Practice 77: A Body Scan for Physical Discomfort

Note: Physical pain is unavoidable. Please adress the causes of physical distress where and when you can. Managing pain while allowing the cause of the discomfort to go untreated is not a wise plan.

Background: Body Scan’s deserve the great acclaim they recieve. They are outstanding mindfulness practices. Today’s variation of a body scan handles the idea of what to do with places we find discomfort in a somewhat unusual manner. The idea in this practice is to clearly define the boundary of where the sorness begins in end. This careful analysis, this three dimensional mind-map of precisely where the pain begins and ends does a few different things.

First, this careful focus recognizes clearly and specifically the part of ourselves that is hurting. We have a tendency to want to shut down, close off, and even deny the existence of our hurting places. Carefully studying the parameters of our pain helps to welcome the injured body part back into the body, and helps us realize, often, that the pain is not quite as bad as we had made it out to be.

Secondly, it helps to focus our attention. One of the things that mindfulness practices do for us is build up a sort-of mental muscle, an ability to turn our attention to notice very precise details. This practice gives us some experience with just that.

Finally, mentally mapping the hurting areas of our body helps us to find the area around the injury that actually feels healthy and strong. The act of spreading this lack of painfulness is something I find incredibly powerful. Imagining the sensation of not-hurting spreading into the inpated area really does turn down the pain for me. I hope it does for you, too.

The Practice

1. Release your worries for this time.
2. Turn your attention to the tips of your toes. Become aware of them.
3. Breathe deeply and very slowly and precisely, bring your attention across your feet.
4. Be on the look out for areas that are tender, tense, or sore.
5. Bring your attention up through your ankles and into the shins.
6. Make a mental note of anywhere you notice that seems to be hurting. We’ll be returning to these points later.
7. Draw your perceptions up through the knees and thighs.
8. Make sure you’re aware of the whole depth and width of these body parts.
9. Notice your lap, pelvis, hips and buttocks.
10. Continue to be on the watch for soreness as you bring your awareness into the lower belly and back.
11. Bring attention to the belly and mid-back, and the chest and shoulders.
12. Apply your awareness to the finger tips.
13. Continuing those deep breaths, bring your awareness up through the lengths of the fingers; across the palm, and around the back of the hand.
14. Now become aware of your wrists, and forearms. Remind yourself here, to note those places which feel tight and sore. We’ll be returning to one or more of those spots shortly.
15. Notice the elbow and upper arms, now bring up your attention through the chest and shoulders. Continue the long, calming breaths.
16. Bring your attention to the neck, all the way around, bring the attention up to the jaw line, the place where the skull meets the spine.
17. Become aware of the chin, lips, cheeks; look for those tense, warm, sore places as you become aware of the nose, eye sockets, and forhead. Finally, become aware of your scalp and hairline.
18. Take three breaths. Remind yourself of the places you noted that were sore and tense. Choose one of these places.
19. Now, study this area with gentle curiosity. Make note, first, of the quality of the sensations of the pain itself. Is there any movement or change? How would you describe it?
20. Continuing to breathe calmly, now, study the parameters of the spot that feels different. Make yourself an expert in it’s size and topography. Note the shape and volume, the surface area and the realms within. Is the pain consistent all the way through?
21. Take three more deep breaths.
22. Now, bring your attention to the space that is around this soreness. Turn your attention to the area just outside of the pain. Find the boundary between hurting and not hurting. In your minds eye, see it as an envelope, or wrapping paper. Fulling engulfing the sort spot within you.
23. Take three more deep breaths.
24. Now, let the non envelope infilitrate the hurt place within you. Let the healthy spot which is not uncomfortable enfold and take over the pain; stretch it through and let it penetrate all the way to the core of the place that hurts within you.
25. Many people find these places of soreness diminish or erase themselves entirely. Sit as long as you like, luxuriating in the reduction of pain. If you wish, begin this process again on some other part of your body.

This practice will accompany an upcoming episode of the Snipe hunting Podcast. Click here to see the youtube video featuring Snipe Hunting and mystical poetry with video and musical accompaniement.

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Exercise 69: Box Breathing

Background for 69A: Box breathing is a mindfullness practice.  It begins by identifying 4 points:  the inhale, the pause after the inhale, the exhale, and the pause after the exhale.  Practioners are invited to imagine a box and circle their attention around each side with each of the four parts of the breath.

