Scott Webb (Host): As we continue our series on mindfulness today with Upland Hills Health Behavioral Health Counselor, Allison Geisking, Allison's going to lead us in what's known as body scan meditation, and it's okay if you don't know what that means. She does, and we're all going to learn from her next.

This is the Inspire Health podcast from Upland Hills Health. I'm Scott Webb. Allison, so nice to have you here again. We're going to keep talking about mindfulness for folks, and today we're going to do this body scan mindfulness, and you're going to explain what that is. But I had this experience yesterday. I was at the dentist and they did like a full mouth, impression, right? And they didn't warn me before they put it in that, "Oh, you're not going to be able to breathe through your mouth," right? Maybe it was implied, but I didn't really think about it. And they put this in, and immediately I started to get anxious, because I couldn't breathe through my mouth.

And my nose was a little stuffed up, and this had to go for four minutes.

Allison Geisking: Oh my gosh.

Host: I thought, "Okay, what would Allison do?" So, I closed my eyes and I started to just like regulate my breathing a little bit through my nose and try to go to a happy place, to the rainbow, you know, and the clouds and just try to relax, like whole body relaxation. I'm like, "Just relax, dude. Don't panic. You're going to be okay."

Allison Geisking: Absolutely.

Host: So, this is already paying off for me. I'm sure it is for listeners. So to get into this today, tell folks what that means. What is body scan mindfulness and what are we going to do today?

Allison Geisking: Yeah. And thanks again, Scott, for having me today. I'm excited to talk about this one. I use the body scan/muscle relaxation a lot with all of my clients I see. So, what we're going to be doing today is a little script, kind of similar to the guided imagery, except we're going to be looking at our bodies and really noticing what our bodies are trying to tell us. And it's so important for us to know the signals of our body and kind of decoding it. We're not really trained or raised to learn about what our body is telling us. You know, if you have an ailment, you go to your doctor, you go to a professional and they'll tell you what your body is saying. But really, we are the masters of our own body and how we're feeling. And if we can't even interpret that, why are we putting that in the hands of other people, right? So, this is a really good exercise for us to start utilizing and to really interpret what our body is trying to say. So, if it's okay with you, Scott, I would like to jump right into this, if you're ready.

Host: Yeah, let's do that. I was telling you before we got rolling that I did a little snooping online, right? A little searching online. Because I was like, "All right. What are we doing? What does this mean? What is a body scan?" And so, you know, I jotted down some of the concepts and it sounds really interesting to me. This, as you say, this idea of just really listening to our bodies and where does it take us and what does it mean? And maybe as we begin to wander a little bit in our minds, how do we get back to where we want to be? So, I'm excited to do this with you.

Allison Geisking: Well, I am ready. What I'll ask of you is just get really comfortable. And for the listeners on this podcast today, you can either lay down or sit, as long as your feet are flat on the floor if you're sitting. You can close your eyes if you're comfortable, or you can leave them open. If you leave them open, just have a soft gaze or focus on something, okay?

So, I'm going to read a little script here, and then we're going to do this activity together. So, this body scan/muscle relaxation script is an exercise that reduces stress and anxiety. For your whole body, you can slowly tense and then relax each individual muscle when we do this activity. This exercise can provide immediate feeling of relaxation, but it's best to practice this really frequently. You know, if you think of someone who is in CrossFit, they tend to do repetitions quite fast once they get the layout of it down, the technique down. And that's very similar to this. We're going to exercise our minds today to where when we do this, the more we do it, the more we're going to instantly relax our bodies, which is great. Of course, if you have any ailments, don't tense and strain or pull anything. We don't want that to happen. So, be gracious and easy on yourself if you do have those points on your body. So, I'm going to jump into it. Do you have any questions so far, Scott?

Host: No, I'm with you.

Allison Geisking: Perfect. So, we can sit back or lie down in a comfortable position. You can shut your eyes if you're comfortable doing so. I want you to begin by taking a deep breath and noticing the feeling of the air filling your lungs, holding your breath for a second. And now, release the breath slowly and let that tension leave your lungs. Notice what that feels like.

