Meditation For Beginners: How to Do Body Scan Meditation
The benefits of meditation are widely known
by now - better sleep, stress relief, reduced pain, and better overall
mental well-being are just a few impressive mentions. As most people
know, meditation aims to increase your self-awareness, both physical and
mental, to help release any potential tension in the body and mind.
One of the easiest ways to achieve that
goal is through a body scan, a meditative technique that teaches you to
examine the different sensations you might be experiencing in your body
and to mentally let go of those sensations, thereby relieving yourself
of the mental burden they impart and alter your perception of pain and
tension to provide relief. All this may sound quite complicated, but in
reality, the technique itself requires no prior preparation and
equipment, and it only takes a few minutes every day. Learn how to do a
body scan in this short but information-packed article.
Beginner’s Tips 
Before we teach you how to complete a body scan step by step, we wanted
to give you several tips that will help you get the most out of a body
scan. First of all, the setting - we recommend starting in a quiet and
calm place that will be conducive to introspection, but with time,
you’ll be able to meditate anywhere, be it your home, nature, workplace,
or your daily public transportation commute.
We’d encourage you to meditate every day, as this way, you’ll learn how
it works faster, and so, you’ll see the effects sooner. Don’t be
discouraged if the first few times you don’t see an immediate effect of
the meditation. Like any skill, it takes time to cultivate. Think of
meditation as an exercise for your mental self. Just like any exercise,
it requires repetition and practice for you to notice any beneficial
changes.
Luckily, unlike exercise, people typically start observing the effects
of meditation much sooner - in just a few weeks of daily practice,
you’ll start experiencing better focus, feeling less stressed, and
having a more positive outlook on the events going on in your life.
How to Practice Body Scan Meditation
This meditation practice takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes to a full
hour, but the basic steps are the same. Here they are:
1. Get in a comfortable position: e.g. lie down or sit in a stable
position, be it on the floor, in a chair, or with your back against the
wall.
2. Slowly close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath.
Observe how it feels when you breathe in and out, how your chest expands
when you fill your lungs with air, and how it tightens when you push
the air out of the lungs.
3. Choose a point in your body where you’d like to start. Traditionally,
you want to start on the top of the head and move down your whole body,
but you can also start from any other body part. Continue to breathe
deeply and bring your attention to that spot.
4. Check if you feel any tension or pain in
the body part you chose. For example, if you choose your head, do you
feel that it’s heavy? Does breathing in make you a bit dizzy? Are your
facial muscles tense or relaxed? Are you frowning or smiling? Open your
mind to any sensations that may come, be they pleasant, painful, or
irritating.
5. Gradually shift your attention down, as if you’re meticulously
scanning each body part inch by inch. Spend time (20sec - 1minute, on
average) to experience the sensations in each body part - e.g. from your
head down to your neck, shoulders, etc.
6. If you find a feeling of pain or discomfort at any point of the body
scan, notice it, and accept any feelings it may cause without any
judgment, frustration, or anger. Allow these feelings to go away on
their own, the same way they appeared on their own. Observe how, with
each breath, the anger, pain, and tension slowly melt away.
7. Move down to the next area and visualize
in your mind’s eye how your focus shifts from one point to another,
continuing the scan until you’ve given every body part, every cell in
your body a moment of your attention.
8. If your mind drifts away at any point in the scan, don’t worry and
don’t feel bad, it is bound to happen because your unconscious self is
trying to avoid facing the unpleasant emotions and sensations. Simply
return where you left off and continue.
9. Once you’re done, visualize your entire body, see how it feels to
breathe now compared to when you started. Breathe deeply a few more
times, and then slowly open your eyes and find yourself in your
environment, refreshed and awake.