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Quick Body Scan: A Simple Path to Calm
The concept of ‘body scan’ is a simple but effective tool that can help you to connect with the present and calm your mind. When used effectively it can amount to a form of meditation, but it is so convenient and easy to do that we can use it in many situations where we might not normally think that meditation will work.
When your mind is in overdrive, overwhelm, or over-anything, having a simple technique to reconnect yourself with the present and move past your feeling of ‘stuckness’ is useful. This is often referred to as ‘grounding’, and can help to calm and clear your mind. The body scan technique may help you to do this.
The simple goal of scanning your body in this exercise is to focus on the physical sensations throughout the body, bringing awareness to the present moment. The purpose of body scanning is not to change or improve any feeling, but instead to simply notice the sensations. It is a technique that doesn’t require any additional tools as it uses your most accessible tool, your own body.
What is body scan?
You might think of a body scan as a mental X-ray slowly traveling up or down your body, observing each part of your body as you go. Some people include the concept of isometric exercises, which involves imagining tensing and releasing each muscle group as you scan it. This can add another dimension to the exercise and help to shift it into a truly meditative state.
I have included two different versions here – the first is the ‘quick, on-the-go’ version that you can use anywhere, anytime to bring yourself back to a grounded state. The second is the more detailed version for meditation and relaxing. Let me know if you use either or both and how you find them!
Quick on-the-go version
When to use:
– When you need to calm your mind, distract yourself from unhelpful thoughts, or break a thought pattern and create room for a new one.
Where to use:
– anywhere you can take a few moments to focus on yourself and your body safely
How to use:
- Be aware of your surroundings. Take note of where you are and what is in your surroundings. If you can move to a place to sit or stand safely out of the way, then this is ideal.
- Breathe. Take a deep cleansing breath, to centre yourself. If you can do a round or two of box breathing, do this. Whether you close your eyes or not is up to you.
- Choose where to start. I recommend beginning at the feet and moving up through your body, but you might like to start at your head and move down – it is your choice where you begin. Focus on the first spot as you continue breathing slowly and deeply.
- Be aware. Open your awareness to the sensations attached to that part of your body, and notice how it feels. You might imagine the sensation of tensing and releasing that part of your body and notice how that feels. You could spend 10 seconds or 60 seconds focused on that part of your body – it is up to you.
- Release. Release your awareness of that part of your body and move it to your next area of focus.
- Moving through the exercise. Continue the exercise along, up or down your body in a way that makes sense to you, whether you move from bottom to top, top to bottom or up one side and down the other.
- Breathe. When you reach the point that you are feeling calm and able to move to the next strategy, activity or part of your day, repeat a deep, cleansing breath (or another round of box breathing) to help continue to the calm.
Body scan as meditation.
When to use:
- When you want to create a calm state before you start the day, or when you are ending the day.
- When you need to calm your mind, distract yourself from unhelpful thoughts, break a thought pattern and create room for a new one.
- When you are looking to meditate and clear your mind.
Where to use:
– anywhere you can safely sit or lie calmly for 10 minutes or more, uninterrupted and comfortably, with your eyes closed.
How to use:
- Get comfortable. Lie down or sit in a position that allows you to stretch your limbs easily.
- Focus. Close your eyes and begin focusing on your breath. Notice the sensation of your breath filling and leaving your lungs as you inhale and exhale. You could do a few rounds of box breathing to start the process.
- Choose where to start. I recommend beginning at the feet and moving up through your body, but you might like to start at your head and move down – it is your choice where you begin. Focus on the first spot as you continue breathing slowly and deeply. In choosing the part of your body to focus on you might choose to be as detailed or as general as suits you. For example, you might choose to think of your toes as a whole, or to focus on each toe individually.
- Be aware. Open your awareness to the sensations attached to that part of your body, and notice how it feels. You might imagine the sensation of tensing and releasing that part of your body and notice how that feels. You might choose to actually tense and release that part of your body. You could spend 10 seconds or 60 seconds focused on that part of your body – it is up to you.
- Release. Slowly release your mental awareness of that specific part of your body and redirect it to your next area of focus. Some people find it helpful to imagine releasing one body part as they breathe out and moving on to the next as they breathe in.
- Move along. Continue the exercise along, up or down your body in a way that makes sense to you, whether you move from top to bottom or up one side and down the other.
- Note drifting thoughts. As you continue to scan your body, note when your thoughts drift. This will probably happen more than once, so don’t worry. You haven’t failed and can easily get your thoughts back on track. Just gently return your awareness to where you left off scanning.
- Return. When you have completed the scan of your body, allow yourself to slowly release your focus and bring your attention back to your surroundings.
Final Thoughts
Body scanning is a simple yet powerful technique that helps bring awareness to the present moment, offering a sense of calm and clarity. Whether you use it as a quick reset during the day or as part of a longer meditation practice, it can be a valuable tool for breaking unhelpful thought patterns and creating space for a more relaxed and focused mind. Try incorporating it into your routine and see how it helps you feel more grounded and at ease. If you want to watch a video explaining how it works, you will find one here.
How to Use Box Breathing to Calm Your Mind
How many times when you are feeling stressed do you hear someone say ‘just breathe’? If you are like me your automatic response might be ‘I AM breathing!!!’ However, different patterns of breathing can impact you in ways that aren’t always obvious at first! Box Breathing is a tool you can use anytime, anywhere, to lower your stress, connect with your calm, and break the patterns of overwhelm. It is portable, convenient and practical!
Why does breathing help us to calm our body and mind?