Mindfulness offers up many tools.   I find these tools very useful in enhancing my experiences of other types of spiritual practice.  One of the most basic principles of mindfulness is to anchor ourselves in this present moment  with the information the 5 senses provide.  One of the challenges with this sensory data is to receive it in  a manner which is as concept-free as possible.

Thus, in mindfulness, it is  good start to notice the feeling of the breeze on my hand.  It is better to disengage my knowledge that it is a breeze and to simply tune in to the feeling on my hand.  It is even better than that to release my concept knowledge that I have a hand: the goal is to simply experience that sensation as something that is occuring.

It is powerful to attend to the breath for as long as we are able.  Perhaps that is just for a part of the inhale.  Perhaps we are able to stay fully in our breath for all 4 “sides” of the “box.”

Two versions of this practice are presented here.  It is worth being reflective on how the two different prescriptions for breath-lengths leave you feeling.

Practice 69A

1.  Place the feet flat on the floor.  Find your breath.
2. Inhale for a count of four.
3. Pause for a count of four.
4. Exhale for a count of four.  
5. Pause for a count of four.
6. Repeat steps 2-5.  This time, stay with the breath for as long as you can.  
7. Repeat steps 2-5, imagining that each 4-count takes a finger to the end of a side of a box.  As you move on to the next corner of the box, you have entered a new part of the breath.
8. Continue this 4-part 4 -count, either staying in the breath or imagining the box.  Note how this leaves you feeling.  After this reflection, you may wish to move on to practice 69B.

Background to 69B

It might be helpful to recall the shape of a trapezoid from your last geometry class.   

For this practice, it’s helpful to envision a box of the shape shown above.  We could imagine that this box had legs of 3 feet.  We could imagine the smaller, upper base was 4 feet, and we could imagine that the lower, longer base was 5 feet.

Practice 69B:

1.  Place the feet flat on the floor.  Find your breath.
2. Inhale for a count of four.
3. Pause for a count of  three.
4. Exhale for a count of  five.  
5. Pause for a count of three.
6. Repeat steps 2-5.  This time, stay with the breath for as long as you can.  
7. Repeat steps 2-5, imagining that each breath part covers the time it takes a finger to the end of a side of a box.  As you move on to the next corner of the box, you have entered a new part of the breath.
8. Continue this pattern, either staying in the breath or imagining the box.  Note how this leaves you feeling.  This is your practice.  Please consider changing the lengths for a duration which is more comfortable.  One important thing is the regularity: choosing numbers and sticking with them.  Another important thing is the mere presence to the breath and attention to how that feels in the rest of the body.

Exercise 68: Sati/ Mindfulness meditation

Background:  This spiritual practice will introduce a few different approaches to staying present.  The overaching idea with mindfulness is to meditate by locating ourself in the present. One of the way that this is done is through recognizing when we are having having intrusive thoughts or sensations by simply and gently witnessing these: watching them come and go.  I find this powerful because identifying their coming and leaving is a way to remind myself that I am not the same as these thoughts, and as I do this I am shown that this is what the mind does– it thinks and feels things.

A second major feature of this practice is to locate the self with the physical sensations we are noticing now.  Most often these are the sensations of breath.

There are some related spiritual practices listed at this website.  I am sharing this practice to introduce a handful of new possibilities.  A few different possibilities are featured in each of the practices below.  I suggest trying each of them and then picking and choosing your favorite aspects of each of the practices below.

 

Practice 68A

1.  Sit up in a way that is straight and comfortable.  See yourself as sitting on a seat between heaven and Earth.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Find your breath.  Pay attention to the abdomen: feel it pushing out with the inhales, and moving in, toward the spine, with the exhales.  
4. Listen for a noise in your environment, when it comes up, notice how you can’t control it’s coming or coming.
5. Return to your abdominal breathing.
6. As thoughts or perceptions arise, gently notice these.  Observe how they are like the noises: they come and go.
7. Return to noticing how the breath feels in your body.  
8. Continue this process for the time you had alotted.

 

Practice 68B

1.  Sit up in a way that is straight and comfortable.  
2. Close your eyes.  Be aware that even with your eyes closed, you can still observe differences in the visual field.  Your eyes work even with the lids down.  Center yourself in this present moment by seeing what you see with the eyes closed.
3. Find your breath.  
4. As thoughts or perceptions arise, gently notice these.  
5. Return to noticing how the breath feels in your body, or to that darkened visual field.
6. Continue this process.

