How To Tune Into The Body Through Breath And Meditation

Defining “Tuning In” to the Body: In the simplest terms, tuning in to and listening to your body means paying attention to the signals, sensations and feedback your body gives to you, then using that information to understand and respond to your body’s needs. It involves being attuned to both physical and emotional clues that your body communicates. Here is my short list of things to consider when listening to your body:

Physical Sensations: Such as joy, excitement, tension, relaxation, warmth, coolness, tingling, aches, or pains.

Emotional Responses: Recognizing and understanding emotional states including stress, happiness, sadness, etc. And how those emotions manifest in the body.

Breath and Respiratory Patterns: Noticing the rhythm and depth of the breath, changes in breathing patterns during moments of stress or calmness.

Sensory Awareness: Engaging with the senses, including what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell and how different sensory inputs influences your mood and well-being.

Intuitive Signals: Paying attention to and trusting “gut feelings” or instincts that arise about certain situations or decisions. Recognizing the body’s signals for hunger, fullness or the need for movement or rest.

Posture and Movement: Being aware of the body’s posture and adjusting for comfort (if you are slouching, sit up straight and press your shoulders back then notice the difference you feel just from that simple action). Notice how movement, such as stretching or exercise impacts your mood and overall well-being.

Mind-Body Connection: Understand how your mental state influences physical sensations. Exploring the interconnectedness of thoughts, emotions, and bodily responses.

Energetic Awareness: Sense energy levels and recognize how different people, activities or environments affect your energy. Pay attention to your need for rest or rejuvenation.

Discovering the Call to Listen: The clamor of daily life often drowns out the whispers of our bodies. Either we are so busy we don’t notice what our body is trying to tell us, or we resist the signals and ignore the signals our body sends (maybe even for years or decades), thinking our mind knows best! In our fast-paced world, where noise often drowns out our body’s signals, quieting the monkey mind and “tuning in” to the body becomes a transformative act of self-care.

My own realization came after a single incident, a “medical malfunction” that was my wake up call. This experience underscored the importance of heeding my body’s signals, which were no longer subtle clues. This particular signal was loud and clear, it was my body’s way of screaming at me, prompting me to delve into new practices that forever transformed my health and well-being.

When I had no option but to listen to my body, I had not set out to lose weight, although I surely needed to. But my journey morphed into a surprising and whopping weight loss of 140 pounds, which became a testament to the effectiveness of the comprehensive approach I adopted which included (among other things) “tuning in” and listening to my body’s signals on many levels.

What signals has your body given you that you’ve ignored or suppressed with medication? Maybe it is high blood pressure? Heartburn? High cholesterol? Back pain? Kidney problems? Anxiety? Difficulty sleeping? Cancer? Knee pain? Or even food cravings? Or have your suppressed your body’s messages with numbing alcohol? Or recreational drugs?

All of these various signals or ailments (and more than what is written here) are messages from the body. It’s time to stop ignoring the signals and wake up to the call before it becomes a message that is so loud that you end up in the hospital or worse! One way to wake up is to tune in.

Exploring Techniques for Tuning in: Think about it for a moment, have you ever experienced a time where your body sent you a clear signal? Did you notice that signal for what it was?

There are various techniques to tune in to the body, from intuitive eating, meditation, Yoga, Tai-Chi, breath-work, journaling, artistic expression, body scan, bio-feedback devices and more. These techniques can help us pick up on subtle clues before a life-or-death situation screams at you, like it did me. Since that pivotal “medical malfunction,” I’ve adopted several of these body awareness techniques into my daily life and they’ve simply become a part of me and my routine. Of course different techniques are more suitable for unlocking different signals or messages.

Let’s explore a few of my favorite practices, mindful breathing and body-focused meditation. If you can breathe, you can do this technique – wink. All you really have to do is take the time to do it, and as you will see through your own experience, this kind of practice, can serve as a powerful tool for both tuning in to the body and relaxation/releasing tension.

The Art of Mindful Breathing and Body-Focused Meditation: The practice that I use combines several techniques onto one practice. At a high level, mindful breathing involves intentional breaths, focusing on the sensation as air enters and leaves the body. Meditation comes in various forms, such as guided (by others or self-guided) mindfulness, or body-focused. Two favorites stand out, they are:

Body Scan Meditation: A journey through different body parts, acknowledging tension or relaxation. This mindfulness technique heightens awareness of the body’s signals.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Systematically tensing and releasing muscles. This technique promotes tension awareness and its release leading to complete relaxation.

Now, let’s talk about the importance of breath control and then we’ll put it all together.

The Duality of Breathing – Automatic and Conscious Control: What happens when we become more conscious of our breath? The idea that breathing is a bodily function, capable of both automatic and conscious control, is intriguing. Breathing is primarily regulated by the autonomic nervous system, ensuring that it occurs involuntarily to sustain life without requiring conscious thought.

But unlike many other autonomic functions (such as digestion or heart rate), we can voluntarily influence our breathing patterns. This conscious control forms the basis of various practices, like meditation, yoga, relaxation and mindful breathing.

The bridge between the autonomic and voluntary control of breathing highlights the intricate mind-body connection. Sometimes this connection is subtle (and difficult to hear/feel) and other times it screams to be heard.

