DBT Guided Meditation - body scan

Hi folks, Jordan here, the Compassionate behaviorist.

This video is going to be a guided meditation. So this is meant to be done sitting down in today's video. So go ahead and find yourself seated and allow yourself to come into a relaxed and alert position with your feet both on the ground, your hands can be in your lap.

With an open stance, you have your palms up, palms down whatever you prefer there. And you can choose to close your eyes if you'd like or leave them open if you'd like. Either way can work.

I'm going to invite you to go ahead and notice your feet on the ground. That helps to wiggle your toes. You can do that helps to push your feet down on the ground you can do that.

Allow yourself to notice the sensation of your feet and the connection or the touch that your feet are experiencing. And as you notice, see if you can bring the qualities of curiosity and compassion to your awareness. Your mind may wander into distraction into judgment worry or many other places. That's normal. If your mind does that.

You can notice your mind as it wanders and you can gently bring your mind back to the awareness of the experience of your feet on the ground. If you'd like you could allow your awareness to shift from the experience of your feet on the ground to slowly scan from your feet to the top of your head over the next 30 seconds or so. And scan your body with a non judgmental awareness of any physical sensations in your body.

And you're noticing physical sensations with a non judgmental stance. There's not good or bad sensei sensations. They just are. might notice tension or pain or any number of different things. Just notice them and keep scanning.

Now I'd like to invite you to join me in noticing your breath. You can notice the inhale the exhale notice that with your breath when You're aware of your breath, there's nothing you have to do. Nothing you have to control. But the breath does, what it does, is what it is. And as you focus notice, pay attention to your breath.

You might notice your mind wandering, perhaps into distraction of some kind. If and when your mind wanders into distraction, away from this present moment, you can gently bring it back, back into the present moment, with the awareness of your breath.

And you're when you're ready to end, this practice of mindfulness, you can go ahead and open your eyes if they're not already. Hello. Remember that in DBT, dialectical behavior therapy, we use mindfulness for a number of reasons. Sometimes it might help us feel calm. But that's not the main purpose.

The main purpose is the practice practice. That way of being the practice the way of being of being present, and non judgmental, aware with whatever's there. So a lot of people that practice mindfulness, from a DBT or in therapy, when they're mindful, they oftentimes don't feel calm, they become more aware of anxiety, or pain. That doesn't mean you're not doing it, right. That actually means you are doing it right often. And it's like you're strengthening your ability to be with those emotions or those sensations.

So remember that the goal of mindfulness from a DBT, or ACT perspective, from a therapeutic perspective, is not that you have to feel calm, where you have to feel relaxed. If you have that outcome. That's nice. I like feeling that it's a nice outcome. That's not the goal.

If you feel anxious when you're practicing mindfulness, that's okay. Notice the anxiety. Take a step back from your judgments or your interpretations of it anxiety or whatever it is that you're being mindful of that's painful. And be mindful of your experience of that thing.

Thanks for joining me, and be good to each other and we'll see you next time.