When we are stressed we tend to tense up, take shallow breaths, lift our shoulders, tense our muscles slightly, and start the unhelpful thought patterns that disconnect our logical brain from our emotional brain. This can activate the part of our brain that creates a fight or flight response. By slowing our breathing, focusing on deeper breaths, and counting at the same time, we can shift from that automatic pattern of tension and stress and connect with our parasympathetic nervous system. This means that we may reconnect with our logic, and give ourselves time to think of different strategies to help manage the situation. The very fact that we are counting creates a mini-meditation and a break from the whirling thoughts in our mind.
How does Box Breathing work?
Box Breathing is called that because a box shape has 4 sides. (This technique is also known as square breathing, 4-4-4 breathing and other names for that reason!)
The process is that you:
1. Slowly take a deep breath over 4 seconds
2. Hold that breath for 4 seconds
3. Slowly breathe out over 4 seconds
4. Wait for 4 seconds
5. Repeat the process 1 – 3 times
Additional tips
To build your practice of box breathing you might also do one, some or all of these steps:
- Look for a quiet space to sit uninterrupted
- Close your eyes
- Place a hand on your chest to feel the breath rise and fall
- Practice 5 minutes of box-breathing each morning before you start your day
Summary
Box breathing is a tool that can be used to calm yourself down when experiencing moments of stress, anger, frustration or anxiety. It is also a technique that you can practice to enhance moments of calm, building your ability to use it for the times when you might need it. And if you prefer to learn by watching – here is a video of me explaining the technique! Youtube
Breaking Free from Phobias: How Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy Can Help
Phobias are more than just intense fears; they can feel all-encompassing, affecting daily life and holding you back from experiences others may take for granted. Whether it’s the fear of flying, escalators, animals, or something else entirely, phobias can cause significant distress. But did you know that beneath these specific fears often lies a broader pattern of anxiety? This pattern is key to understanding—and ultimately overcoming—phobias.
How Phobias Form
Phobias develop when the brain learns to associate a particular situation, object, or activity with overwhelming fear or anxiety. Often, this response is deeply rooted, shaped by past experiences, learned behaviours, or even external influences like media or others’ fears. Once the fear sets in, the brain essentially creates a neural pathway that keeps triggering the anxious response whenever the feared object or situation arises. This cycle can feel impossible to break on your own.
But there’s good news: your brain is capable of change. It can unlearn these patterns and replace them with healthier, more adaptive responses.
Rewiring the Brain with Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for addressing phobias because it taps into the subconscious mind, where these deep-rooted fears reside. When you’re in a state of hypnosis, your mind becomes more open to suggestion, allowing new, positive neural pathways to form.
This isn’t about forcing change or suppressing fear. Instead, hypnotherapy gently encourages your brain to adopt new patterns—helping you build resilience and reduce the anxiety that fuels your phobia. By guiding your brain to reframe its responses, hypnotherapy creates space for you to face formerly terrifying situations with a sense of calm and control.
Combining Hypnotherapy with Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy works alongside hypnotherapy by helping you understand the broader anxiety that often accompanies phobias. Together, these therapies offer a holistic approach to not only address the specific phobia but also manage the anxiety that’s often at its core.
By exploring the root causes and working through anxious thought patterns, psychotherapy supports long-lasting change. Combined with hypnotherapy, this approach helps you regain control, empowering you to navigate life without fear dictating your actions.
Time to Reclaim Your Freedom
Living with a phobia can feel isolating and limiting, but you don’t have to face it alone. Through hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, I help clients break free from the grip of fear—whether it’s fear of flying, escalators, animals, or anything else that’s been holding them back. Together, we can rewire your brain, reduce your anxiety, and help you face life with newfound confidence.
If you’re ready to take the next step, I invite you to book an appointment. Let’s work together to create lasting change so you can move forward, free from fear.
Rediscover Your Calm: A Strategic Approach to Overcoming Anxiety and Depression
Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or burnt out? These are common feelings that often lead people to seek help from mental health professionals. But when you dig deeper, anxiety and depression are often at the root of these experiences, no matter what label you give them. Understanding how these challenges manifest and how a strategic approach can effectively address them is crucial in choosing the right therapy for you.
Contrary to popular belief, anxiety and depression aren’t hereditary or fixed conditions. They’re learned processes—patterns of thinking and reacting that we pick up as we grow, often from those around us. If you were raised by an anxious parent, you might have unconsciously adopted their anxious responses. Over time, these responses can become so ingrained that they feel like the only way to react to certain situations. But here’s the good news: just as we learned these patterns, we can unlearn them and create new, healthier ways to respond.
Strategic Hypnotherapy works on the premise that learning a new response is similar to learning any new skill. Think about how you learned to ride a bike—you didn’t just hop on and start cycling perfectly. You learned each step, practiced them, and eventually, it became second nature. In the same way, you can learn the steps to respond differently to anxiety or depression. Hypnotherapy helps by reinforcing these new, more helpful responses in your subconscious, making them feel natural and automatic.
Anxiety is often rooted in future-based thinking. If you struggle with anxiety, you might find yourself fixated on worst-case scenarios, constantly worrying about things that haven’t happened and may never occur. With a strategic approach, we help you learn to distinguish between thoughts that are useful and grounded in the present and those that are simply unhelpful fears about the future. This process empowers you to live more fully in the moment, with a greater sense of control and calm.
Depression, on the other hand, tends to be tied to past-based thinking. If you’re dealing with depression, you might spend a lot of time replaying past events, focusing on what went wrong and how you’ve been affected. Unfortunately, we can’t change the past, but we can change how we relate to it. A strategic approach helps you learn how to let go of the past and move forward, building a future that reflects the life you truly want to live.
If you’re ready to break free from the cycles of anxiety and depression and start creating the life you desire, I invite you to take the first step. Book a free 20-minute consultation today, and let’s explore how Strategic Hypnotherapy can support you in this journey. Your path to calm, balance, and a brighter future begins here.
