Mindful Living

Doing a body scan can be a very helpful way to identify what part of your body is holding some emotions. I have found it helpful to me and others in recognizing and releasing emotions that we aren't very aware of. To do a body scan, start by taking 3 deep breaths, feeling your stomach rise, and when you exhale, blow out as much air as you can. Then starting with your head, you just give your attention to each body part and try and identify the feeling there: heavy, soft, pain, light, whatever it is it is as it should be. Work your way all the down to your feet. When you are finished, take 3 more deep breaths in, and make note of how your body felt. Doing this regularly will help you get into touch with the emotions your body is carrying around. Until next time: Be gentle with yourself and others.

I am one of these people whose emotions manifest somewhere in their bodies, almost instantaneously! Particularly anxiety or worry will be felt in my stomach usually as a swirling emotion and sadness/grief in my chest or head area. The other part of my body that carries my emotions is my lower back- not all of my back pain is emotionally connected, but when I am feeling down or having relationship issues, my lower back will often hurt. I have learned to use this as a guidance system to what is going on inside of me and to bring things into awareness that I was out of touch about and then take care of the emotions in some way. For me taking care of worry or anxiety is doing soothing self talk and exercise. I am amazed that even a 5 minute walk with almost always reduce any anxiety I feel. When I am sad or feeling down, what helps me is to journal and to connect with others, and then I usually feel the physical sensations subside. With the individuals I have seen in therapy, I have had a ...