Body Scan Meditation for Busy women
I know you have heard all about the benefits of meditating, and I know you probably have dabbled with it and have always come back to, “you don’t have enough time to do it”. I get it, setting aside 20 minutes to sit in silence is 1) not easy and 2) not very fun. So I’m sharing this for my busy girls who want to learn how to quiet the mind, relax their body and float into their meditative state.
Body scan meditation is when we focus on individual parts of our body and understand the pain, tension or other feelings we have attached to that body part. This is a great form of meditation as our brain focus on one point, stopping us from getting distracted during our practice. This requires no previous experience and can be done in anytime upwards of five minutes. Anyone can practice this, anytime and anywhere - perfect for people who are always rushing from place to place (you can practice this on the go!).
So how do you do it?
1)Play some gentle music in the background if you wish, set up a comfortable environment and take a seat in any position - if you’re at work, this can be done at your office chair, or if you are somewhere that you can lie on the floor - go ahead! We can do this in five minutes.
2) Once you are in position, close your eyes if you feel comfortable and start to bring attention to your breath to help us centre in for the next couple of minutes.
3) After a few breaths, bring your attention to your feet, if you struggle to visualise this with your eyes closed - you can keep them open and look to your feet or you can touch them if this helps. The main focus is to bring awareness to one point of the body, so however that works for you - go with that.
4) Start to notice how your feet feel - are they hot or cold, is there any pain in your foot, where is that pain? Is it tense? - If so, relax the foot. If you need to - tell your feet to relax (it may feel silly, but verbally telling your body to relax can actually help your body understand what you want it to do!) Maybe you gently touch the foot to encourage it to relax. Or maybe if you have your eyes closed you can imagine you are lying on a beach and your feet are slowly sinking, surrendering down into the sand.
5)Whatever method works best for you, have a play about with all of them, use the same method as you move up your body, from the feet to the shins, knees, thighs and so on…
6) With every body part, spend a few breaths focusing on the feelings and thoughts that you get whilst there. Maybe your hips are tight for no real reason, you can finally tell them to relax, they are safe to do so in this practice.
7) Once you have scanned your entire body, bring the awareness back to your breath and tell yourself “I am relaxed, my body is completely relaxed”. Now you are completely relaxed and have connected with the mind, breath and the physical body (How cool!).
What are the benefits of this?
Bringing deep awareness to the body is such an important practice, so often we go through life with our shoulders raised, our back hunched and our jaw clenched for no real reason. If we can spend a few minutes a day encouraging our body to let go, release the tension and fully relax - we can start to feel calmer during our day. It is a great tool to have for when you feel yourself starting to get tense, do this and you can manage how your body copes with stress as you realise it is your mind that controls the body and what kind of state it is in.
Other benefits include:
Better sleep
Regulating emotions
Lowers blood pressure
Reduces anxiety
Connects us to our senses
So if you are in the category of women that say they don’t have time to practice mindfulness, or you think you can’t concentrate enough for traditional meditation - I encourage you to try body scan meditation, even for 5 minutes at the end of your day as you lie in bed. You will prove to yourself you DO hold the power of meditation and you CAN be mindful.
