Harvard Medical school Archives

June 19, 2019 By Admin

Chronic Pain and Doing Body Scanning

Although doing body scans cannot fully relieve your pain, it may help you manage it better. If your pain is serious and chronic you need to work with a qualified pain management professional, who will use both psychological and medical interventions. Note that a recent issue of Consumer Reports reviewed research and suggested that addictive pain medications and surgery should be the last options for most people. I have modified and integrated body scan instructions presented by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thich Nhat Hanh. I have also added my own body scan style and process. Kabat-Zinn noted that body scan meditations may be the most effective mindfulness meditation practice for management of physical pain. I would add that it may also help with psychological or emotional pain as well. For best results practice the body scan for 45 minutes every day. Strong practice brings better outcomes. Here are the instructions.

While lying flat on your back on a soft surface, place your body in a comfortable outstretched position. Now just rest and breath gently.
Close your eyes and get a “feel” for how your body is being experienced at this time.
With your eyes still closed take a few long, deep, slow breaths and notice how the lower belly (hara) rises and falls on the in-breath and the out-breath. Notice the feel of interoception in your body.
If your mind loses focus, gently bring attention back to the body.
If you experience pain while doing this scan, go slow and easy as you accept it and breathe through it. If you experience too much pain, stop the body scan and seek professional advice.
Bring complete attention to your feet, and as you focus and breathe allow your body to feel as if it is sinking a bit into the surface below you. Allow the surface to support your body and your mind.
Pay strong attention to your right foot, and slowly move attention from the foot to the ankle, lower leg, knee, thigh, hip and into lower belly. Allow time at pass (4-5 minutes at each location) before moving to the next body area in this sequence.
Now move attention from the lower belly up to the chest and the to front of the neck. Rest a while as you pay close attention to the emotional energies in the front of the neck. Notice.
With deliberate action move your attention to the chin, lower lip, upper lip, nose, ridge of the nose, eye brows, third eye area, over forehead and all the way up to the top, center of the head. Again, spend 4-5 minutes at each area. Once at the top of the head, rest there for a few moments. Notice.
From the top of the head, allow attention to drift to the lower back neck, and down the backbone slowly – bone by bone. Stop at the base of the back. Be sure you are still breathing deeply, slowly.
Move your attention to your left hip, and slowly move attention down the lower body – from the left hip to the thigh, knee, lower leg, ankle and down to the left foot and toes. Rest there for a while. Breathe fully. Relax. Notice.
Now return your attention to the top, center of your head. Notice the “feel” there again.
Allow the movement of attention and interoceptive perception to slowly slide over the sides of your head and face – next to your eyes, the ears, down your cheeks, stopping at the sides of your neck. Rest there for a moment. Notice. Be sure to allow 4-5 minutes at each area before moving on to the next area. Energize your attention and prepare to use it in new ways.
Notice how it feels when you move attention out to the shoulder tips, then slowly down the upper arms, to your elbows and lower arms. Stop and notice how you feel when you reach your wrists.
Use your imagination to bring full attention to both hands and follow the sensations of awareness all the way out to your finger tips. Rest for a moment. Continue to breathe deeply and slowly.
Once you feel the attentional energies in your fingers, place both hands over your heart area and rest. Remain in this position for at least five minutes, breathing deeply and slowly with both hands resting on your heart area. If attention wanders, gently bring it back to your heart area.
In this position very gently and slowly rock your body side to side. Notice what you notice!
To extend the time of your body scan, you may begin again in reverse direction. This time starting at the top, center of your head and slowly moving attention and sensation down your body all the way to your feet and toes.
For your ending, simply breath slowly and deeply and rest fully. Rest in Yoga Nidra if you know how to do so. Simply be with your body and breath.
Before rising, move your body slowly side to side and sit first. Be sure your legs hold you as you rise from the floor ever so slowly.

For more information refer to Harvard Medical School (2019). Pain Relief Without Drugs or Surgery: Natural and Integrative Ways to Reduce Your Suffering and Take Control of Your Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Medical School Special Health Report. See also various instructions on body scans by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thich Nhat Hanh. You may appreciate his instructions on mouth yoga as part of this practice.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

Advanced Buddhist Practices Abiding in Emptiness The various impediments (enemies) to abiding in emptiness are noted below. We have strong attachment to objects of mind and our sense door pleasures. We experience strong desire and cravings as our norms. We over-attach to forms of affection. We may become stuck in grief related to our experienced […]

Mindfulness – Self-Kindness Practice Befriending the self is one of the most difficult things for Americans to do. It is probably true that self-kindness is difficult for most people; however, the current rampant criticism (I am right! You are wrong!) and extreme greed manifesting in the United States tends to produce two opposite extremes: […]

