Last Updated on August 9, 2018 by Matthew Sockolov

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The Mindful Body – A Simple Meditation to Meet the Body with Kindness

When meditating, it’s natural that we experience agitation, anxiety, and other difficulties in the body at times. Although we may wish to simply be mindful, the sensations may make it hard to see the experience clearly. In these moments, it can be useful to investigate some kindness and compassion for our bodies.

This practice comes from my book, Practicing Mindfulness – 75 Essential Meditations to Reduce Stress, Improve Mental Health, and Find Peace in the Everyday. Now available on Amazon, this book contains 75 individual meditation practices to investigate mindfulness and compassion in your life. You can learn more about the book HERE.

When to Use this Practice

This practice is toward the beginning of the book (Chapter 8). I put it here because I really believe we can use this practice almost any time. You may try it as a standalone practice when you’re experiencing anxiety, agitation, or pain in the body. However, the reason I put it at the beginning of my book is to offer it as a technique to use in any period of meditation.

Any time you are meditating (or going about your day) and experience some discomfort in the body, you can return to this practice. It’s a pretty simple combination of body awareness and loving-kindness meditation. Don’t be afraid to use it any time during your practice for a few minutes!

Meditation Instructions

In this practice, we will be combining some bodily awareness and metta. Using semi-traditional phrases, we will work on cultivating a gentle and compassionate relationship with our bodies. As we talk about in our post on the benefits of meditation, practices like this have been found to actually impact the way we respond to experience. Elizabeth also discusses this in her post Kindness Toward My Body.

You can read the chapter by clicking the button below, and/or listen to a guided meditation to take you through the practice![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Read the Chapter” color=”juicy-pink” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Foneminddharma.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F08%2F8.-The-Mindful-Body.pdf|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/2nhO4esaMFM” align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Preorder Today” color=”juicy-pink” size=”lg” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Famzn.to%2F2NOmnWm|||”][/vc_column][/vc_row]