Daily Practice 101 #4

We have busy minds and busy bodies. Our daily practice is a time to pause and to come home to ourselves so that we can be in touch with more than our mind’s stories. We can really “be” here for our experience, on the inside and what is happening around us. Some of this may be pleasant or unpleasant. We learn to show up and really be in our life, just as it is, for more and more moments. We cultivate this capacity by slowing down and calming our bodies. Calming our bodies creates conditions for our minds to slow and quiet down as well. Even 10 minutes of dedicated daily practice can help to set or reset our bodies and minds, and have a beautiful ripple effect in the coming hours and days and weeks. This ripple effect touches us and other beings, near and far.

An “anchor” is something we choose for our mind’s focus during our practice time. The most common anchor we hear about seems to be breath. But breath is not for everyone, or always for me, and not better than other anchors. For some of us (or at some times), breath focus might be a distraction or a source of anxiety or distraction. I have a friend who had some scary asthma attacks as a young child. Focusing on breath can activate her nervous system and create the sensation of her airway closing. For others, it may be difficult to follow our breath when we have a respiratory illness that impedes breathing clearly and with ease.

We each find which anchor might support us, each time we practice . Some days breath may be an anchor for us. Some days, another maybe best. We tune into what our bodies and minds might need and choose whatever supports our attention and our intention. Bringing awareness to body sensations that are arising in the present moment can be another anchor for mindfulness practice, instead of, or in combination with breath.

Body scan. One way to practice with sensations in the body as an anchor is a body scan. This might be a guided meditation that we listen to, or it can be self-guided. It can be very lovely and relaxing to practice with a body scan while lying down, but you can also be sitting in a chair. We might begin at the soles of our feet. We bring our attention to one part of our body and tune into whatever sensations might be present there. Do we feel tingling, vibration, softening/relaxation, twitching, pulsing, pressure, tension, warmth, coolness, numbness, or some other physical feeling? Perhaps we feel nothing. We just notice and try to take in only the physical sensation that may arise as we pay attention, for example, just to our feet for maybe 15-20 seconds. Then we let go and bring our mind’s gaze to another body part (e.g., ankles or lower legs) and repeat this process of just noticing, without judgment. The sensations may be pleasant, a bit unpleasant, or neutral. Our mind slowly scans our body, pausing and and tuning into physical sensations in the body that usually go unnoticed when our mind is busy. We move up, touching in on many or a few locations in our body until we reach our face and head. In the end we may bring awareness to our whole body, head to toe.

Here is one of my favorite guided body scans. I sometimes follow this as a 15 minute refresher midday that leaves me feeling like I had a nourishing nap.

(This guided meditation is available on the FREE Plum Village App under Meditations, Deep Relaxation. The PV app offers many guided body scans of shorter and longer lengths.)

We can also guide ourselves through a body scan, by mentally taking this kind of journey through various parts of our body in a sequence.

Body scans can be a wonderful practice when we want to release some tension and calm our bodies. They can be practiced in a chair at work during a break or after lunch, in one’s car if that is a place of refuge during break time,, Or we can practice lying on a mat in a quiet setting, or on our bed at home. If your environment has sound distractions, consider headphones to silence outside noise or to listen to guided practice on an app. This can be a wonderful practice when you are settled into bed and ready to sleep, inviting your body to let go of the day’s stresses and tensions.

Awareness of emerging and fading body sensations. Another possibility for practicing with body sensations as an anchor is open awareness to whatever body sensations are presenting as we are stopped. Rather than guiding the mind in a particular sequence to choose a part for focus, we become still and invite our mind to notice any sensation that may be arising anywhere in the body. We may attend to it, noticing the nature of the physical sensation(s) for ten seconds or more. Then we release it and again open to the full awareness of our body and for any other sensations that may arise in different locations. The focus, like the body scan, is being with the physical sensation without a story or judgment.

Body sensations may be an interesting anchor to explore in addition to, or as part of your daily practice experiments.

Enjoy your practice!