[progressally_objectives]
“It is amazing to me that we can be simultaneously completely preoccupied with the appearance of our own body and at the same time completely out of touch with it as well.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Every experience we have, every emotion we feel, every thought we think happens with our body. Our lives truly are embodied.
Last week was fairly “content heavy” in terms of lots of information about the brain and emotion. This week, while there is still written content in each lesson, we will focus more on practice. We will explore many techniques for befriending and paying attention to the body.
Our bodies are constantly providing us with information – about pain and pleasure, sickness and health, happiness and sadness. There is a whole wealth of wisdom within the body that we can tap into.
Perhaps this has happened to you: you start having significant pain in your knee, or arm, or shoulder (it could be anywhere), and it begins to impact your ability to complete daily tasks. You end up at the doctor’s office, unsure of when the pain actually started or what may have caused it.
We typically become aware of pain when it has progressed to being intolerable. Had we been paying closer attention to our body, we may have noticed the slight twinge, the dull ache, the general sensation that something was “off.” We could have addressed our symptoms before they became more severe.
When we pay attention to the body, we learn to recognize the signs of an oncoming illness, and then we can listen to the body’s signals that it’s time to rest. We may become more aware of our fatigue. We may begin to take better care of ourselves.
We may also notice more of the things that are right with our body. We spend so much time in our culture emphasizing the things we dislike or want to change about our bodies, as opposed to celebrating pleasant bodily sensations and features.
We will begin this week with a standard mindfulness practice: the body scan. As we have now entered week 3 of the course, I will once again gently encourage you to increase your daily practice time, this time to 15 minutes a day. To begin this week, you can listen to the 15-minute body scan meditation at the end of this lesson.
[And if you don’t practice for 15 minutes each day? That’s okay!!! You are your own best teacher. When you are ready to sit for longer periods, you will. If 10 minutes is working for you, or if 5 minutes is what is working for you, stay with that. You’ll know when you’re ready move on. 
]
In addition to providing us with valuable information from the body, the body scan is often experienced as very relaxing and soothing, so many people choose to do it before bed (if they’re not too sleepy!) In contrast to formal seated meditation, the body scan is typically performed lying down, although you can be in whatever position is comfortable for you. You can lie completely flat, or you can bend your knees and place the bottoms of your feet on the ground (a great position if you have back issues).
In the body scan, we focus on the direct experience and sensations of the body, rather than thinking about the body. If you find your mind wanders during the body scan, just “jump back in” to where we are in the scan (if your mind wanders when we’re at the toes, and you become aware when we’re at the knees, go to your knees!) If at any time focusing on a particular area of the body becomes overwhelming or emotional (for any reason), come back to your anchor breathing.
Finally, the powerful insight of the body scan is recognizing how much things can change. I encourage you to do the body scan each day this week (this can be in place of your seated practice). It will be the same body every day, the same narration every day, but the experiences and sensations may be completely different one day to the next.
Okay, enough words. Let’s practice!