 

Practice 68C

1.  Sit up in a way that is straight and comfortable.  See yourself as sitting on a seat between heaven and Earth.
2. Close your eyes.
3. Find your breath.  Pay attention to the place where the air comes in and out of the nostrils.  Feel the change in temperature and pressure as it comes in and out.
4. How long can you be fully present, with no wandering of mind: the length of an inhale?  The length of the whole breath?
5. As thoughts or perceptions arise, gently notice these.  Then return to being aware of the breath in the nostril.
6. When the time you had set aside for this practice is complete, know that you can retun to this state, even for just a minute or two, through out the day.

Practice 68D

1.  Sit up in a way that is straight and comfortable.  
2. Close your eyes.
3. Find your breath.  Pay attention to the subtle movement in the middle/side of the very lowest ribs.  Feel their slow movement as the lungs fill and empty.
4. Listen for a noise in your environment, when it comes up, notice how you can’t control it’s coming or coming.
5. With your next inhale, simply think ‘in.’  If you wish, in your mind’s gentle voice, you can hear this sound for the full length of the inhale: ‘iiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnn’
6. With your next exhale, simply think ‘out.’  If you wish, in your mind’s gentle voice you can hear this for the full length of the exhale: ‘oooouuuuutttttt.’
7. As distractions arise– and they will– notice the distraction as it comes and goes, and then return to the naming of the inhales and the exhales.  
8. Continue this process for the length of time you had decided on today.
9.   When stressful and difficult moments through out your day arrive, return to being fully present for the breath.

 

 

Exercise 66: Mindful Eating

Background:   Mindfulness asks us to sit with our sensory experiences.  It recognizes that our ability to taste, touch, and smell does not have the ability to look to the future or the past.  Nearly anything can be approached this way.   But eating is a good place to begin, particurly for sevens.  When Enneagram lore identifies ‘gluttony’ as the sin of sevens, they are careful to point out that this means more than food.  But food is certainly a part of it!

This is a practice that can be done with incredibly tiny parts of food.  To anticipate the eating, for example, of a single M&M can be a joyous, delightful thing.

As written below, this practice assumes that you will have something prepared to eat.  But there is no reason to begin feeling present once the food is prepared.  Being slow and aware during the process of getting the food ready is a great way to be.

 

The Practice 

 

•  Take three deep breaths: inhalations and exhalations.  Finding yourself here.

• Experience yourself as existing in the center of a vast network of relationships, all of which collaborated to bring this food to you.  Consider the person who sold it to you, the person who stocked the shelves.  The shippers who transformed it.  The farms that grew it or the factory that packaged it.  Allow yourself a moment of grattitude for this network of relationships; widen it even further if you wish; consider the people who trained and supported the shipper, the sales people, the farmers., for example.

• Behold the food that you are going to eat.  Seek to see it as something truly unique.  This is not just an example of whatever sort of food you are eating (i.e. it’s not just an apple; it is one particular apple.)  

• Turn the plate so that you can view this from some other angle.  Seeking to discover something about the appearance of this thing.

• Smell the food.  Make yourself present to this scent.

• Place a small bite of the food in your mouth.  Explore this texture with your tongue.  Don’t bite into it yet.

• Note the flavor and the texture of this thing.  See if this texture and flavor are  unifrom.

• Now, bite into this food slowly.  Notice the ways it is ground between your teeth.  Be present to the tastes and the textures that change.  Allow this chewed food to land on your tongue.

• Tune in to the ways that this slowly grows uniform in taste and texture.  Notice any changes in your body as it reacts to the tastes.

• When it is time, swallow this bite of food.

• If there is more of the food left, take a look at the portion that remains.  Note how the bite you took out of it.  

• Smell the food again.  How has the taste changed?

•   Be present to other changes in your body.  Does your belly began to feel full?  Is your throat dry?  What taste remains even with the food no longer in your mouth?

• Repeat steps 6-13 until the food has been eaten.

• Sit in a moment of grattitude for this food. 

 

 

Exercise 49: Observing the Breath

Background

If you wanted to divide up all the spiritual exercises, all the contemplations, all the ways of approaching of mindfulness that have ever been, you could find one convenient dividing line around what they do with the breath.  

