Skip to main content

Body Scan Meditation: A Simple Mindfulness Exercise to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

Meditation is an activity which allows the person to still the mind. There are different types of meditation practices. All the practices however promote mental well-being, calm the mind, help in the healing process, and relieve anxiety.
Mindfulness Meditation:

Mindfulness involves clearing your mind and having focused attention on a single point. It allows the practitioner to be fully present in the moment without being distracted by other things going around.

The trash accumulated daily in our household can cause stink and disease if not disposed off regularly; the trash in the form of negative thoughts invades a person daily. On an average a human being is bombarded by 60,000 thoughts in 24 hours, majority of those thoughts are negative. If the mind is not emptied of all this trash in the form of negative thoughts daily then we can end up being stressed up resulting in anxiety and depression. Medical science has also proved that the root cause of a majority of chronic diseases is mental stress.

The benefits of Meditation are manifold some of which are listed below:
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Improves concentration and focus
• Encourages a healthy lifestyle
• Increases self-awareness
• Increases happiness (brain produces feel good chemicals like Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphins)
• Slows the aging process
• Benefits the cardiovascular and immune system

Body Scan Meditation:
This type of mindfulness exercise is a simple and effective means to relieve you of unwanted thoughts and bring you into the present moment awareness. It is recommended that the exercise should be performed daily for 10 to 15 minutes.

The exercise is performed by sitting cross-legged with the back leaning against a wall or in an upright position; the head should be relaxed and slightly tilted but not slumped.

Close your eyes and focus your attention on your breathing. Take 3 deep breaths in and slowly exhale. Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Make the breathing effortless, slow and deep, completely filling your lower abdomen and chest as if filling a balloon with air.

Visualize a beam of white light entering your body with each breath in and imagine grey smoke leaving your body with every breath out. The white light symbolizes positive energy entering your body and the grey smoke represents negative energy like stress and anxiety leaving your body.

After the three deep breaths resort to normal breathing and bring your attention to the top of your head. Imagine a wave of awareness entering your crown and travelling down your head, your forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth and jaws. Let this wave of awareness pass all over your head area, relaxing all the muscles and tissues along. Bring this awareness to your neck, relaxing all the muscles and ligaments in your neck area as it passes down. Let this awareness travel down your shoulders to your arms, forearms, hands and fingers, relaxing all the body parts. This wave of awareness then travels down your spinal cord, relaxing all the muscles and bones as it travels down. It then enters your chest, the upper abdomen and the lower abdomen, relaxing all the muscles and ligaments in your upper body.

Visualize this sensation in your hips, down your thighs, calves and feet systematically relaxing all your lower body parts.

Now that your whole body is relaxed the next step involves relaxing your mind.

To relax your mind, imagine a place of solitude and comfort. It could be a beach, a forest or a mountain top. Utilize all your senses in imagining that place of peace and calm.

If it is a beach, visualize the blue waters of the sea, the pleasant wind blowing, the flight of the sea gulls and the sound of the waves crashing against the sand. Make the picture as detailed and colorful as possible as if you are reliving that moment.

After you have created that ideal environment in your mind's eye, stay in that place for a few moments. This will gradually calm your mind and relieve you of all residual stress and pressure. You can commence the activity whenever you feel you have achieved the desired state and then slowly open your eyes and bring yourself to normal conscious awareness.

The daily practice of this simple yet powerful mindfulness exercise releases all the feel good hormones from your brain which will make you happy and stress free.

Khalid Shahzad Khan is a Life Coach, Mind Power Trainer and Internal Life Force Energy Development (Chi) Coach. He utilizes Hypnosis, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Emotional Freedom Techniques for Mind training and Subconscious Mind Programming. He is a counsellor and life coach at Violet Circle, a healing and wellness center; http://www.violetcircle.net


 By Khalid Shahzad Khan


Article Source: Body Scan Meditation: A Simple Mindfulness Exercise to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kecemburuan semacam ini

Jacey melemparkan cangkir kopi kaca, (Mug Kaca Berinsulasi Dinding Ganda Zwilling), melintasi dapur. Itu menghantam dinding yang baru dicat (Behr, Sweet Coconut Milk, M230), dan hancur menjadi triliunan kepingan. "Inilah yang telah kamu lakukan pada kami!" teriaknya, suaranya berderak karena cemburu, kuku jarinya yang terawat (Orly Cold As Ice - perawatan bernapas + warna) menusuk udara ke arah tumpukan puing-puing kaca. Blayne menundukkan kepalanya, dagu keduanya mengenai dadanya terlebih dahulu. "Maaf, sayang," gumamnya. "Maaf?! Maaf!" Dia mengambil sekotak Wheat Thins dan mengangkatnya di atas kepalanya. "Tolong jangan melempar yang lain!" Blayne memohon, berdiri dari posisi setengah duduk di bangku logam di dapur. Ini adalah bangku yang sangat tidak nyaman (Bangku Meja Grejsi dengan Bingkai Logam), tetapi Jacey menyukai cara logam itu memantulkan sinar matahari di sore hari, jadi itulah yang dia beli. Dia mencondongkan tubuh ke arahnya,...

Thirteenth step

My grandmother attends the church basement on Tuesday evenings. I saw him there among the metal folding chairs and antique coffee pots, his figure trembling under the fluorescent lights that buzzed like dying insects. She wears the same powder blue pullover she was buried in, the one with pearl buttons that catch the light like little moons. Others can't see it, of course. They just feel a sudden chill as they pass by where she is, or smell the ghostly smell of her Shalimar perfume mixing with the smell of burnt coffee that never leaves these rooms. But I see clearly. He's been following me to AA meetings for three months since I got my first white chip after five years of being back in the bottle. "Your grandmother was my godmother in 1985," old Pete told me after tonight's meeting, hands shaking as he poured a seven-pack of Sweet'n Low into his coffee. "Toughest godmother I ever had. She saved my life." "Mine, too," I said, not specif...

A-Z of Corporate Governance Law

Corporate governance law can be seen as the law that states the way a company is regulated and managed. Any student of law must have a clear idea about the corporate governance law. This article provides an insight into the law, along with its importance. Corporate governance law  describes how a company will be managed and governed. This topic is an important one for any student pursuing a degree in law. They may also receive academic papers to write on it. Hence, individuals should be clear about this law. The article aims at clarifying the idea behind the law and why it is important. What exactly is corporate governance law? A business is directed and controlled by the system of corporate governance. It is a process for governing a company, establishing the policies, customs, and laws for all employees, starting from the highest to the lowest levels. It states the distribution of responsibilities and rights among the various participants in a company like the di...