Practicing a body scan, a type of mindfulness meditation, can help change your relationship with your body and ease physical pain. In this short meditation video, you’ll focus on your breathing and relax different parts of your body.
“When we experience physical pain, our natural reaction is to resist or try to distract ourselves from the pain,” says Bob McClure, LCSW, a certified mindfulness instructor with Sharp HealthCare. “This resistance can cause us to tense our muscles even more and actually increase pain.”
MRI scans show practicing this technique changes the way your body perceives pain, McClure says.
Follow these steps to practice the meditation.