We're going to take in another breath in through your nose, holding it for a second. Out through your mouth, noticing what that feels like. And even slower now, we're going to take another breath. We're going to fill your lungs all the way like a balloon, holding that. And now, release it out through your mouth. And imagine the feeling of tension leaving your body as you do so.

And now, I want you to move your attention to your feet. And begin to tense your feet by curling your toes in the arch of your foot. Hold on to that tension and notice what that feels like for five, four, three, two, one, and release the tension in your foot and notice that new feeling of relaxation in that area.

And next, I want you to begin to focus on your lower leg. I want you to tense the muscles in your calves and hold them tightly and pay attention to that feeling of tension in that area for five, four, three, two, one, and release the tension from your lower leg. And again, notice the feeling of relaxation in that area. And remember, continue to take nice breaths, in through your nose, out through your mouth.

And next, I want you to tense the muscles of your upper leg and pelvic area, and you can do this by squeezing your thighs together, and make sure you feel tenseness, but don't go to the point of strain for five, four, three, two, one, and release, and feel the tension leaving that muscle group.

And now, I want you to begin to tense your stomach and your chest. And you can do this by sucking your stomach in, and squeeze really hard, just don't strain yourself. And hold on to that for five, four, three, two, one. And release that tension out and allow your body to go limp. And let yourself notice maybe a new feeling of relaxation in that area. Continue taking deep breaths, breathing in slowly, noticing the air fill your lung. And hold on to that for just a second and release the air slowly, feel it leaving your lungs.

And next, I want you to tense the muscles in your back by bringing your shoulders together behind you. Almost like you're holding a pencil back there between your shoulder blades and hold them tightly. Tense them as hard as you can without straining and keep holding in that area for five, four, three, two, one, and release. And notice how different your body feels when you allow it to relax.

And next, I want you to tense your arms. All the way up from your hands, up to your shoulders. Make a fist and squeeze all the way up your arm. Hold on to that for five, four, three, two, one, and release the tension from your arms and shoulders and notice that feeling of relaxation in your fingers, hands, arms, and even shoulders. Notice how your arms might feel limp and at ease.

And next, I want you to move up to your neck and your head. I want you to tense your face and your neck by distorting the muscles around your eyes and your mouth. So, squeeze them as tightly as you can without straining for five, four, three, two, one, and release the tension. And again, notice what that feels like in that area.

And finally, I want you to tense your entire body. I want you to tense your feet, legs, stomach, chest, arms, head, and neck. Tense really hard without straining. Hold on to that tension for five, four, three, two, one, and release. And allow your whole body to go limp, whether you're lying or you're sitting. Notice where you're sitting bones or lying bones are putting pressure on whatever you're sitting or lying on, and notice how different your body might feel. Maybe pay attention to that feeling of limpness in your arms, your legs, your stomach, and now you can begin to wake your body up slowly.

You can move your muscles, adjust your arms and legs. Stretch, open your eyes, walk around if needed. And when you're ready, come back.

So, that concludes the muscle relaxation script for today. This is something that you can tailor to your own need. So, what I mean by that is if you're out in public or you're driving and you notice that a muscle group seems tense, you can squeeze it just a little harder and then let go of it. Or if you're feeling anxious, fearful, or you're at the dentist, you can squeeze your toes and release them. No one's going to be looking at your feet in the dentist's office, right? So, you can tailor this to however long or short you need it and take this with you out into the world. So, how was that for you, Scott?

Host: It's good. You know, a couple of things, as I was contorting my face and squeezing my face, I was glad that no one could see me and sort of glad that I didn't have a mirror in front of me. But yes, dentist office anywhere. You know, Allison, sometimes we all drive, right? We drive and we experience bad drivers. And there are times, you know, where I will, and my 16-year-old, when I was teaching her to drive, she would be like, "What are you doing?" Like, I'm closing my eyes, I'm taking some deep breaths, I'm just going to try to focus on something else, not the bad drivers around me, and breathe in and breathe out, you know? So, inadvertently, I was sort of teaching her what you've been teaching me and everybody else, which is these things generally can be done just about anywhere, and maybe we can't go through the whole thing every time, but it could be enough to save us from road rage or panic at the dentist's office or whatever it might be, right?

