Notes on Mindfulness of Body

Many people think of mindfulness meditation as being a sitting-only practice, with most of our physical life being unconscious.

But Jon Kabat-Zinn, who was largely responsible for bringing mindfulness to the West, made it a requirement of his MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) training to study yoga or qigong as a mindful movement practice in addition to sitting.

Yoga – as well as various other physical practices – recognises the important role our body plays in developing and transforming our mind. Yogi's call the physical part of their body the annamayakosha, the ‘body layer’ or ‘physical sheath’. Buddhism keeps mind in body as well, using awareness of the body as the object of the meditation.

The object of mindfulness of body is to become aware of and then to observe the arising and passing of all sensations. Practicing mindfulness of the body in this way can bring about a sense of ease in the body even when you have pain.

As you are reading this, you might want to pause and take a moment to observe if you are holding tension somewhere in your body and then notice if your mind is also tight. Then invite your body and mind to relax. Notice the sensations you experience.

Keeping the mind in the body means maintaining a constant state of awareness of the body in its sensations, breath, coming and going of feelings. I like to include the full range of senses: touch, taste, smell, sound and sight. Sight is especially interesting if you meditate with your eyes partially open – with a soft, fixed gaze. You will notice your peripheral vision expand and contract, just as your other senses expand and contract during a sitting.

With mindfulness of both mind and body, our mindfulness is much stronger.

We all develop deeply unconscious physical mannerisms and postures. Neuromuscular energetic postures that develop or arise as we embody – ‘hold in our body’ – our feelings and emotional mind states. Those mind states are different for each of us, therefore we all develop our own, unique postural ‘signature’. So individual is this postural signature that people will recognise us by our postural habits: our walk, our body language, our mannerisms.

A significant portion of our body language and posture is also generated by the way in which we hold ourselves in, the way we inhibit or hide our emotional mind states or feelings. In this way we present our ‘false body’, by twisting away, holding our breath or other defensive gestures such as folding arms across our chest, tensing shoulders and neck muscles, etc.

Our body language can also play a part in our destiny, part of our karma. If our body language is open and relaxed, people will respond differently to us than if our body language is closed, defensive, aggressive or tense.

Mindfulness of our mind & body means we can more easily detect fight, flight, and habitual postural patterns. We will notice muscular tension and can release it more easily. In this way we can make better, more conscious choices to regulate our responses to events, people, and situations. We will also become familiar with which areas of the body are habitually tight, tense, and need extra relaxation effort.

When practicing mindfulness of body, if you feel tension, an itch or pain, it is important to notice the difference between the FEELING of the sensation and your ideas about it. Often we think we’re being mindful of the body when were actually focusing on the idea of what our our body is doing and our dislike of it. Our awareness is then very strongly placed in our mind, in our head. For example, your lower back is uncomfortable or you have an itch on your leg, and you think you’re being mindful of it, but actually you’re focusing on how unpleasant it is, focussing on your resistance to it.

To be mindful, we need to be present to feel the experience, rather than thinking about the idea of it. To do this, we need to move our attention from being in our mind to the part of our body where the actual experience is happening, and just observe it. No judgment, no good or bad sensation, no wanting to fix it or change it in any way. Just watch. Only observe. When we learn to observe our body in this way, we prepare ourselves for being able to observe emotions and mind states in the same way.

For some of us, to remain kind and compassionate toward observing our body might require a shift in our thinking or our attitude. Interesting to think about how much we have asked of our body during our lifetime. We might push our body even when we are tired. Perhaps we don’t feed it correctly or allow it to rest enough. Sometimes we’re even willing to risk injuring it to get something we want.

I practiced these exercises for a little while, you might find them interesting too:

1.) Watch the body’s tensing and relaxing experiences as you’re listening or interacting with others.

2.) If you find tension arising during an interaction, consciously relax the body, the muscles, and notice how this affects your mind, your attitude towards the interaction.

3.) Cultivate awareness of the body during the day, while making tea, standing in front of the stove, walking, driving, picking something up. If your right side is dominant in carrying a handbag, for example, or if you find your right hand habitually rests on the steering wheel of your car, try swopping them over. Use your left hand instead and notice the different sensations.

4.) See if you can maintain constant awareness of your body for a time, and how long that lasts.

5.) See if you can start to develop the habit of awareness of the body while youre moving through your day.

6.) As you dress and prepare for the day, take some time to reflect on your immediate attitude toward your body. How do you view your body? Are you disappointed with it? Are you anxious about it? Is the way you view your body causing you suffering? What do you feel is an appropriate attitude toward our body? Do you adopt that attitude?