Mindfulness of Body Sensations

Mindfulness of body sensations is another aspect of our experience that we can bring awareness to. Body sensations are simply whatever we feel in the body such as pressure, itching, hot, cold, tingling, lightness, heaviness and so on. We can bring mindful awareness to what we feel in the body, which can increase our familiarity with how our body responds to the things happening around us, as well as our thoughts and feelings. By being more attentive and accepting of how we are feeling, we can learn to develop awareness that sensations in the body are changing and temporary in nature. The skills of practising mindfulness of body sensations are as follows:

• Scan the body for any sensations. When you notice a sensation, simply observe the sensation for what it is, do not try to avoid or change the sensation in any way.
• Focus your attention on the sensations in the body, in a mindful and accepting manner.

If you choose to do mindfulness of body sensations, please try to:

• Do this twice a day over the next few weeks.
• Use the guided audio or text-based version of the guided-audio exercise (found in ”Practise Tools’ & ‘Downloads’ boxes below) to assist you with your daily practise.
• Complete the self-monitoring form (pdf version found in ‘Downloads’ box below) before and after each practise.

Note: You are also able to listen to the guided-audio with one of the the relaxation videos in the box below. Just press play on the audio and then play on the video. You can also switch to ‘full-screen’.

In this box you will find two guided-audios and four relaxation videos to help you with your daily practise.

• The first guided audio (introduction) explains ‘why to do it’ and the second (exercise) is the actual guided exercise itself (what you will use when doing the daily practise).