Come to Your Senses

Accepting our physical sensations--whether pleasant or not--is one of the most challenging and liberating of practices.

By Tara Brach

Mindful Body Scan

To invite this kind of acceptance and embodied presence into your life, you can try practicing a mindful body scan. Start this exercise by sitting comfortably, closing your eyes, and taking several long, deep breaths. Then rest in the natural flow of your breath and allow your body and mind to begin to settle.

Place your attention at the top of your head and without looking for anything in particular, feel the sensations there. Then, letting your attention move down, feel the sensations on the back of your head, on either side of your head, in your ears, your forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth, and jaw. Be as slow and thorough as you like.

As you continue the scan, be careful not to use your eyes to direct your attention. This will only create tension. Rather, connect directly with sensations by feeling the body from within the body. In certain parts of the body, it is common to feel numbness or for there to be no noticeable sensations. Let your attention remain in those areas for a few moments in a relaxed and easy way. You may find that as your attention deepens, you become increasingly aware of sensations. Images or thoughts will naturally arise. Notice them passing through and gently return your attention to the sensations. Let your intention be to release all ideas and experience your physical aliveness exactly as it is.

With a relaxed, open awareness, begin a gradual and thorough scan of the rest of your body. Place your attention on the area of your neck and throat, noticing without judgment whatever sensations you feel. Then let your attention move to your shoulders and slowly down your arms, feeling the sensations and aliveness there, and to your hands. Feel each finger from the inside, the palms, the backs of the hands--noticing tingling, pulsing, pressure, warmth, or cold.

Slowly move on to explore the sensations in your chest, then allow your awareness to move into your upper back and shoulder blades, then down into the middle and lower back and the abdomen. Continuing to let awareness sweep down the body, feel the sensations that arise in the hips, buttocks, genitals. Move slowly down through the legs, feeling them from within, then through the feet and toes. Feel the sensations of contact, pressure, and temperature in the places where your body touches the chair, cushion, or floor.

Now expand your attention to include your entire body in a comprehensive way. Be aware of the body as a field of changing sensations. Can you sense the subtle energy field that gives life to every cell, every organ in your body? Is there anything in your experience that is solid, unmoving? Is there any center or boundary to the field of sensation? Is there any solid self you can locate that possesses these sensations? What or who is aware of the experience?

As you rest in awareness of your whole body, if particular sensations call your attention, bring a soft and allowing attention to them. Don't try to manage or manipulate your experience; don't grasp or push anything away. Simply open to the dance of sensations, feeling your life from the inside out.

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