PODCASTHappiness Break

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Meditation teacher Spring Washam guides us in a practice of embodied awareness, helping us use the body as an anchor during stressful or overwhelming moments.

How To Do This Practice:

1. Find a comfortable position: Sit upright in a relaxed position where you can comfortably notice the flow of your breath.
2. Begin at the top of your body: Close your eyes and bring your attention to your head, neck, face, and jaw. Notice any tightness and allow those areas to soften.
3. Move your awareness downward: Slowly scan through your shoulders, arms, hands, chest, and belly, noticing any sensations, emotions, or areas where you may be holding tension.
4. Breathe into your belly: Place a hand below your belly button if it feels comfortable. Let your belly expand with each in-breath, and imagine releasing tension with every out-breath.
5. Feel your connection to the ground: Bring your attention to your sitting bones, legs, knees, and feet. Notice where your body makes contact with the chair, floor, or other surface, using those sensations to anchor yourself in the present moment.
6. Take in your whole body: Become aware of your body as a whole, returning to the breath whenever your mind wanders. To close, place a hand on your heart and offer yourself a wish for peace, happiness, and ease.

Today’s Happiness Break Guide:

SPRING WASHAM is a meditation teacher based in Oakland, California. She is also the author of the book, The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. 

Learn more about Spring Washam here: https://www.springwasham.com/

Related Happiness Break episodes:

A Meditation to Find Grounding in the New Year, With Spring Washam: https://tinyurl.com/3tpasst9

How to Awaken Joy, with Spring Washam: https://tinyurl.com/ybpuvuj6

The Healing Power of Your Own Touch: https://tinyurl.com/rrtpje2x

Related Science of Happiness episodes:

How To Feel Better About Yourself: https://tinyurl.com/3jave7h2

What To Do When Stress Takes Over: https://tinyurl.com/yxf3jawn

The Contagious Power of Compassion: https://tinyurl.com/y6bpvbv5

We’d love to hear about your experience with this practice! Share your thoughts at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave a 5-star review and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Transcription:

DACHER KELTNER: I’m Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, a series by the science of happiness that provides research backed practices to give you a boost in your day, all in under 10 minutes. Today we’re going to do a short meditation that will help get us into our bodies.

Embodied awareness is the idea that our minds are not only connected to our bodies—but neuro-physical processes below the brain stem influence the contents of thought.

Research shows body-focused meditations can help reduce anxiety and give us a better sense of self-control during stressful times. They also create more space for self-acceptance, mindful and empathy.

Guiding our Happiness Break today is Spring Washam, a meditation teacher and author of The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. Here’s Spring.

SPRING WASHAM: So let’s begin to do a meditation on embodied presence through the doorway of the body. So wherever you are, find a comfortable seat, comfortable position that you can relax your body into. It’s nice to be upright where you can feel the flow of the breath. As you said, you want to be able to connect to the energy of the breath and feel your sensations. And also, we want to do this with some sense of being attentive, aware, present.

So as you begin to feel into your body, I always like to begin this process with a body scan. So as you begin to slow down and quiet the mind and close your eyes, begin by feeling the top of your head and you might need to move your neck and head around a little bit. What we want to do is relax all of the tension, any sense of tightness. Sometimes we don’t like to come into the body because it feels tense or sick or tired. But you’ll notice that the more you bring your awareness in, the more you’ll feel a sense of lightness, a sense of flow, and a sense of ease. Your own presence is what creates this ease in the body.

So as you’re sitting and you’re feeling your head and your neck, begin to settle and let your breath just breathe. Feeling, sensing. Relax your face and your jaw. Now bringing your awareness into your shoulders. And softening. We soften. We let go on the out-breath. Feeling your upper arms. And now bringing your attention into your hands. Notice your hands. How are they placed? And as you do that, we’re just letting go of tension. Often we’re unaware that we are bracing, that we are clenching. So as you sweep your awareness through your body, soften any area of tightness or tension.

And now bringing your awareness into the heart area. The chest area. And noticing what you feel. Happy. Sad. Joy. Fear. Just noticing. Sensation. Tingling, lightness. Hardness. And just feeling into this area in your body. And relaxing with the in-breath and the out-breath.

Then moving your awareness down to the belly area. Right under your belly button. You might want to put your hand there as a way to feel into this area of your body. This is a powerful place. So as you breathe in and out, imagine that your breath is coming in and out of this belly area. And on the out-breath you’re letting go of tension. You’re letting go of anything that you’re holding on to. This is where we really feel embodied when we feel our belly. When we’re in connection to our belly we are more connected to our power. So soften, this is not only where we digest food, but we digest life. We digest emotions in the belly. We digest energy. So let your whole belly expand. As you breathe in, and you breathe out.

And now, as you bring your attention deeper into the body, feel your sitting bones making contact with wherever, wherever you’re sitting. The contact. The sensations of the contact. Fully present. If the mind wanders, just gently bring it back to just feeling the contact. Feeling your body touching. Connecting to our body in the sensations is how we connect to the present moment. The body is always in the present moment. It’s the mind that gets lost. So your body is always this anchor for your awareness. Now filling your upper legs. Feel your knees.

Now bring your full attention to your knees. Notice how they are. There’s a sensation. Notice your posture. And just begin to feel into your knee area. Feel your lower legs, your calves now and your ankles. And now filling your feet and whatever way they’re placed, if they’re folded or they’re touching a surface, bringing your attention to the bottom of your feet.

And now becoming aware of your full body from the top of your head sweeping through. The face, the neck, the shoulders, the arms. You’re putting your attention inward, feeling the flow.

And the breath. We always come back to the breath. Embodiment, wholeness and presence within the body. It’s a wonderful practice to anchor your mind, your heart. Moments of refuge from the storm of the mind. We connect to this ever present. Flow of sensation. One moment at a time. And as we close this meditation, I always like to end with placing my hand on my heart and just offering some kindness. The sense of well-being and joy.

May this body be happy and peaceful.

May this heart be happy, peaceful, and at ease in this moment.

Thank you.