Body Scanning.
Yes, that is the exercise I want to share about in this post. It has changed my life in so many ways, and has helped me understand myself better.
If you’ve never heard of it, keep reading to learn more about what it is and how to do it!
What Is A Body Scan?
A body scan is using your internal awareness and attention to scan your body, head to toes (or toes to head). During a body scan, you’re observing your body for any sensations and feelings that are there.
There are many different sensations you may feel; warmth, coolness, tightness, pulsing, heaviness, lightness, aching, tingling, pressure… and so many others.
The awareness of the internal bodily sensations is known scientifically as interoceptive awareness.
A great exercise to test out your skill is to sit quietly for a moment, close your eyes, and try to feel your heart beat from the inside, without putting your hand on your chest. Can you count the beats?
If you can’t feel it, that’s okay. It’s a skill and can be worked on just like any other!
Why Are Body Scans Important?
Have you ever felt that you are numb, or that you can’t really tell what you’re feeling? I have, and I am sure many of you have felt that way too. These days, with the fast and demanding way of life, it has become so easy to just detach from our bodies and lose touch.
Time to just be with yourself has become rare to find.
Body scans are a way to bring you back into your body. To feel what is going on internally. To let go of the external, even if just for a moment.
And the more you practice doing body scans, the more you will be in tune. You’ll be internally aware even when you’re doing something else. And this can be very helpful in so many different situations, such as feeling the urge to emotionally eat.
How To Do A Body Scan
It might seem intimidating at first, but with practice, you’ll be a master body scanner.
With these simple steps, you can try it out yourself, or try it with a guided body scan which helps as well. (You can find many on YouTube).
Read these steps first to get an idea of how it goes, and then try it out.
- First, lie down or sit somewhere quiet and without any distractions. Get comfortable.
- Close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths to become present.
- Imagine your internal awareness is like spotlight, shining inside your body.
- Bring your awareness (like a spotlight) to start by feeling your body as it is lying/sitting there.
- Then, bring your awareness to your feet. Focus your attention there, feeling your toes and feet.
- You can then shift your awareness upwards, towards your calves and shins, knees, thighs.
- Keep going upwards, to your stomach, your lungs, your chest, your arms, hands.
- Don’t forget your back (lower, middle, upper), your shoulders, your neck.
- Move on to your head, your face.
- At the end, take a few moments and open your eyes when you’re ready.
- Throughout the scan, notice any sensations you felt in your body. You might have felt a tension in your shoulders, an ache in your stomach, or a clench in your jaw (or anything else).
- During the scan, if you struggle with focusing your attention and your mind wanders off, that is okay. Bring your internal awareness back into your body.
This is how a body scan goes. It is simple, but it is a practice that takes time to get the hang of.
And it is very important to try to keep any judgments out. You are only noticing, not thinking and analyzing. Once you come out of the scan, you can reflect on the experience and the sensations you felt.
Also, I wanted to take this moment to share that I am Emotional Release Facilitator in training. I am willing to provide you a free session if you’d like to try it out, message me or email me at halabeiroutycoaching@gmail.com so we can talk more!
How Can Body Scanning Help With Emotional Eating?
If you’re wondering… well, what does a body scan have to do with emotions and emotional eating? Here is the simple explanation:
Body scanning gets you in touch with your bodily sensations, which can help with bringing emotions out. Emotions are, after all, physical reactions and sensations triggered by different situations.
For example, if you’re feeling anxious, you might feel your chest pounding. If you become aware of this sensation, you can then identify what emotion is coming up and determine how you are feeling.
Try your best to allow yourself to feel the emotion. What does the emotion feel like? What does it want you to do? The more you get in touch with your body, the more you will trust it. Your body will guide you towards feeling and releasing the emotion.
You may want to cry, scream, punch a pillow, jump, dance, shake your body, stomp your feet, whatever it is… your body knows how to get the emotion out, you just need to allow it.
In Conclusion
Emotional eating is a way of suppressing emotions to avoid confronting them within yourself. So feeling the underlying emotions is very important to overcome the urge to eat whenever you’re feeling sad, angry, excited… whatever the emotion is.
Body scanning has been shown to increase awareness of body sensations (interoceptive awareness). If anything, it is a great mindfulness tool to help bring yourself back to the present moment and to regulate yourself for the day, whether it’s a 20 minute or 5 minute body scan.
Again, it takes practice. Doing it once might not get you the result you’re looking for. Keep practicing and tune into your body more and more each day.
Try a body scan today and let me know how it goes!
