The Body Scan Method For Pain Relief
Have pain? Below there is a method called the Body Scan that may help. It certainly can’t hurt to try.
Try this pain self-management technique that will help you surf through your pain using body scanning. A pain management tool just for you. Try finding a quiet place where you can sit or lie down for several minutes as you follow along with the steps we will outline below.
Please Note: You can always open your eyes and stop this technique at any time, if you should feel uncomfortable or you’ve had previous trauma it may not be advisable to try this at home on your own.
Prior to getting started, try this. You will be placing your attention on your body. The purpose of this activity is not to relax, but to increase your awareness and notice any body sensations that may be present from moment to moment. If you feel discomfort at any time, you can remind yourself that this is simply a sensation. The sensation of pain is not the sensation or pain itself, but just awareness. This may lead to greater understanding about discomfort or pain.
Should the sensations feel overwhelming, you can open your eyes and stop, move to another part where there is no pain or negative feeling. Know, that by resting with the discomfort, you are allowing yourself to bear witness to the feeling and sensation that exists, and experiencing the fullness of what is occurring. If you have pain in a certain area of your body–such as your neck or shoulders–you may find focusing on that area increases the sensation. Again, you can always move your focus to another area of the body and return to the painful area later.
Please keep in mind that this practice may or may not result in relaxation. Every time that you practice this it may be a different result. It’s best to let go of any expectations as part of this practice. This is a very proactive process by which you are actually scanning the motor and sensory cortex of your brain. It’s kind of like massaging the brain and body from the inside out.
Follow these steps:
- To start, center your mind solely on your body’s presence. Take three deep breaths and feel your diaphragm move. Fell how great it is that each breath fills your lungs with healing oxygen, sends this oxygen to your muscles and organs, and sustains you. You may want to move your toes and feel how effortlessly they follow your command. Take a few moments to feel grateful for this body, this awesome gift that you possess.
- Use your imagination with this particular practice. Let’s begin to imagine, for example, that your breath could carry your awareness into any part of the body. Let’s try now, by taking that first breath. Picture your breath going down the left side of your body and bringing your awareness with it. Let this breath and your awareness to it travel down and settle into your toes. Just notice whatever sensations are rising and falling. If you don’t notice a sensation that’s okay too. You don’t need to create one. Notice how your toes masterfully help you to walk and carry you, spend time in this moment to acknowledge this. Picture in your mind how your toes from the inside, filled with muscles, tendons, and bones, all working together. Try feeling some gratitude and thankfulness for how much work your toes do for you. As you breath, visualize your toes feeling up with breath, bringing even more awareness to this part of your body. Do this now for a few moments. When you are ready to move on to the next part of the foot, exhale to release your attention on the toes. Optionally, if you want, take a moment to send gratitude and appreciation to each part of the foot, exhale to release your attention on this area as you go through this exercise.
- Now focus your breath on the soles of your feet, to the balls of your feet and the heel. Bring full awareness to this part of the feet. Feel any sensations in the soles. Sense the tendons and tissue that are below the skin. Notice are there any feelings or signals from inside this part of the body. Again, give thanks to the soles of your feet for supporting your body and for allowing you to feel sensations as you walk and move and stay active. Or, you can just continue to sense each part of the body. Again, exhale to release awareness on this part of the body.
- Focus on your next breath, you will carry your awareness down to the ankles, taking time to fully experience any sensations that are present. Try to imagine this part of your body, how it is both so flexible and strong enough to help you pivot and change directions. Allow yourself to let go of any sensation so as to contact the next sensation as it appears. In this way you can contact new sensations as they appear in this moment, and the next, and the next. If your mind wanders off at any time, that’s okay. Just notice where your mind has gone – you can call it “mind wandering” or “thinking” and then bring your attention back to the moment-by-moment focus of the ankles. You can label wherever the mind goes – if it has a picture in your mind’s eye, just label that as “seeing.” If a sound takes over your mind, just call it “hearing,” then return to the sensing of the body.
- Move up the left side of the body. Take a breath and picture that breath bringing awareness to each part as you sense the shin/calf, knee, hand, lower arm, upper arm, shoulders, back, spine, neck, and then the head (face, skull, and scalp). After reaching the top of the body, you can complete the body scan by moving down the right side of the body until you reach the toes of the right foot.
- You can either surf the extremities or you can also scan internal body parts, including the heart, intestines, stomach, genitals, liver, kidney, spine, and brain, as well as other sense organs that assist in your well-being. Make sure you feel your connection to each of these parts that help to make a joyful and fulfilling life possible.
- After you’ve completed this practice by addressing each body part, let yourself rest for a few minutes in the presence of it. As for your body to guide you in doing what is best for it and give thanks to it. Let your body know that you will pay attention to the signals it sends you, and that you will follow up any warning signs by getting check-ups and taking care of it through learning about health and preventative measures. By now, you may really be smiling and ready to face the day. This is a great practice that will help you find the strength to do what is right for your body – and the rest of you.
In Conclusion:
During the day, be more aware of your body you are the better; it really will let you know when it is happy and when it is not. I know several people, for example, who have told me that they feel less energetic when they drink too much caffeine. It is easy to make corrections if you take the time to become good friends with your body. Treating your body right by giving it the loving, care and attention that it needs will help prevent major illness and disease from setting in. Try this self care exercise next time you are in pain and want to try to manage it better. It may help, and you won’t know until you try it. Surfing through the pain using the body scan method may work one time and maybe not the next but keep trying it because you might just find that it works or helps to at least lessen some of your discomfort.
The body scan method has been around for many years and is also a great way not only to help with self-managing your pain but it helps improve body awareness and mind awareness.
Reflections:
How can you make the body scan part of a daily practice? When do you think would be a good time to use this? What will be the biggest challenge you face in implementing the body scan? Surfing the Body practice is a powerful grounding method. But it needn’t be used in the full form described above. How might you adapt this to create the instant, Canadian-style one-minute body scan for greeting the body in the morning or anytime during the day?
