This mindfulness practice is called a body scan, because it has you slowly scan your body by muscle groups to see where you feel relaxed, have tension or pain, or experience other sensations. By being more in tune with how your body feels, you can often increase your awareness of your emotions, which in turn gives you more control over them. You might want to try having someone read the following instructions out loud to you until you get used to doing this on your own.
Begin by focusing on your toes and slowly work your way up to your head, noticing any sensations of pain, comfort, discomfort, tension, or relaxation, or anything else that comes to your awareness. Notice that there are no judgments happening here. You’re just describing factually whatever you notice in each body part. As you do this, you’ll likely notice that your thoughts wander to something else. Remember that this is natural, and just bring your attention back to the muscles you’re focusing on.
As you focus on each muscle group, just name the body part to yourself and notice any sensations; for example, “I notice my toes … have no sensations. I notice my feet … are a little sore. I notice my calves … just feel relaxed. I notice my shins … have no sensations. I notice my quadriceps … are feeling tense.” Continue to work your way up your body.
Moving upward from your toes, focus on the back of your upper legs, your hamstrings, and your buttocks. Slowly continuing upward, bring your attention to your lower, middle, and upper back, pausing at each of these groups of muscles to give yourself time to observe any sensations. From here, notice your shoulders, then slowly work your way down your arms, simply allowing your awareness to come to any sensations that are in your body in this moment. Observe your biceps, elbows, and forearms, and slowly work your way into your wrists, your hands, and down to the ends of each fingertip.
Continue to just sense whatever is happening in your body, without judgment, even if it’s not what you would like it to be. Now become aware of your stomach; this is a place people often hold tension, so notice if your abdominal muscles are tight or if they feel relaxed. You can also take a moment to pay attention to your breathing here, noticing if it’s deep and regular, shallow, or erratic. Now move your attention upward into your chest, again noticing any tightness or other sensations. If you notice that your attention has wandered, just observe this, accept it (don’t judge yourself for it), and bring your attention back to the area you’re working on.
Moving your awareness now into your neck, notice any tension, pain, discomfort, or other sensations—just become aware of them. Then move on to your jaw, another place people often hold tension; are you clenching your jaw, or is it loose and relaxed? Just observe whatever is happening in your jaw at this moment. Now draw your awareness to the rest of your face and observe what’s happening there. Is your brow furrowed? Are you frowning? Are your eyes open or closed, squinting or relaxed? Is there tension in any of these muscles? Finally, bring your attention to your head. You might feel a tingling sensation as the energy flows through your body; or maybe there are no sensations there for you to sense right now, and that’s fine too—just sense anything that is there in this moment.
Did you notice anything that you weren’t aware of in your body? Were you able to identify any emotions? Practice the body scan regularly to help you become more in tune with yourself, and with how you feel physically, which can give you clues as to how you feel emotionally.
In this chapter you’ve learned about a skill called mindfulness and how this skill can help you gain more control over your emotions. You’ve also learned that emotions consist of more than just how you feel—they also include thoughts and physical sensations. Before you read any further in this workbook, take some time to practice mindfulness. Use the exercises in this chapter, and as best you can, bring mindfulness to the activities you regularly do in your day-to-day life. The more you can practice being in the moment, with awareness and with acceptance, the more benefit you will see and the more effectively you will be able to manage your emotions. If you are interested in learning more about mindfulness, there are numerous resources available. Please turn to the “Additional Reading” section of this workbook for some suggestions.