A shared practice
Feeling Embodied With Mindfulness
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Created bySean Fargo
From Sean's body scan collection — recorded in his own voice.
In Sean Fargo’s own voice8 min
Read along — the full script
Welcome. I'm Sean Fargo. To reduce anxiety and stress, let's take a moment to relax the body, finding a posture that feels comfortable, where you can have a sense of ease and well-being. Relaxing your belly as you breathe naturally.
Allowing your belly to rise and fall as you drop your shoulders. Relax the muscles of your face and jaw. And look downward or close your eyes in a gentle, effortless way. Resting your hands in a place that feels comfortable.
And take a few moments to scan your awareness through the sensations of your body. Softening and releasing obvious areas of physical tension. And scanning down from your head through your neck, shoulders, arms, body, torso, legs, and feet.
Aware of sensations, emotions, and intentions. And bring your attention to the sensations of breathing right now. Staying with the rising and falling sensations in your belly. And as you continue to follow the sensations of breathing, remember that you're not thinking of the breath in terms of my breath or I'm breathing.
Instead, simply noticing whether each breath is long or short, deep or shallow. And as you follow the sensations of breathing, if your mind wanders, just noticing it. Note it as a wandering mind. Not spending time thinking about it.
Just gently come back to the breath without labeling it good or bad, right or wrong. Just noticing sensations of breathing without identifying the breath as my breath or I'm breathing. Instead, just noticing sensations as sensations.
And now allow your mind to be completely free as you bring your awareness into the space around you. Gently opening your eyes. You can appreciate that feeling of having stopped, taking a bit of time out for yourself. And try to carry the theme of this exercise into your everyday life, noticing whether there's thoughts around I'm doing this or these thoughts are me.
Whenever you get overly worried or anxious or concerned about something, just take a look at the type of thinking that's going on. You can pretty much guarantee that there will be a strong sense of I feel a certain way or this is my type of reaction. There's probably a definite identification with the sensations or thoughts.
So whenever possible, see if you can let that drop. See if you can let go of that over-identification and simply noticing and gently labeling what it is. Remembering that thoughts and sensations are not all of who you are.
There's something kind of separate about them. Something on the surface. And then just return to bringing mindfulness back to your breath or body.
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