so that was interesting. I'm off to do my 2nd scan now - let's see where I'm at later in the week! Hugs to all of my fellow course-mates out there. À bientôt...

[wa****]

4 hours ago, jolaine said:

Hello everyone! This is my first post. My first body scan reminded of cranio-sacral massages, with certain unexpected sensations coming up for me. The scan on my inner ankles felt like someone was cutting me there (!). Less surprising was the compression I felt on my chest, how weighed down my body felt, much like my psyche right now; the body doesn't lie, does it? Surprising was the scan of the inside of my mouth. I have an auto-immune disease which leaves my mouth with sores & burning, but I realized during the scan that in the moment, in the 'now', I felt no pain in my mouth... so that was interesting. I'm off to do my 2nd scan now - let's see where I'm at later in the week! Hugs to all of my fellow course-mates out there. À bientôt...

From my experience, the body never lie; only thoughts does! =). Hence I tends to listen to the body and let it does what it needs to do. Staying at the present moment 'now' keeps the our thoughts away from telling the body that what it should do. With a relax mindfulness, good things will come. And I think you are doing great!!

 

[Ri****]

On 9/3/2019 at 8:26 AM, Tine said:

The main topic of week one is the exploration of "What is Mindfulness?" and the realisation that "There is more right with us than wrong."

How do these topics show up for you - if at all - in relation to the first formal practice, the body scan?

I'm interested in hearing about your experiences with the bodyscan in the first week of the MBSR course. 

 

Personally, I remember that I used to perceive the bodyscan as the most boring of all practices and only after many tries, I did start getting a feeling for it. I still zoom out once we get to the back, and I tend to miss the arms and hands, and I am back when we get to the neck.

What helped was the bodyscan sitting up or starting at the head and working down to the toes. This was it's easier for me to not "just relax". I now also fall asleep sometime during the practice which I do perceive as a good thing because it shows to me that all in all I am more relaxed as falling asleep rather spontaneously is not something I used to be able to do. 

For me the voice in my head telling me that I should be doing something "useful" instead and that I know it all already is the loudest during the bodyscan. At the same time, I know better as I only became an MBSR teacher as I realised the profound changes in my life after having taken the course and established a regular meditation practice.

 

 

As a novice it’s crystals I’ve done what I feel to be a similar practice as the body scan. Last night I tried it in the bath and at one point I felt like I was floating. 

[jo****]

10 hours ago, waihong said:

From my experience, the body never lie; only thoughts does! =). Hence I tends to listen to the body and let it does what it needs to do. Staying at the present moment 'now' keeps the our thoughts away from telling the body that what it should do. With a relax mindfulness, good things will come. And I think you are doing great!!

 

Thank you, Waihong ? 

[jn****]

Hi, Just did the first body scan and feeling a sense of stillness and happiness. As if the practice was soothing...just want to interact with anyone practicing and part of the same course.. with gratitude ...

Ritika 

[Tine]

13 hours ago, RichieA said:

Last night I tried it in the bath and at one point I felt like I was floating. 

A quick bodyscan in the shower can be insightful as well. Especially as when we shower in the morning we prepare for the day and our mind tends to be everywhere except with us in the shower. At the same time, it's relatively easy to tune in to the feeling of the warm water on our skin.

[Ud****]

Hello everyone, I’ve just begun this course and one of the things I hope  to be more comfortable with is aversion to being given instructions!   

For that reason I don’t enjoy guided meditations or body scans much and prefer to do my own, but I will challenge myself with some of the resources for which I’m grateful are available.

in the meantime, my experience of body scans are like each part of the body receiving a surge of energy as I take my attention there.  I can stay awake when I do my own, but have trouble staying awake when listening to someone else.  I guess it’s because I’ve given myself permission to be quite and relax, so I really do

 

ive just watched many of the videos and am going to try the practice of saying good morning to myself each morning.  It seems like a much better thing to Lae in the mind and heart than waking u thinking of how i didn’t sleep well or what I need to do.  I will get back to you all on how it goes.

 

thank you very much for this space :j

[Ud****]

Hello again, one how caught a summer cold and the idea of resting wi5 a body scan has been wonderful except that I’ve promptly fallen asleep each time I’ve tried.  I’m happy with that though because the body obviously needs rest.  My teacher  always said that when an animal is sick it just lies down and rests.  It doesn’t worry about food or anything else but rests to allow the body to heal so I’ve been practising that these last few days.

Not going out these last few days I have noticed feelings of loneliness come up.  This is also because I’ve just moved back to my home state of Tasmania and don’t have a network of friends here or transport so with the cold it all seemed a bit bleak.  Remembering from one of the videos, ‘What you practice grows’ I decided that instead of feeling down about it I should change the CD and start looking for volunteer work and hiking groups that car share.  I’m now volunteering for an event for the local rotary club and have joined a local hiking group (so far only online) and feel more positive.

 

Thanks for the great resources

[Ro****]

I found it very hard ,I have trouble relaxing at all ,so I'm hoping that with practice it will soon become easier. 

[Tine]

@Roadtorecovery In my experience some days it's easy some days it isn't. Overall I found it to be easier though. ?
The goal of the practice is not to relax, though it is an effect it sometimes has. Not being able to relax means that there's tension that can be recognised - that's part of the bodyscan. The main focus is to be aware of what is there in the body with curiosity and without judgement. If there's tension hold the tension in your awareness. Maybe - with friendly curiosity - see if there's more in the part of the body you are investigating - maybe a tingling, or warmth.

