Your body is the gym of your mind.

Please indulge me. Without moving them, place your attention on your feet. Take your time. And now, without wiggling, feel each and every one of your toes.

Now tell me. Did you actually f e e l your feet, or did you think about them? Did you have to move your toes to sense them? If you found it hard to connect with them, you are not alone.

It is an amazing discovery to realize that, for all our preoccupation with appearance and our interest in fashion and hair (yes sir, I am speaking to you) when asked to inhabit our body, we have a real hard time getting in touch with it. Supposing we are pain free and that we manage to connect with a specific area of it, sustaining your attention can also prove to be challenging.

One very powerful meditation practice used in MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) is the Body Scan. Used to reestablish connection with the body, the scan is a very effective method “for developing both concentration and flexibility of attention simultaneously” according to Jon Kabbat-Zin Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

The Body Scan is usually practiced by lying on your back and moving your mind methodically through different regions of your body. Starting with the toes on the left foot and slowly moving the attention to the foot, the ankle the calf and the rest of the leg, the scan gives ample opportunity to give full awareness to each region of the body. By tuning in to all sensations that might arise (including the absence of them) the body becomes a felt experience which can allow the individual to override the judgmental thoughts about it.

Kabbat-Zinn explains it in his book Full Catastrophe Living: “When you tune in, you are reclaiming your life in that very moment, and your body as well, making yourself more real and more alive. You are living your life in real time, as it unfolds, moment by moment in awareness, you are present for it and with it and in it. Your experience is embodied”.

For many of our clients the Body Scan is the first experience of wellbeing and timelessness in the meditation practice, as well as the realization that they are a walking ‘mind gym’: Their body being the perfect training ground to practice mindfulness, one breath at a time. So no more excuses. Since everywhere you go, there you are, remember that you are all you need to train yourself back to center.