How many senses do we have?
A typical answer would be five senses sight,
Hearing,
Smell,
Taste and touch.
But depending on how we define a sense we have a lot more senses.
What we call touch is sensing a pressure in the skin.
Our skin can also sense temperature.
For example we can feel the sun's warmth in our skin.
We can also sense pain indicating various issues in the body.
All these senses are processed and recognized in a different parts of the brain.
Then we have balancing sense which is essential for us to walk,
Run and bike.
Sometimes people may have vertigo feeling of balance or disorientation when this sense is disturbed.
There is a sense called proprioception also known as a kinesisia.
It is a sense of body position and movement in the space.
Another important sense is interoception.
It is the sense of internal state of the body.
This is about inner body awareness.
We are heavily influenced by our culture and the media to focus on the visual image of our body.
So these felt inner senses are heavily underdeveloped.
For the most part we live in our head disconnected from the body addicted to compulsive thinking.
Further we accumulate so much of repressed energies in the body creating disconnection,
Numbness and disharmony.
These repressed energies are our pain,
Suffering,
Anger,
Aggression,
Our longing and unfulfilled desires.
So instead of being a harmonious organic whole our body and mind are fragmented in so many ways that is our fundamental form of sickness.
Cultivating awareness of the body inside out the felt sensation of the body,
The inner body awareness is a fundamental step towards our well-being.
This will naturally synchronize,
Harmonize our body and mind so we can be properly grounded in our being,
Being fully embodied.
Body scan or meditation is a practice to spend time in the each region of the body from toe to head and cultivating direct awareness.
The intention is to sense,
To feel what is already there.
We are not looking for anything special to happen but allowing them to be just as we find them.
We can cultivate this direct awareness coordinating it with our breathing.
We can spend few breaths in each region of the body allowing each in breath to penetrate and deepen our awareness sending healing energy and each out breath to release,
To relax and let go of any tension.
This is a simple and a beautiful practice,
A healing practice but sometimes especially in the beginning some people may feel a difficult sensation to properly connect with their body depending on their accumulated repressed energies.
If this happens please be gentle with yourself and go slow.
Take few deep and slow mindful breathing towards relaxation.
Eventually step by step we can learn to connect with our body properly.
After all that is the purpose of this practice.
While many people prefer to do this practice lying on their back it can be done in any position sitting on a meditation cushion or on a chair and lying on a mat or a thick rag.
Now let us try it for next 10 minutes or so.
This is a guided body scan meditation.
Taking your position that you prefer,
If you are lying on your back letting the hands lie alongside the body,
The legs uncrossed and gently lying on the floor or with the knees bent and the soles of the feet on the floor if that is more comfortable.
If you are sitting on a chair or a meditation cushion then taking a proper meditation posture,
Being grounded and stable uplifted with a natural strong back but not stiff and open heart,
Allowing the eyes to close if that is comfortable.
Now noticing the sense of the body as a whole lying here or sitting here,
Noticing the contact between the body and whatever is supporting you,
Noticing the sensation of the breathing in the body,
The natural breathing,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Now as you breathe in,
Moving your attention to the toes of the feet,
Both feet,
What sensations are here right now?
If there are no sensations simply registering a blank,
If there are very subtle then noticing that whatever is your experience right now simply being curious and attending.
Now shifting the attention to the soles of the feet,
What sensations are here?
Keep breathing and then attending the heels and then moving on to the top of the feet,
Sensing any and all sensations.
Now as you breathe out,
Let go of the feet and as you breathe in,
Shifting the attention to the ankles,
What sensations are here?
As you breathe out,
Let go of the ankles and as you breathe in,
Moving on to the lower legs,
Being fully alive to any and all sensations from the bone,
Muscle,
Skin.
Now shifting the attention to the knees,
Not thinking about the knees but sensing directly what is here right now,
Noticing if any sensation change or shift.
As you breathe out,
Let go of the knees and as you breathe in,
Moving to the thighs,
The upper legs,
What sensations are here?
Perhaps sensation of heaviness or lightness,
Some sort of vibrations,
Pulsing,
Any and all sensations.
Mind naturally tends to wander.
Whenever this happens,
Simply acknowledge it,
Label it thinking and without any judgment,
Gently bring the attention back,
Right now attending the thighs.
As you breathe out,
Let go of the thighs and as you breathe in,
Attending the hips and the pelvis,
The right hip,
Left hip,
The placement of the pelvis and the organs in this region,
Breathing.
Now shifting the attention to the back of the body,
Starting with the lower back and expanding the awareness to the middle back and then the upper back including the shoulder blades.
Now holding the whole back in the awareness,
Let each in-breath penetrate and deepen the awareness and let each out-breath relax and release any tension.
Now let go of the back and as you breathe in,
Moving the attention to the front of the body,
To the abdomen,
Feeling the sensations of breathing in and out.
From time to time you may find yourself getting distracted in thoughts,
Day dreaming,
Worrying or a feeling of wanting to hurry up,
Move on,
The feeling of boredom,
Restlessness.
When this happens it's not a mistake,
Nothing has gone wrong.
Simply acknowledge these distractions,
Simply label it as thinking and gently bring the attention back without any judgment.
Now attending the abdomen and then a ribcage,
Then shifting the attention to the chest.
What sensations are here moment by moment?
Feeling the sensation of breathing in and out,
Perhaps feeling the sensation of the heart,
The heart beats.
Now shifting the attention to the hands and arms,
Holding both hands and arms in awareness.
Now shifting the attention to the shoulders,
Neck,
Throat.
What sensations are here?
Attending.
Now moving the attention to the head and face,
Starting with the lower jaw and the chin,
Then mouth,
Lips,
Nose,
The cheeks,
Ears,
The eyes,
Eyelids,
Eyebrows,
The space between the eyebrows,
Then the forehead,
The sides of the forehead,
The temples.
Now as you breathe in,
Bringing clear full awareness of the whole face and as you breathe out,
Releasing any and all tension and relaxing.
Now expanding the awareness to the whole head,
The skull.
Now bringing awareness to the whole body from toe to head,
Head to toe and breathing.
As you breathe in,
Aware of the whole body and as you breathe out,
Relax,
Release any and all tension,
Your deep letting go,
Simply resting in awareness,
Allowing yourself to be just as you are.
You
