Mindfulness of the body parts
By now I am practicing with the body every day. I like a bit of variety to keep my interest from waning. Here is a run through of what I do with the body parts - doing this meditation creates a kind of dispassion towards your body and other peoples bodies. This helps us have a more positive view towards who we are and what we need to do to keep ourselves fit and healthy.
- Remind myself that mindfulness is a relaxed, attentive awareness.
- Start with awareness of the body. Noticing my body sitting and breathing.
- Do an accelerated full body relaxation
- Obviously, being preoccupied, my mind wanders off during the relaxation part. I bring it back gently when it wanders off. Bringing it back is exercising my ability to bring it back, so it's all good. I enjoy the effort of getting lost and coming back.
- Establish a sense of clarity somewhere in my body mind complex. Anything will do, as long as it's not related to contracted thinking.
- Now, start with mindfulness of the body in earnest. Traditionally you're supposed to do 32 parts of the body but that takes a while, so I go for the major areas. I start with my bones, feel the skeleton inside. There's a sense of life in the bones. I feel them supporting me. They are me and not me at the same time.
- I shift attention to the skull. The skull is solid and I'm aware of the tension in the muscles stretching over the skull. I relax any tension I find - quite often this takes a while. I may consciously relax all the muslces in my whole body while I'm paying attention the muscular part of the head.
- I then notice the teeth - the space they occupy in the mouth and any tension in there - perhaps coming from the cheeks, eyes and jaw. I notice the saliva in the mouth, the wetness.
- I then become aware of all the fluids in the body; the blood pumping round, the liquid nature of the organs.
- I then notice the air coming into the lungs and the pressure in the belly. If I've eaten something I may notice the sense of fullness and the effort of the guts digesting. I may notice the heart beating.
- Then I switch to noticing the sensations of the whole body living, breathing, digesting. There's a flux of sensations running through my nervous system - a sophisticated organism doing it's work of living. I stay with this flux for a while. There's is nothing for me to do here except observe the changing nature of the physicality of the body.
- Then it's usually time to stop.
It gets a bit visceral but there's something about it.
- Remind myself that mindfulness is a relaxed, attentive awareness.
- Start with awareness of the body. Noticing my body sitting and breathing.
- Do an accelerated full body relaxation
- Obviously, being preoccupied, my mind wanders off during the relaxation part. I bring it back gently when it wanders off. Bringing it back is exercising my ability to bring it back, so it's all good. I enjoy the effort of getting lost and coming back.
- Establish a sense of clarity somewhere in my body mind complex. Anything will do, as long as it's not related to contracted thinking.
- Now, start with mindfulness of the body in earnest. Traditionally you're supposed to do 32 parts of the body but that takes a while, so I go for the major areas. I start with my bones, feel the skeleton inside. There's a sense of life in the bones. I feel them supporting me. They are me and not me at the same time.
- I shift attention to the skull. The skull is solid and I'm aware of the tension in the muscles stretching over the skull. I relax any tension I find - quite often this takes a while. I may consciously relax all the muslces in my whole body while I'm paying attention the muscular part of the head.
- I then notice the teeth - the space they occupy in the mouth and any tension in there - perhaps coming from the cheeks, eyes and jaw. I notice the saliva in the mouth, the wetness.
- I then become aware of all the fluids in the body; the blood pumping round, the liquid nature of the organs.
- I then notice the air coming into the lungs and the pressure in the belly. If I've eaten something I may notice the sense of fullness and the effort of the guts digesting. I may notice the heart beating.
- Then I switch to noticing the sensations of the whole body living, breathing, digesting. There's a flux of sensations running through my nervous system - a sophisticated organism doing it's work of living. I stay with this flux for a while. There's is nothing for me to do here except observe the changing nature of the physicality of the body.
- Then it's usually time to stop.
It gets a bit visceral but there's something about it.
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