Wellness Calendar: Monday 4 August

Bleeps and scans

A bleep test in physical fitness is a way of measuring endurance between the time you hear a bleep noise and the time you come to an end, either with another bleeping noise or whenever you complete the task. If we could extract the bleep idea into the area of somatics, we could set up structured or random moments during our waking hours where, once we hear a bleep, we stop what we are doing and do a brief body-scan.

A body scan is the simple action of being aware of each part of your body in turn, with a view to seeing if it’s doing okay or if it needs attention. Below is an example of someone’s body-scan checklist. What questions might you ask yourself if you were doing the same type of thing?

 Generally speaking, do I feel okay?
 Am I tired/coming down with something?
 Do I need to take a break from my task?
 Do I need to leave the situation I am in?
 Do I need to sit down/stand up?
 Do I need to move/stretch my body/go for a stroll?
 Have I been staring at something (a screen/book) for too long?
 Do I have any tension building anywhere?
 How is my breathing? Do I need to slow it down/breathe deeper?
 Am I clenching my teeth?
 Are my shoulders tense?
 How does my chest feel?
 How does my back feel?
 How does my tummy feel?
 How does my anus feel?
 How do my genitals feel?
 Am I thirsty? Or hungry?
 Is my neck stiff?
 Am I clenching my hands?

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