Conscious regulation of breathing can impact our physiological state, influencing stress levels, emotional well-being, and overall mental clarity. It provides us with a unique avenue for self-awareness, stress management, and the cultivation of a deeper connection between the mind and body.

Slowing down the breath serves as a means of communication with our bodies (rooted in ancient mindfulness practices). Slow deliberate breaths send the message to our body that we are safe and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress hormone levels, initiating a cascade of physical and emotional responses that lead to a state of calmness within.

Moreover, the deliberate act of slowing down the breath enhances body awareness. The slowed breath allows us to tune into the sensations within our bodies, fostering self-reflection. It’s a conversation between the conscious mind and the silent wisdom of the body.

Next we’ll look at combining mindful breathing and body focused meditation with progressive muscle relaxation all in one practice.

The Art of Mindful Breathing and Body-Focused Meditation: Incorporating slow and intentional breathing into your daily routine is powerful in and of itself, but coupled with meditation, it provides a powerful tool for tuning in to the body empowering active engagement with the body, fostering a deeper relationship between the mind and the physical self. The breath becomes a conduit, a language through which we communicate with our body and when we are in this state, it’s easier to hear what the body has to say to us, and gives us an opportunity to actively listen to the subtle signals the body sends.

And now, as promised, here’s the step-by-step practice all put together.

A Personal Practice For Tuning In: This practice is something I do just about every evening and it includes Mindful Breathing, Body-Scan Meditation and Progressive Muscle Relaxation techniques all focused on helping calm the monkey mind (the overactive voice in your head), to relax and tune in to the body.

Plan to spend at least 15 minutes to do this practice daily. The more you do it, the more you’ll look forward to doing it and the longer your practices will become. In fact, sometimes I can’t wait to get to bed to do this practice.

Here we go…

Find a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted.
Sit or lie down comfortably. Close your eyes (because it helps turn your attention inward vs. focusing on objects around the room) and start to relax.
Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. As you slowly inhale (to a count of 8), focus on the sensation of the breath filling all the way to the very top of your lungs while pushing your belly out.
Hold the breath as long as you can and when you are ready, exhale slowly, focusing on your breath through your mouth slowly to the count of 8, releasing the built up tension from your day.
Do this for at least 3 breaths (I usually do it about 9 times).
Then return to a normal comfortable breath, and shift the focus from your breath to different parts of your body. Start with your feet and work your way up to your head. Place your focus on your toes, feet, and ankles. Listen for signals, sensations and feelings that come up as you focus on each area.
Now move to your calves following the same process of listening for signals, sensations and feelings that come up in each area.
Then to your knees, then to your thighs, up to your hips butt, and pelvic area.
Now shifting the focus on your belly and lower back. Spend a few seconds there then shift your focus to your heart. Pause an extra few moments when you get to your heart chakra area and place your hands flat in the middle of your chest near your heart, one hand on top of the other. Notice how so many sensations and feelings can come up when tuning in to the heart.
Next, focus on your lungs. Take a really deep breath (all the way to the top of your lungs) and release a super slow exhale. Let it go…
Then shift your attention to your upper back and shoulders, then from your shoulders to your arms – upper arms, elbows, fore-arms, hands and all the way down to each and every finger.
Now moving on to your neck, then to your face. It’s important when you get to the face to make a conscious effort to release your jaw and lower the tongue from the roof of your mouth to the bottom of your mouth (which helps you further release your jaw). Focus on your sinuses.Try to release the eyes so it feels like your eyes are falling to the back of your head and release sinus and eye tension.
Finally on to the forehead, brain and skull. Spend a moment here and release all of your tension. If your brow is furrowed, be sure to un-furrow it.

At this point, you might see how this level of full body awareness can deepen the connection with the mind and the physical body. Use this awareness to identify areas that may need additional attention or care then provide the extra care through deep breath and muscle relaxation by going back to those areas where you felt extra tension or unusual sensations.

Empowering Active Engagement with Breath and Muscle Relaxation: As you traverse your body with your mind, actively engage in areas that signal tension. When you feel a cramp, tension or sensation in a particular area, release it with deep intentional breaths by acknowledging the tension without judgment, taking a deep breath into that area, and when you exhale, release that tension, then return to normal breathing. Maybe you notice a sadness in your heart? Take a deep breath into you your heart and when you exhale, surrender that sadness and let it go, don’t assess why you feel that way, just acknowledge that it’s there then breathe it out and surrender it, returning to normal breath.

Is your jaw clenched so tight you can’t let it go? Release the jaw by taking a deep breath into the jaw and release the tension on the exhale (it’s actually quite amazing how much tension we hold in our jaws). You get the idea.

If you have trouble releasing tension in a specific body part, this is where the muscle relaxation technique would come into play and here’s how to do it:

Feet/Lower Leg tension: If you feel tightness in your feet or lower legs, spread your toes apart so they aren’t touching each other then curl your toes tightly together, tighten the feet ankle and calve muscles maybe flexing your feet and hinging your ankles, and take a deep long inhale (tightening more and more the further you inhale). Hold your breath a few counts (while holding the tightness in your toes, feet, ankles and calves) then when you release the muscles, do a long slow exhale and melt into the surface where you are sitting or laying like a blob of Jell-o, releasing the tension in your lower legs.

