Mindfulness body scan: A connection between body and mind

During a hurried life, you can sometimes forget that you need your body. This is also often the reason why people do not use their bodies sparingly. After all, you may not often think about it, but you have to carry that body with you until you hopefully live to be 100. It's a real shame if the connection between body and mind becomes less strong. Mindfulness is not just a way to become more relaxed. It is also the way to make a good connection between body and mind.

Therefore, in this article, I will discuss mindfulness body scan.

What is a mindfulness body scan?

A mindfulness body scan is often part of a mindfulness program designed to reduce stress. This component of such a program helps you become aware of the here and now—and, in particular, of your body.

During a relaxation exercise, you focus your attention and awareness on a different part of your body each time. This process goes from your feet all the way to the top of your head. Like an MRI scan that scans your body from head to toe, you use your thoughts to scan your body from head to toe in order to reestablish a strong connection between your brain and your body.

While focusing on your body, then, you feel if you have tension in your body.

Instead of paying attention to your worries and things that happened in the past, you focus on the here and now during a mindfulness body scan now. In addition to a focus on your body, it is also a way to clear your brain of thoughts or at least not judge your thoughts.

What do you need a mindfulness body scan for?

If you suffer from stress, for example, you can often notice this in stiffness and tense muscles. Through the body scan, you become aware of this tension and can very consciously allow your muscles to relax.

There are standardized mindfulness-based treatments lasting 8 weeks, specifically designed for people who suffer from depression and anxiety or who frequently experience relapses. One of the first things you learn during such an intervention is the mindfulness body scan.

Focusing on your body also allows you to take better care of your body. You find out more quickly about symptoms you can't resolve on your own and can therefore intervene earlier if something is really wrong. Moreover, the mindfulness body scan also ensures that you actually become healthier.

How often do you suddenly realize that you’re suffering from intense muscle tension that has built up unconsciously? By taking the time to perform the mindfulness body scan every week—or better yet, every day—you can no longer ignore certain sensations, such as those tense muscles, and you can consciously seek out relaxation. This has all kinds of benefits.

One indirect effect, for example, is that the mindfulness body scan can help you cope better with pain. Through the body scan, you can determine whether certain behaviors—such as sitting a lot and moving very little—cause you to experience more pain than you would if you were active. A study of people with chronic lower back pain found that this effect was evident in the participants. Through greater body awareness, the participants were able to change their unhealthy behaviors.

In addition, you can simply do this exercise at home. In fact, mindfulness is meant to make this a way of life, or at least apply it regularly. The body scan is a small part of this. The best news is that research shows that when you apply such techniques at home it actually literally reduces pain. In people who suffer from arthritis, neck and/or back pain, the pain reduction was greatest.

They have also conducted a study on the direct effects of a mindfulness body scan and they are promising.

For example, when you perform a body scan, your blood pressure drops immediately. A study involving 32 participants shows that meditation and the body scan can cause your blood pressure to drop significantly. This means that your blood pressure drops as a result of using mindfulness techniques, and that this drop is not due to chance.

There was also an increase in the measurement of an indicator of how the Nervus Vagus works. With a certain heart measurement, they can see if this is improving and that was the case with this exercise in that study.

So a mindfullnes body scan has a good effect on your blood pressure and on the functioning of your nerves. It shows that your body literally makes a better connection between your brain and your limbs and organs.

Mindfulness Body Scan Exercise

A mindfulness body scan can take as long as thirty to forty minutes during a treatment. If you don't have time for that now save this article in your favorites to find it later when you do have time for the body scan and otherwise get started....

Now you can follow these steps to begin a body scan.

Find a quiet and comfortable place where you cannot be disturbed for at least half an hour. If you have comfortable clothes on, it's perfect! Otherwise, you can put on your comfortable outfit for a while.

Lie on your bed or a comfortable mat with your arms along your body and your palms up. If this is not comfortable, you can always put a pillow under your head or knees. Some people also do this exercise sitting down.

First, feel your body weight pressing on your bed or the other surface you use.

Relax and take deep breaths. While breathing, you anchor yourself in the here and now. Each time you exhale you give yourself space to sink deeper into the mattress, even if only figuratively.

Experience breathing. Become truly aware of the sensations breathing gives you. Feel the effect on your nose, your airways, your ribs. Become fully aware that you are breathing.

First, do this for a few minutes.

When you are completely relaxed shift your attention to your feet. You can start at your big toe. Pick one of the two big toes you have and examine how it feels. Is it hot or cold? How do your other toes feel? If you don't feel anything, that's okay, too.

While breathing, imagine your breath coming all the way to your toe or to the part you are currently scanning.

Now you can slowly shift your attention to the rest of your foot. In this way, you can very systematically scan through, for example, your left foot and left leg. How does your ankle feel? Your calf? Your shin? Your knee? Your knee hollow and so on. Take the time you need for this. You may notice that the leg you started with now actually feels different from your other leg.

Then move on to your other leg.

When you're done with that, start focusing on your buttocks, hips, back and abdomen. Feel how your belly and organs move as you breathe.

Feel how your upper body moves as you breathe, and don't forget your back and the sides of your body. Be grateful for all your organs that make sure you are alive and just let the emotions in. There are only good emotions, even if you rationally think it is a bad emotion.

Take the time you need to scan your body.

You can scan your arms at the same time, starting at the fingertips just as you started at your toes with your feet. Every phalanx and finger gets its turn.

After the arms move to your neck, jaw and face. If your jaw feels tense you can relax it, if your lips feel tense you can relax them. Feel your eyelids, eyes and the muscles on your forehead.

No need to rush during a body scan.

Once you've scanned your entire body, you can take a moment to visualize how your breath energizes your body. Of the oxygen you need to move, feel and think. Feel how your breath supplies every cell in your body with oxygen.

Take a few minutes to do this.

Get a sense of your complete body, your toes to your crown. Feel yourself being complete, just as you are. Remember that this feeling is always available to you when you need it. Let go of all the energy you need to be mindful.

Acknowledge to yourself that you have taken the time to get to know your body well. To give your body a brain a stronger connection again. Now you can slowly stop this exercise.

Above all, remember that you can always retrieve this mindfulness feeling, no matter what activity you are engaged in.

Would you like to learn more about mindfulness and what it can do for you? Then come to an event or check out the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Sources:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1207/s15324796abm3203_9

http://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-244X-6-14

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590008005440

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022399909000944