[Ni****]

I just watched this powerful video from week one! It made me cry. 

I think each and everyone of us can relate to it. So much so, that after I watched it and went and looked in the mirror and apologised to my body and myself for the mean words and things I've done to my body over the years and made a promise to make it better. This beautiful entity that asks for nothing in return except love, compassion and respect.

Thank you...

[Cl****]

Today was my first body scan. Physically I noticed far more tension in my body than I had thought I was carrying. I knew that my shoulders are full of knots but hadn’t realised how sore my head was - and that my tongue was glued to the top of my mouth. My dentist’s comments about signs of teeth grinding are starting to make sense!

At one point I was surprised to find myself feeling very sceptical about whether the meditation was going to work for me. I’m totally sold on the science of MBSR (or so I thought!), so that was an unexpected train of thought.

I was sorry to finish the meditation and am already looking forward to doing it again tomorrow.

[Tine]

28 minutes ago, ClareC said:

I noticed far more tension in my body than I had thought I was carrying

That sounds so familiar - Tara Brach often asks to relax the forehead at the beginning of her guided meditations, and I regularly find myself thinking "who could possibly be tense there?" only to have this be followed by answering "me"... ?

[am****]

Hello All

Just started the MBSR course last week and am finishing week 1 getting ready for Week 2. The videos in week 1 were incredibly inspiring and interesting. Thank you for Jon Kabat-Zinn and all the amazing teachers out there who have helped and shared their experience.

I am a practitioning yogi and have practised yoga relaxation so am familiar with body scan techniques. Inevitably I still fall asleep myself during the practice! I find it's easier to relax in it whilst lying on the floor, but I'm more prone to sleep here. Doing it sitting in a chair keeps me from sleep, where at least I catch myself moving if I do find sleep coming on!

In terms of practice, it's interesting starting at different points in the body. Vipassana meditation generally starts from top of the head and moves down to toes and then back up through the back of the body. With yoga it starts in the right hand. There are a number of different ways to approach it, it seems, and I wonder whether different ways would work at different times, depending on how one is feeling or might need at the time.

It is interesting to experiment thus far. ?

Thank you all for sharing. ?

 

[wa****]

On 1/19/2020 at 8:05 AM, Roadtorecovery said:

I found it very hard ,I have trouble relaxing at all ,so I'm hoping that with practice it will soon become easier. 

At times like this, what I always do is to take as many deep breath as I can, until it becomes a second nature to me. And loving yourself with every breath. ?

[Na****]

Learning about awareness and grounding  was an open eye to me and the understanding how the language impact my interpretation of my emotions make a significant difference on how I feel. The body scan meditation was an experience that make me floating in the air, relaxed and peaceful. Bring my attention to present moment was a little difficult, my mind kept wondering  I  was not able to control and instead I embraced  the thoughts. The five steps help me to be in the present. It is so important to understand that suffering and  fear are choices we can make.

[Ch****]

I am enjoying this, loving the information and guidance and learning. Can't wait for more.

 

[Mi****]

Hello!

 

I just started the MBSR and can´t find the audio guidance for the body scan.

could anybody help me?

.

[el****]

I started a meditation practice about four years ago using the Headspace app. They include a quick scan in most of the meditations. To this day, I find it hard to meditate without a script or to keep a gentle focus on where I am in my body if I am doing it on my own. I also tend to fall asleep when I meditate, but I feel like for now, that's ok. I'm a mother of two (3.5y and 5 m) and if my body tells me that I need a quick rest, my mind will be better for it. 

There is this feeling I get when I open my eyes at the end of a 'good' session where my mind is clear and I feel like I am simple and can focus on one action at a time. I can also feel my mind and body begin to race and become inpatient when I haven't taken the time to sit/lay down in a while. 

[Tine]

The collection of guided meditations can be found here:

Or are you looking for an audio only version?

[da****]

I just completed the first week and I'm reminded of how profoundly grateful I am to have this wisdom.

I started my 12-year daily meditation practice in the vipassana tradition (MBSR has it's roots in this Buddhist lineage). However, I took a break from that method and focused on other approaches over the last few years because a tremendous amount of painful energy, sensations, and emotions were arising in practice and the traditional insight/mindfulness meditation, as it was taught to me, could not hold or help process my experience.

After years of focusing on more somatic and experiential practices (mindful exercize, hatha and kundalini yoga, yoga nidra, visualization journeys, automatic writing, tapping, etc.) I'm delighted to dive back into my roots and re-approach mindfulness with a fresh perspective and more resilience.

The body scan was a perfect way to start this course, as I primarily did body scans for years when I first began meditating. Perhaps my psyche was so disembodied and the mind so deafening that open awareness or simple breath meditation resulted in more stress, not less. This week reminded me of how body scans show me all the unconscious tension the body holds, even first thing in the morning

I'm also noticing that body scans are a gentle and centering way to start the day, especially when the urge to tap on my gmail app to get the morning news seems so appropriate during this pandemic. While body scans are centering, I also notice a deep primal fear that if I relax all the way, something terrible is going to happen. Ugh! I've been meditating for over a decade and that belief is still so strong! So I always visualize comforting forces holding me.

So, very grateful for this course and the people running it! Can't wait to dive into week 2.

Edited April 17, 2020 by dawnrobertson

[Te****]

Hello, Can you kindly help me with the Formal practice exercise, what to write with the following questions. A sample would help me understand. 

What came up? 

How did it feel?

What did you notice regarding physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc.

Thank you.