The Body Scan - A Powerful Meditation Practice for Pregnancy
It’s hard NOT to be aware of your body during pregnancy. All of your internal systems are changing in incredible ways moment by moment to support your growing baby. You’re probably also noticing how your body shape is changing too, you’re laying down extra fat deposits, your belly is blooming, your breasts are changing - everything is beginning to feel different.
But for many these changes may not feel reassuring and welcome. Many of us have grown up feeling insecure in our own skin - and pregnancy can intensify these feelings. That feeling of ‘not enougness’ around our body image follows us like a cloud into adulthood and will be a lifelong unwelcome companion unless we can find a way to see ourselves differently. Life long held negative thoughts about our body limit our experiences of it. When was the last time you felt really at home in your body, appreciating the amazing work your body is doing today and every day. The body scan invites you to explore what it feels like to be ‘in’ your body and to tap into the wisdom it has to offer during your pregnancy. You’ll hear so many people telling you to ‘tune into your body’ during pregnancy and birth but that can be hard when you haven’t actually visited your body in quite a while. What does that even mean? As you practice the body scan meditation you learn to identify emotions in the body so we can become aware of them (you notice how your face gets red when you’re annoyed with your partner). Noticing these sensations means you may be able to diffuse an argument with your partner before it even begins.
One of my Masters tutors described how we experience the mind and body like stickmen - we have this big head full of activity and the skinny stick body gets no attention. The body scan meditation offers us a way of dropping down from our ‘lollipop’ heads and into our body and the quietness that is there waiting for us.
In research, the body scan practice shows increased awareness of ‘interoception’ - a sensing and awareness of signals from within the body and its visceral organs perceived in the brain. With this practice you are learning how to tune into your body at a deep level.
It’s not a relaxation technique (although it can feel relaxing) especially if you do it in bed at night. If you are doing the body scan with the goal of being relaxed then that’s not the practice of mindfulness. The goal isn’t to relax - it is about being present in your body as it is in this moment. It’s a simple process of moving from one part of your body to another in total acceptance of what you find there. Be curious about what’s there - each time you play the GentleBirth Body Scan approach it as if this is the first time you’ve taken this field trip around your body. Sometimes you will find no sensation - and that’s fine too. Other times you’ll find pain or discomfort in certain areas. In these areas can you breathe into them and not engage with any stories that your mind is offering you about that pain or ache. Keep the scanning moving from area to area and when you reach the uncomfortable part approach it with kindness and breathe into it as you move in and out of that area. At you move from area to area you may notice what feels like a dissolving of parts of your body as you move from one area to the next.
The body scan is a great way to begin a mindfulness practice if you’re new to the practice. As your mind wanders simply bring it back to your breath and that part of your body. Don’t try to get anywhere, or feel anything in particular just be in your body and the ever changing sensations that you meet there. In labor the sensations will come and go, change and flow. As you practice being with sensations you can flow with those waves of sensation as your body and baby are working together.
The door is always open - why not come home to your body today. Let your body be a safe refuge during the transition ahead allowing you to meet the changes with appreciation and a new found friendliness towards your amazing body.
(There are two Body Scans in the GentleBirth app - try the Extended Body Scan today and go see what’s there).