THE BODY SCAN: Pancakes to Palm Crosses — Tool 2

Sunday 1-March to Thursday 5-March

You can use your CD, or go to chapter 29 in the audiobook or try Youtube

              TOOL 2 — THE BODY SCAN

You will need to set aside 13 minutes daily for days 6-10.

You may find it helpful to try and do this twice a day whenever you can. Perhaps the second time, you can try a body scan without having the track to listen along with.

Day Day Day Day Day
6 7 8 9 10

Body scanning means paying attention to your individual zones of your body in a slow, gradual sequence, from toes to head. It asks you to become aware of one small focus, and hold your curiosity there, experiencing whatever sensations (or even absence of sensations) can be found there. It is not about calling each body part to your mind’s eye. It is about taking your mind’s eye to what’s actually present. This can have a profound impact of those of us who live with chronic pain, learning to look at what we are feeling instead of fighting it or avoiding it. As ever, we will also find our minds wandering into narration, day-dreaming, remembering and planning. This is okay. We can just name what it was we caught our minds doing, and then turn our gaze gently back to the part of the body scan we intended to give our attention to.

TO PONDER:

  • What makes this tool different from the first one?
  • What have you learnt about your own body that you didn’t know before?
  • Have you noticed the tools slipping into your everyday life at all?

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