Allison Geisking: Yeah, absolutely. And I think something to take away from this is a really good example of our bodies trying to tell us something. When we get off work or we had a stressful day at home even and we notice our maybe our jaw is sore, our necks are like stiff, sore, or even our calf muscles need to be stretched out a little bit, that's our body saying something triggered us and something affected us to make us feel like we had to tense up. And the more we do this exercise, we can recognize that tenseness and release it before it impacts us later in the day. And I don't think a lot of people realize that that's what really can cause that to happen, is those triggers or those stressful moments and just being aware of that. So, this exercise really brings our attention to our bodies and, "Oh my gosh, I didn't realize."

Host: Yeah, I think it's one of those things ,as you say, like we just have to listen to our bodies. You know, I host a lot of podcasts and a lot of times with more medical topics, that's often what the experts will say, which is, you know, listen to your body, right? If your body's telling you something's wrong, listen to it. Maybe that doesn't always mean rushing off to the ED, but does mean like, "Okay. Your body's saying something, listen to it." And here, when we're thinking about having a stressful day at work or the dentist chair or whatever it might be, listen to your body and find something that works for you. If it's the body scan mindfulness exercise, great. If it's something else, there's the guided meditation and the rainbow and the clouds and all of that. Whatever works for people, right? Like there's no one-size-fits-all.

Allison Geisking: Absolutely. We are the experts of our own bodies. We just don't have the code, if you will, initially. We have to discover that.

Host: Yeah, we do. And I'm just loving this series. I was having a conversation with someone the other day. And they were asking me about what I do. You know, and I said, "Well, sometimes I talk about hip replacements or nosebleeds or stuff, medical stuff." I said, "But every once in a while I get to do something like this where it's not so medical and it's a little more human, something that we can all kind of connect with." And that's what I really love about this, this is sort of universal appeal and not limited to this specific thing. "Oh, I'm having knee replacement surgery. I should listen to this podcast." This is like, "Oh, I'm a human. I get stressed out. I should listen," right?

Allison Geisking: Absolutely. I don't know one person that hasn't been stressed out, right?

Host: Right.And that would be a different podcast, people who don't suffer stress. But let's not get into that today. Let's stay with the people who have feelings and emotions and suffer stress and grief and loss and all that human stuff. So, it's great as always to continue on this series. What are we going to do next time?

Allison Geisking: I'm excited for next time as well. I always seem to be excited about this stuff. We are actually going to be doing a guided imagery, which is kind of similar to the rainbow one. This one's going to be a little bit different for more adults, if you will, rather than small children. So, that'll be exciting to do for next time.

Host: Yeah, I love it. leave that as a little tease here for listeners. And, you know, as we were discussing before we got going, the nice thing about podcasts is that they're recorded, and they're there, and they're on demand. So if folks listen to these things, and they connect with it, and it works for them, and they're having trouble remembering exactly, "Wait, do I start with my toes or my hands?" You know, they can come back, and they can listen anytime, no matter where they are. Lots of folks listen to podcasts in their smart speakers in their homes, so they don't have to have, you know, headphones on or have their phone in their hand. So, lots of ways to consume these things, find what works for them and hopefully do as I've done with you, which is to find a way to connect to this and make it work for us, right?

Allison Geisking: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate it. And for those listening to this, I hope that this does bring you some stress relief.

Host: Yeah, that's the dream, that's the goal. And I look forward to next time. We'll talk then.

Allison Geisking: Perfect.

Host: And for more information, go to uplandhillshealth.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels. This is the Inspire Health Podcast from Upland Hills Health. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well.