Recap and Goals

Mindfulness for Men > 1. Anchoring Our Attention > 2. Body Awareness > Recap and Goals

Lesson 2. Body Awareness ✔

Summarizing Lesson 2. Body Awareness and setting up goals for the week.

Putting these skills into practice throughout our week

“Stress really takes a toll on my body. When I notice my stomach starts to get knotted up, I know something’s stressing me out, more than I realized.” – Jay, 23

Summary and Recap

In Lesson 2, we dove into the world of body awareness, discovering how these skills can bolster our ability to recognize and regulate our emotions, increasing our capacity to be with both unpleasant and pleasant body sensations.

  1. Guided practice of body scan
    • We learned to better notice and increase our capacity to be with both pleasant and unpleasant sensations in the body. 
  2. Notice feel-good moments
    • We made efforts to be more engaged in everyday life and savor the positive experiences we have. 
  3. Mindful walking
    • We learned how to use walking to anchor ourselves to the present while also cultivating the skill of body awareness.

Consolidating Skills

Before moving on to Lesson 3, we encourage you to practice doing a body scan and mindful walk at least three times each throughout the next week. In addition, you can practice noticing one feel-good moment each day. 

Our worksheet below can help you to reflect on your experience (or you can use a journal, notebook, or notes on your phone).

Preview of PDF

Try to set aside 5-10 minutes each evening to reflect on your mindfulness practice for the day. Use the following prompts to guide your reflection:

  • What did you notice during your mindfulness practice today?
  • What challenges did you encounter?
  • How did you respond to these challenges?
  • What have you noticed about your ability to perceive sensations in the body, and sustain and redirect attention? How has it changed, if it has?
  • What did you learn from today’s practice? 
  • How might you apply what you learned to future mindfulness practices or daily life?

[we recommend picking three days now to plan out your week and better stick to your practice]

DOWNLOAD LESSON 2. WEEKLY PRACTICE SHEET

Keep in mind

One of the biggest obstacles to learning mindfulness is committing to the practice and not getting discouraged or frustrated along the way.

While learning mindfulness, it’s common to want to be further along – “better” or “more consistent” – than we are. Noticing these thoughts and bringing the same open perspective as outlined above to them can help us stick with our practice.

Remember, mindfulness is training us to step out of well-worn habits. This isn’t easy, nor is it merely a matter of will. Learning skills like anchoring our minds or mind-body awareness is also accompanied by physical changes in the brain. This takes time.

Here are some additional questions to keep in mind throughout your week, to help increase your body awareness.

  1. How often do you notice physical sensations in your body throughout the day?
  2. Have you noticed connections between body sensations and mood states? 
  3. How do you typically respond to physical sensations that arise in your body?
    • When do you tend to avoid or ignore them? 
    • When do you bring interest or curiosity to them?
  4. When feeling depressed or anxious, do you notice any changes in your body, such as areas of tension or discomfort?
    • Do you notice any patterns in the body sensations you experience during periods of depression?
    • What happens when you bring curiosity and openness toward these body sensations?

In Lesson 3. Stepping Back from Difficult Thoughts, we’ll practice developing a more non-judgmental awareness to see our thoughts more clearly.

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