Your Zen minute: Our realities are shaped by our perceptions, but our perceptions are affected by so many factors: how we’re feeling, our sleep and diet, our preconceived notions and beliefs, even the conversation we just had or text message we just read. Mindfulness helps us notice those otherwise “invisible” factors shaping what we think, so we can filter them out and notice what’s true.

Every February, teacher Sharon Salzberg conducts a wonderful exercise called the Meditation Challenge, based on her book Real Happiness. The intent is to introduce folks to the practice of meditation by incorporating it into their daily lives. This month’s Mindful Minute columns will be based on excerpts from this challenge. Last week’s installment is here.

People often worry that they aren’t meditating correctly or are concerned about not being able to concentrate during a session. But progress in meditation isn’t about performing at a certain “level” each day — it’s about frequency. If you can be mindful and can add more moments of mindfulness to your day, that is what will make all the difference. We all lose our mindfulness and get lost in our reactions or disconnected from what is happening, usually multiple times per day. But the moment we recognize that we’ve lost mindfulness, we’ve already regained it. That recognition is its essence. We can begin again.

This week, we will be doing a body-scan meditation that will help you relax and provide a way of getting centered. Here we go!

1. Sit comfortably in a chair with your arms at your side or in your lap.
2. Allow your breath to flow naturally.
3. Feel the floor or chair supporting you. Relax and allow yourself to be supported. Bring your attention to your back.
4. When you feel a spot that is tense or resisting, take a deep breath and relax that area as you exhale. If, during your scan, you find an area that feels calm or peaceful, you may feel like hanging on to it. If so, just relax, open up, and see if you can just be with that feeling of calmness without clinging to it.
5. You may find a sensation that’s painful and try to push it away. Maybe you even feel angry or afraid of it. Try to release that sensation. Come back to the direct experience of the moment. What is the actual sensation of the pain or peaceful feeling? Feel it, without judgment.
6. Bring your attention to the top of your head, and simply feel whatever sensations are there. Slowly let your attention move down the front of your face. Be aware of whatever you encounter — tightness, relaxation, pressure — no matter if it is pleasant, painful, or neutral. Move to your forehead, nose, mouth, and cheeks. Is your jaw clenched or relaxed? Turn your attention to your eyes and feel the weight of your eyelids, the brush of the lashes. The light pressure of skin on skin, softness, coolness.
7. No need to name all these things, simply feel them. If you can, try to step out of the world of concepts like “eyelids” or “lips.” Move into the world of direct sensation, immediate, alive, ever-changing.
8. Return your attention to the top of your head. Move down the back of your head, over the curve of your skull. Notice your neck, any knots, or tender areas.
9. Once again, return to the top of the head. Move your attention down the sides, feeling your ears, the sides of your neck, the tops of your shoulders.
10. There’s no need to judge the sensations or trade them in for different ones. Simply feel them. Slowly move your awareness down the upper arms, feeling the elbows and forearms. Let your attention rest for a moment on your hands, the palms, the backs. See if you can feel each separate finger, each fingertip.
11. Bring your attention back to the neck and throat. Slowly move it down through the chest, noticing any sensations you find there. Keep moving your attention downward to your rib cage, the abdomen. Let your awareness be gentle, receptive. You are not looking for anything special, but rather, staying open to whatever feelings you might find. You don’t have to do anything about them. You’re just noticing them.
12. Return your attention to your neck, and let your awareness move down the back of your body. Shoulder blades, mid-back, lower back. You may feel stiffness or tension. Whatever you encounter, simply notice it.
13. Slowly move your awareness down your thighs, knees, calves, and all the way down your legs. Feel your ankles, the tops of your feet, soles, each toe. Feel the earth underneath your feet, grounding you.
14. Be with the calmness you feel right now. Continue to feel the world of sensation and all of its changes moment by moment, as you move through your day. Open your eyes when you are ready.

If you do these exercises, we would love to hear how they went at shorelines@northshorebank.com. Thanks for reading! —Pat Ingelse, AVP, PMP