The Body Scan

by Scott Noelle

Parenting in accord with the Creative Pleasure Principle requires the ability to actually feel your creative pleasure. Unfortunately, most of us have been trained to ignore or suppress feelings to some extent.

One way to enhance your feeling ability is by doing a body scan:

  1. Lie down and take a few deep breaths, releasing tension with each exhale.
  2. Imagine an energy field slowly scanning (like a photocopier) across your body, from your toes to the top of your head. Your objective is simply to feel each part of your body as the imagined field touches it.
  3. Optional: Repeat the scan, only this time pause at each body part or area and ask it, “What’s your desire?” Then wait and feel for the answer. You might sense, for example, that your toes want to be more in touch with the Earth, your belly wants to be loved unconditionally, and your elbows are just happy to exist!

The more you practice connecting with your body’s wisdom through subtle feelings, the easier it is to be a pleasure-oriented parent. :)

Originally published on 2007-01-24
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