College Students – Mental Health in The US R. Quintiliani, Ph.D., LADC The Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors has released data on the mental health status of American college students. Two survey between 2016 and 2018 yielded results from as far back as 2014. Here are some selected statistics (rounded): Anxiety 47-61%; […]

Contemplative Practices – Affirmative Self-Inquiry Contemplation and affirmative self-inquiry may be helpful in improving your awareness of your better parts of self – your positive strengths and traits. Our self-critical mind often causes us to spend far too much time on critical, negative thinking about ourselves and about others. The practice below may be helpful […]

Effective Clinical Supervision Perhaps other than the mental health status of the therapist and her/his ethical clinical skills, there is no more important variable in successful clinical work than effective CLINICAL supervision. I emphasize “clinical’ because in today’s bureaucratic systems, so much supervision tends to be about required procedures like utilization level, reporting requirements, and documentation for services […]

Using Lectio Divina to Enhance Your Happiness Lectio Divina is an ancient Christian (Benedictine) meditation; it is a form of meditative prayer called “sacred seeing.” We will use a modified version of the process here. Follow the steps noted below. Sit quietly in meditative form, calmly abiding yourself here now. After a […]

Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Trauma In line with the thousands of studies now available supporting the use of mindfulness-based interventions in depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addictions (via emotion regulation and interoception), this post will review recommended mindfulness interventions for trauma and PTSD. The post will note information from two recent books on this topic. Also recognize […]

From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation, Monkton, Vermont – Five Breathing and Meditation Practices – Attention and concentration on the breath are common practices to attune meditation capacity. We use the breath as an object of attention in our mind training. The better your quality of attention and concentration, the better […]

Gurdjieff’s The Fourth Way Meditations: A way of Being and Knowing Although Gurdjieff developed a whole way of being and knowing, including attentional practices, dance/body movements, group processes, and meditations here I will focus only on some of the suggested meditations. In particular, I include the meditations noted by his primary student (J. DeSalzmann, 2011). […]

Journaling and Grief Process Regular brief journaling may be helpful in your grief and horror regarding significant personal losses of self and/or others. Here are the various ways it may be helpful to you. Writing and reading about your personal loss experience may help you to make sense of the process, and at the same […]

Meditating in the Gap of Nothingness The Buddha taught about your four best friends, that is how the body changes physiology when you sit, stand, walk/move and every time you are lying down. Modern Western neuroscience now supports this statement of 2500+ years ago. Thich Nhat Hanh added the importance of your breath, walking meditation, […]

Common Barriers to Meditation Practice Dan Harris, an ABC news anchor, has just published a book on Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. In his book Harris notes several common barriers to regular meditation practice, and what to do about them. Since I have been meditating since the early 1980’s I have added additional suggestions. Here are the barriers […]

Mindfulness Practices to help Reduce Your Worry & Suffering My last post dealt with various mindfulness-based practices and skills that may help to reduce created suffering due to excessive worrying. I will add a few more practices in this post. First, let us go back to Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and his Meditations. In Book 2, page 14 […]

Basic Self-Compassion Process Practice: To practice self-compassion as needed, follow these specific self-compassion steps. Sensitize your mindfulness skills to become aware of your immediate experience of suffering. Hold a strong intention to respond with self-kindness. Use self-talk to be kind to yourself. Begin by softening your body. Relax your muscles, tendons, joints. Hold a natural […]

The Nine Bow Ritual for Those You Respect Deeply The Nine Bow Ritual is a simple practice of deep respect. Think of a person, living or not, for whom you have very strong positive feelings. If you select a person no longer living, you may be surprised at the emotional impact of this ritual. If […]

Failure and Success: After We Fail, We Succeed Humans tend to get very discouraged when things do not go our way. This may be especially true for younger people, who have grown up attached to their instant gratification digital devices. Below I will list several highly successful people, but I will also note their many […]

Vipassana for Depression, Anxiety, Trauma, and Addictions The integration of Vipassana meditation with various forms of therapy has for many years been a standard of treatment worldwide and in Vermont, especially when impulse control and emotion regulations issues are included. Buddhist Psychology offers clear explanations why this intervention may be helpful for so many suffering […]

Grief, Mourning, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on the Buddhist reality of impermanence – we all will someday die; it is also quite true that we all will suffer from loss, grief, and mourning when others we care about die. The typical stages in this process are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. There are […]

Self-Medication: Is Your Hand-Held Device a Dopamine Device? Mindfulness Activities: Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices. Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet; answer each question according to your personal opinions. Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity Be sure to complete the meditation activity […]

Psychoanalytic Gems – Even More D. W. Winnicott has made significant clinical contributions to both building therapeutic alliance and maintaining a positive, helpful focus in psychotherapy. Below I have noted various approaches to use in your therapy. Use of these “gems” requires considerable knowledge and skill by the therapist. Here is the list: Respect the […]