If you lose yourself in daydreams while meditating, if concentration is an issue, then body awareness can become a remedy for your scattered mind.
You can think of it as a foundational skill that will make observing your breath or developing lovingkindness more effective. But beyond its ability to aid other types of meditation, mindfulness of the body can turn into a useful tool in and of itself.
For example, Bhikkhu Analayo, one of the most respected scholar monks of our time, writes the following in his book Satipatthana Meditation, a Practice Guide:
[A] simple act of turning with awareness to the presence of the body can transform the most boring types of situation into opportunities for practice. Caught up in a traffic jam, sitting in the doctor’s waiting room, standing in a long queue at passport control, any such setting can be transformed by embodied mindfulness.
Complement with our article on how to practice body awareness meditation (with guided audio).
I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. What you see here is the combination of my three favorite things: reading, writing, and mindfulness. While you’re here, subscribe to my blog updates and gain access to free mindfulness resources for stress relief.