Many practices begin by asking us to take charge of the breath. Generally speaking, these practices encourage us to slow down our breathing.  There are lots of reasons that this is a good idea.

As discussed above, it may not be the most accurate picture of the way things work though.

The other category of practices asks us to simply observe the breath.  

The act of simply tuning into the breath can be so much more difficult than it sounds.  It is easy to overthink the direction, “Tune into your breath without changing it.” Generally speaking, holding this instruction to tightly will lead to struggles.  In trying to be too literal we tend to unleash a series of questions and doubts.

As with so many things, entering these exercises in a light-hearted manner is wise.  If we accept that we will not be perfect at it, we will be able to observe our breath much more effectively.

Exercise 17: Observing the breath

 

1. Create a safe, quiet space.
2. Sit in a comfortable, upright manner if you are able.
3. Tune in to your breath.  Do your best to accept it without changing it.
4. Note whether you are using the mouth, nose, or both.
5. Become aware of specifically where you feel the breath entering the nose or mouth.  How does it feel there? What is the temperature?
6. Note the temperature as it comes in.  
7. Extend this awareness of the feeling and temperature as the breath leaves you.
8. Where does the breath end in your body?  Does your abdomen move? Your chest?
9. When you are ready, increasingly bring yourself into this particular breath.  The one you feel right now. This breath, now is the only breath you can ever change.  It is wholly unique among all the breaths you will ever feel. Greet each breath. Find its uniqueness. 
10.  Welcome the special breaths that follow in the same way.  Sit in this awareness for most of the time you have devoted to your practice today.  
11. When you are ready, return to your everyday life.  But know that you can welcome each breath throughout your day.

 

 

Exercise 41: Mindful Walking

Background: Mindful practices are rooted in the idea that our senses live in the now.  They have no memory, anxiety, hopes, or fears.  So whenever we engage and tune into our senses, we are helping to locate ourselves right here and right now.

There are many ways to use this.  For example: listening to a familiar song, but identifying one particular instrument and only focusing on this for the whole song.  Or doing yoga or dancing, with a particular awareness to one particular body part or sensation.

In today’s practice, I will break this down for one way of approaching a mindful walk.  As with all practice, please engage in this safely.  Be aware of where you are going, how you will get home, and your physical limitations around how far you should walk.

 

The Practice

1.  Before you begin, have your shoes ready.

2.  Sit and center yourself.  Release yourself from other responsibilities.   Take 3 deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

3.   Stretch, hydrate yourself, and consider your route as needed.

4.  Begin your walk.  Focus on a single sensation through out.   You might choose any one of these:

* The feeling of the air as it enters through your nose on the inhale.

* The feeling of your diaphragm expanding with each breath.

* The feeling on the sole of your foot as it makes contact with the ground each time.

* The feeling of any soreness or tightness.  (It’s a strange thing, drawing our awareness to physical hurts.  In my experience, doing it casually makes it feel worse.  But committing to mindfully inhabitting an ache or a pain is a way to befriend the pain, and realize that pain is only pain.)

* Looking for a particular shape or color everywhere it appears.

* Being on-the-look-out for all the different smells you can notice.

* Being on-the-look-out for all the difference temperature changes or air movements that come to your cheeks.

5.  To whatever extent it is safe to do so, do not consciously consider the route you are going to take.  Dwell inside the perception you chose and let your body decide where you are going to go.

6.  Whenever your brain begins to do its job of thinking, return to your breath or your chosen sensation.

7.  When your walk is completed, spend a few minutes sitting with your chosen sensation and breathing.

Throughout your day today, return to your sensation.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

You can help in turning The Faith-ing Project into a fully functioning community.  You can do this in several ways:

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Exercise 38: The Countdown

This simple mindfulness exercise is a powerful way to reign in anxiety.  It might be used as a precursor to another spiritual exercise, or as a way of handling racing thoughts.

Exercise:

1.  Breathe deeply.  Place your feet flat on the ground.
2. Identify and name to yourself 5 things you can see.
3. Take a cleansing breath.
4. Identify and name 4 things you can hear.
5. Take a cleansing breath.
6. Identify and name 3 things you can feel.  (textures, pressures etc; not emotions.)
7. Take a cleansing breath.
8.  Identify and name 2 things you can smell.
9. Take a cleansing breath.
10. Identify and name 1 thing you taste.