Leg or hip tension: Take a deep inhale while tightening your calves, knees, thighs, and your butt and pelvic area as you take a slow deep breath in. Hold the muscles tight while you hold your breath till you can’t hold it anymore, then on the exhale relax all of your tightened muscles and let the tension go with a deep exhale through your mouth focusing and releasing your muscles in the hips, pelvic area, butt, thighs, knees and calves.

Core or chest tension: Tighten the muscles in your stomach, pelvic area and upper chest on the long, slow inhale focus on the areas giving you tension and hold it as long as you can hold your breath. Then do a deep exhale through the mouth deflating the air in your lungs, all the way down to the bottom of your lungs and feeling the woosh through your heart and stomach.

Lower back tension: Tighten the muscles in your butt, hips, core, pelvic area and back as you inhale, then as you exhale, let the tension go like a balloon deflating.

Arm/Shoulder Tension: First spread your fingers apart so they aren’t touching each other then make a fist with your hands, tighten your arms all the way up to your shoulders as you inhale and hold that breath as long as you can. When you release your breath, unclench your muscles let the tension go. Ahhhhh.

Tension in your upper back: Clench your shoulders, neck, upper arms, chest and heart area and take a deep inhale and hold that clench while you hold that breath. Then unclench your muscles, exhale and maybe even vocalize, “Ahhhhh,” as you release your muscles and breath.

Tension in your head: If you feel tension in your head, eyes, sinuses, or jaw, tighten your face as you take a deep breath in. Squint your closed eyes and tighten your nose, tighten your jaw), parse your lips, and hold that face while you hold your breath as long as you can, then exhale, release your muscles and let the tension go.

It’s A-MAZ-ING when you relax the muscles on your exhale and just feel that tension drift away.

Closing the Practice with Gratitude: Complete the entire practice, by expressing gratitude to your body and breath. If you moved your hands, put your hands, one on top of the other, flat on the center of your chest over the heart chakra and express gratitude to your body and breath for helping you to relax and hear the body’s signals. Remind your body that it knows how to heal itself.

Take a moment at this point to pause for any additional communication your body might offer. I usually ask (in my mind), “Tell me what I need to know.” Sometimes I get answers in the form of sensation like tingling or a random muscle contracting and releasing, sometimes my intuition gets information and sometimes, I get nothing. Sometimes the answers relate to my body and other times answers are related to situations, relationships, or challenges in my life. Often times, if I don’t get anything at that moment, I might get downloads in my dreams. Typically I fall asleep immediately after I’ve completed this meditation (which is why I do it in bed just before I doze off to sleep).

If you aren’t to that sleepy point, slowly wiggle your toes and fingers and then slowly open your eyes.

Whatever you do next, DO NOT under any circumstances look at your phone, tablet, laptop or TV. If you need to do something, pick up a journal and write about the meditation experience. Or pick up an inspirational book.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PERSONAL PRACTICE:

If your mind wanders during the practice (and it will, guaranteed), just acknowledge whatever thought you have, and let it go by returning your focus to the breath.
It takes time to learn the practice of focusing as you traverse your attention all the way from your toes to your head. If it’s more comfortable for you, maybe go in reverse, starting at your head and working your way down to your toes. Make the practice yours!
If you don’t feel or hear your body communicating in any way, don’t worry about it, but keep at it. Remember this is a practice. It didn’t happen right away for me either. Within a month though I was getting all kinds of messages and signals from my body.
If you fall asleep during the practice, it’s totally OK (and common). After all, this is a relaxation technique as well as a “tuning in” practice. Just practice again tomorrow.
If you want to do the practice to music, I suggest something peaceful, such as recorded ocean waves or something instrumental. I love the music of Mei-lan, especially a track titled Yahweh (found on YouTube).

While there are various techniques to “tune in” to the body, this particular practice is one of my favorite tools to help clear my monkey mind of daily chatter and listen to the body. In my experience, the more you do it, the easier it becomes and the more messages I get.

Remember this is a personal journey and what works for one may not work for another. Embrace the whispers of self-awareness and well-being as you navigate this path of turning into your body.

In a world filled with constant noise, taking time each day to hear your body by engaging in mindful breathing and meditation can be a transformative act of self-care. It’s not just about the breath; it’s about discovering the subtle nuances of your body and, in turn, gaining a deeper understanding of your body’s needs and yourself. Embrace the journey of self-discovery through the art of mindful breathing, actively listening to your body with each breath, and let each inhale and exhale be a conversation between your mind and your physical being.

The journey to a healthier, happier you is so worth it. I know because I lived it.

I stopped chasing weight loss and started focusing on my health—and that single shift changed everything, and led me to practices that changed my life (like meditation). I not only lost 140 pounds, but more importantly, I found clarity, energy, and a life that finally feels like mine.

I tell the whole story in my book. If it feels right for you and now is the time to kickstart your health and wellness journey, click HERE to learn more about my book and see if it might help YOU!