The Benefits of a Body Scan

A body scan is a mindfulness practice that can help you get in touch with how you feel and connect with your body more deeply. It can also help you take a closer look at symptoms of menopause or perimenopause, improve your well-being, and support healthy aging. Body scans are a powerful mindfulness practice that can help you connect with your body’s sensations.

Body Scan Basics

While mindfulness and meditation often ask you to focus on thoughts, a body scan centers around connecting with your physical body. During a mindfulness exercise, you may focus on your breath and notice your thoughts and feelings as they come and go. You don’t try to push them away or hold onto them; you try not to label them as good or bad.

During a body scan, you focus on your physical sensations instead. You slowly scan your entire body from head to toe, noticing your sensations.

Importantly, a body scan asks you to feel these sensations without judgment—no feeling is good or bad. Like any mindfulness exercise, you’re asked to let your thoughts come and go and keep returning your attention to your body.

The Benefits of Body Scans

Physical sensations and emotions are tightly intertwined. How we feel about our physical sensations is influenced by our past experiences as well as our current thoughts and concerns. Our emotions and mental state also create changes in our physical body.

For example: A sore back can feel distressing and anxiety-provoking if you aren’t sure about why it started hurting and are concerned that you have a back injury like your friend experienced last month. The same sore back can make you feel proud and triumphant if it comes from a personal best workout.

Regardless of the thoughts and feelings you have, a body scan asks you to disconnect them from your physical sensations and let them just be.

Some of the benefits of the body scan technique include:

• Reducing anxiety. Doing a body scan can help you notice and release sensations of tension.
• Managing stress. A quick body scan helps you stay grounded in the present moment and let go of stress. The corresponding decrease in the stress hormone cortisol can further reduce stress, improve concentration, and even boost your immune system.
• Improving sleep. A body scan can help you unwind after a busy day. They are a great way to relax and get ready for a good night’s sleep.

Menopause Symptom Relief With a Body Scan

Menopause and perimenopause symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, joint pain, and muscle tension can be stressful and anxiety-provoking. As estrogen levels drop, you may notice changes in your mood, sleep, and physical symptoms like hot flashes.

By changing the way you experience your body’s sensations, body scans can change how much of an impact they have on your daily life. A body scan asks you to observe your sensations without getting caught in the emotions and thought patterns that frequently accompany them.

By disconnecting physical sensations from the frustration, anxiety, fear and other reactions that often accompany them, they become less bothersome and limiting.

If menopause symptoms are starting to interfere with your life, this practice can make a huge difference in regaining control. Research shows that regular body scans can help women reduce the distress and bother they experience from hot flashes and night sweats.

How to Do a Body Scan

The body scan technique is simple, and you can perform it almost anywhere.

Begin in a comfortable position such as sitting or lying on your back. Start by centering yourself with attention on your breathing. Then bring your attention to your body.

Start at your feet and slowly move up your body, or start at your head and move down towards your feet. As you focus on each part of the body, spend a few moments noticing how that area feels. You may notice tension, tightness, pain, warmth, coldness, tingling, or another sensation. Your goal is to just notice, not judge. Scan your body once or several times, breathing and deepening your relaxation into any areas where you feel tension.

While longer body scans are even more powerful, it’s ok to start with a couple of minutes at a time. We recommend working up to at least five minutes. As you become more comfortable with body scans, you may find yourself using this practice in smaller ways during the day. This ability to meet your body’s sensations with mindfulness is a skill that will serve you throughout your life.