As you go about your day, recall that your senses have no worries about the future and no concerns with the past.  Do this exercise, in whole or in part, whenever you are needing to be rooted in the now.

You can help in turning The Faith-ing Project into a fully functioning community.  You can do this in several ways:

• Share your thoughts, feelings, and criticism below in the comments.
• email otherjeffcampbell7@gmail.com to share something directly with the Project’s Director, to join our next email campaign, or to ask to be placed on the mailing list.
• Access exclusive content and help The Faithing Project share spiritual practices with a world in desperate need.  Become a  Patron.
• follow @faithingproject on twitter.

 

 

1. afe, quiet environment for yourself.  Turn down your phone and consider lighting a candle.
2. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth.
3. Take a mental inventory of where you are, right now.  List the feelings you are experiencing.  Do your best to engage this with a nonjudgemental attitude.  Your feelings are neither good nor bad.  They simply are.  
4. Choose the feeling which seems to be the most impactful.  Think, or say “Welcome ___________”  (E.G. ‘Welcome, Fear.  Welcome, sadness.  Welcome, anxiety.  Etc.)
5. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire to change this feeling.’  or ‘I let go of my ___________’  or ‘God, I give you my _____________’
6. Progress on to the next emotion, repeating steps 4 and 5.
7. When you have worked through these emotions, spend a moment doing a mental inventory, assessing whether you feel differently.

36 B

1. Create a safe, quiet environment for yourself.  Turn down your phone and consider lighting a candle.
2. Breathe deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth.
3. Take a mental inventory of where you are, right now.  List the feelings you are experiencing.  Do your best to engage this with a nonjudgemental attitude.  Your feelings are neither good nor bad.  They simply are.  
4. Choose the feeling which seems to be the most impactful.  Think, or say “Welcome ___________”  (E.G. ‘Welcome, Fear.  Welcome, sadness.  Welcome, anxiety.  Etc.)
5. Breathe once.
6. Say, or think “I let go of my desire for security and survival.’
7. Breathe again.
8. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire for esteem and affection.’
9. Breathe again.
10. Say, or think ‘I let go of my desire for power and control.’
11. Breathe.
12. Say, or think, ‘I let go of my desire to change the situation.’
13. If you wish, you can repeat this process for a second, troubling emotion.

 

Contemplation and Pseudo-Contemplation

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There are so many things competing for our attention.

The makers of our devices are engaged in a kind-of arms race.  Instead of creating weapons of destruction, instead of having a goal of militaristic conquest, they are creating weapons of distraction.  The goal is not conquest, it is mindlessness.  But it is still an arms race.

They are very good at what they do.  And the goods and services they provide are not bad things in moderation.

But make no mistake: endlessly scrolling through a facebook feed only feels like meditation.

(And please, feel no judgement or shame here!  I am writing as much to myself as I am to you, dear reader!  These struggles are real!)

Further, meditating but being willing to be distracted…  Engaging in a spiritual exercise while having my facebook page open, so that I can take a little break if I get that endorphin-producing ‘ping’….  that is not really meditation.  That is wasting time while I am hoping that something interesting is going to happen on my social media feeds.

Part of the growth promised by these spiritual exercises is in facing down boredom.  More than just filling my time, the important thing is that I stop running from my fears about myself and the world.  This is why it is so valuable to commit to a length of time each day.  So much good will result when I don’t offer myself easy retreats out of this sometimes difficult work.

Let’s make a deal with each other, and with outselves.  Let’s agree that we might choose to engage in distractions: music to fill up the air, games as candy for our eyes, social media as a venue for our monkey mind to do a little dance.  But let’s be honest about it.  If we are going to do it, let’s make the conscious decision to do these things.  They are o.k. in moderation.  But let’s not pretend that we are meditating while really we are just looking for an excuse to engage those activities.

You can help in turning The Faith-ing Project into a fully functioning community.  You can do this in several ways:

• Share your thoughts, feelings, and criticism below in the comments.
• email otherjeffcampbell7@gmail.com to share something directly with the Project’s Director, to join our next email campaign, or to ask to be placed on the mailing list.
• Access exclusive content and help The Faithing Project share spiritual practices with a world in desperate need.  Become a  Patron.
• follow @faithingproject on twitter.