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Practice Log - Week 1
FORMAL PRACTICE: Read The Body Scan Meditation. On the first day, do the Raisin
Meditation (have two raisins and a glass of water handy). For the next five days, do the
Body Scan. Don’t expect to feel anything in particular from these practices. In fact, give up
all expectations about it. Just let your experience be your experience. The audio guidance
for all the Practices, can be found in the left-hand menu of the online course (on a
smartphone, tap the menu icon just under "Palouse" on the top banner). NOTE: One of
your six formal practices can be one of the live group meditations listed in the
Online Meditation page.
Record on this form each time you do a practice. In the comment field, put just a few words
to remind you of your impressions of that particular practice: what came up, how it felt,
what you noticed in terms of physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc. It’s important
to write the comments immediately after the practice because it will be hard to
reconstruct later.
Once you have done at least six days of practice and feel that you've gotten the essence of
this "Week", you may go to the next week, although you can stay here longer if that feels
right.
INFORMAL PRACTICE: Each day this week, see if you can bring mindful awareness to
some otherwise routine activity and record it on the Informal Practice Log (Simple
Awareness).
…Date… Formal Practice Comments (Raisin Meditation & Body
Scan)
Sitting comfortably in my quite room, looking at a small piece of raisin made me
14/10/2024 feel silly at first. However, as I slowly started to pay attention to the details on the
raisins, the wrinkles. The color, the stem…, I got lost in the process and did not
pay much attention to how I looked but paid more attention to what I was looking
at. I never thought about the smell of a raisin, I would just pop into my mouth.
Here, I caught a whiff of the sweet and sour smell of the raisin. When I took a bite
of the raisin, I have to admit it was very hard for me to control myself from just
biting into the raisin and swallowing it. This gave me insight into my impatience
with eating food as well as my lack of attention to the experience of eating food.
Biting into the raisin and slowly chewing it helped me experience not only the
taste of the raisin but also helped me think about all the different people and places
this raisin has passed through before getting to me. I was more focused on the
journey and the world of the raisin than on simply just feeding myself. This
exercise helped me understand that no matter how small something is, one should
value the experience and interaction with it. As I finished, I felt calm, enlightened
and had a sense of gratitude for something so small.
15/10/2024 I have to be completely honest about my experience and frankly, I went into the
experience with nothing much to expect. I was unwilling to do the body scan
meditation and I did not see it doing much for me. I found a comfortable position
for myself laying down, not knowing how my body will react to this mediation.
As it began, I tried my best to feel any sensations in the different body parts I was
focusing on however, there wasn’t much happening for me. I was thinking about a
lot of other stuff such as "It's going to take so long" or "When is this going to
finish?" However, halfway through, I felt my hands heating up, it was as if my
palms were a completely different temperature than the rest of my body.
Experiencing this different sensation, I wondered how many times it might have
been unknown to me the different sensations I was feeling in different parts of
mine. I was much more focused and motivated to do the body scan meditation
after this. I felt focused and relaxed and forgot about how much time it was taking.
I can't say that this mediation has completely won over me yet, but at least I am
now more willing to do it.
16/10/2024 Today I was motivated and even looking forward to the meditation. I did notice
however that rather than hurrying the experience today, I was more present. My
thoughts were still taking over though, thoughts related to something that had
happened today or what I had to do after. I understood however that this shouldn’t
bother me. Focusing on my body, I noticed all the tension in my body today when
it came to my shoulders. The focus on only my shoulders helped me notice this
and relax my posture. I also noticed my clenched jaw and realized that my jaw
might be this tense and clenched throughout the day without me knowing. Just the
action of relaxing my jaw made me feel so much better and understand how stress
physically affects my body.
I laid down to do the body scan before bed. I realized that having thoughts did not
17/10/2024 bother me as much as it did in the beginning. I acknowledged my thoughts and
also brought myself to focus on my body at the same time, not one hindering the
other. Unlike in the beginning when I didn’t see any point to it, I started to take
this activity as a relaxation activity, helping me feel calm and acknowledge how
different parts of my body feel. I felt pain around my upper arms as I had
overworked them today but feeling the pain helped me accept it and feel gratitude
for being able to carry over heavy tasks with my own body. I also felt less and less
urges to move unlike in the beginning where feeling an itch somewhere bothered
me or having to move about to feel comfortable. I feel like now being able to truly
appreciate the body scan meditation, I am more focused during it and feel more
relaxed after.
Before talking about just the scan, I also want to write about how I am more aware
18/10/2024 of my body, its positions and the tension in different parts throughout the day. It
has helped so much with relaxing my shoulders and my clenched jaw. During
today's body scan as I went through each part of my body, I also thought about
how much and in what ways that body part is used in my everyday life. I felt the
tiredness of my soles, the strength of my calves and legs, the power of my core,
my worked-up shoulders, my mouth and the words it produced, the strain of my
eyes and so much more. I feel like todays scan was the one where I felt most
present and most connected with my body because I actually thought of each part
as I scanned through it. It was a very weird but relaxing sensation by the end
because of the gratitude I felt for being able to do so many functions throughout
the day because of the different body parts of mine.
I tried something new today. I went ahead and did the body scan with just the
19/10/2024 indications for the next body part and not the whole audio clip. I thought I would
not be able to do it but actually having to think about the body part I am at and
which one to move to next actually helped me be more present. I felt throbbing
sensations in my head today due to the pain I was experiencing, I laid there and
simply allowed it. Though hurting, it still made me feel empowered that I
acknowledge that a certain body part is hurting and I am allowing the experience
and accepting it as there is nothing much, I can do for it. Unlike other times where
not only would I be experiencing pain but also be annoyed and irritated by the fact
that I could not do much for it. I may not be willing to use this tool every day but I
am realizing the ways I can incorporate it into my life for specific occasions to
help myself relax and feel better.
