Body Scan Art Exercise

I am someone who suffers from migraine headaches on a somewhat regular basis, usually 2-3 times per month. I’m on both a journey to figure out what triggers the migraines, and also how I can ease the pain when they happen. I’ve found a few meditations that help me a lot (I will link those for you below) and typically they always involve some kind of body scan. I think it helps move energy down and out of my head and temple area, down into the rest of my body, and today I elevated the body scan exercise by making some art around it. I think this exercise could be helpful for anyone experiencing any kind of pain, physical or emotional, and really to connect with any vibe you are feeling, high or low .

The Science Behind this Exercise

Body scans are a powerful tool used both in meditation and art making. You’ve likely listened to a meditation that guided you through each part of your body, noticing any feelings or tension there. Typically body scans are a component of yoga nidra meditation, and it can really help you relax, reduce stress, and even reduce pain - which I rely on heavily when I have a migraine.

So what’s actually happening when we experience the benefits of a body scan? When we are stressed and our body is in fight-or-flight mode, this is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Studies have shown that regular body scan meditations help to mediate this response, allowing the participants’ bodies to spend less time in fight or flight (sympathetic) and more time in rest and digest (parasympathetic). Ahh, I feel better already just reminding myself of that simple yet powerful distinction :)

This meditation can be done as a standalone practice, with or without the drawing portion, and has many benefits, including deep relaxation, reduced stress and anxiety, and improved sleep. Keep this body scan meditation in mind anytime you need quick easy access to a more relaxed state of mind:

Body Scan Meditation & Art Exercise:

Just like in any mindfulness practice, the goal here is to stay in the present moment. While making this drawing, we are not concerned with practicing an artistic skill, we are allowing time for awareness and listening, a state of receiving as opposed to a state of resistance. This means we think, create, move without judgment. We stay open, observant, and honest. The chance to play with and express using art materials is just a bonus.

First, gather your materials and get settled. For this exercise you will need:

Blank paper
A pencil w/ an eraser
Any Art materials you choose, we want to have color options: ~ Markers ~ Colored Pencils ~ Crayons ~ Seriously anything!
Calming meditation music (optional :)
Your favorite candle (also optional :)

During this exercise, you can refer to my prompts, noticing any feelings, emotions, colors, patterns, movements that come to mind as you think about each part of your body, and then adding color or details to the body outline as you go.

Let’s Get Started:

Make sure you are sitting comfortably, in a good supportive chair preferably at a table. Put your feet flat on the ground, notice your breath, and try to keep your back straight while relaxing the muscles supporting your spine. Before you pick up any materials, close your eyes and first notice. Pay attention to any feeling in your body. Is there pain? Tingling? Calm? High or low energy? Any emotions or color coming to mind? Are there any parts of your body you notice first? Sit and listen. Be curious and open.

When you are ready, pick up your pencil and start drawing a simple body outline.

When drawing a body outline, the keyword is ***simple***. Gingerbread person - ish is perfect.

Then start by choosing any color that first calls to you, coloring in the first part of your body that you feel the most energy. Maybe your feet feel grounded and heavy, you could choose a dark color and fill in the space with solid color. Maybe your hands feel tingly, is that anxiety? Excitement? Maybe we don't know an emotion but we can simply notice the feeling and color little dots to represent that sensation, maybe we choose red or a color that feels hot or energetic.

In this example, I started with my head and neck and chose red and then pink. This is where I first noticed my pain, accompanied by tension and tightness. I then scanned down my body, first noticing feelings in my stomach. I chose gray and for whatever reason drew a spiral (was feeling discomfort there and a spiral came to mind.)

Continue scanning your body, moving up and down, side to side. What does it feel like? What does the energy there look like? Is there any movement there? Maybe you can feel the blood moving up towards your heart and you have an inkling to draw purple lines moving up and down.

Remember, everything is energy. Emotions, pain, happiness, stress, it's all ultimately energy inside and out of our bodies. What is the energy as you scan through your body? In your pelvis, stomach, and chest? Maybe some vision comes to mind and you have no idea why, trust it, listen to it, and try to draw or color that in any way you want on your body outline. Continue scanning. Continue listening.

In my exercise, I felt tingling in my feet and chose a light pink, stippling little dots to represent that feeling. When scanning the rest of my body, I found I was not allowing any energy or attention to my arms or legs, I could only notice the pain in my head and neck. I imagined little lines of energy around my pain, radiating out and getting lighter in color. The knot in my stomach became a sort of abstract flower, and vines grew out from it.

Go deeper. Do warm colors like red, orange, or yellow come to mind? These can represent high energy, anger, passion, or pain. Do cool colors come to mind? Blues, purples, and greens can signify calm, peace, low energy, inward energy. Simple symbols like spirals, sun rays, jagged lines, or organic lines could help represent different energy, feelings, pain, or emotions.

Continue scanning up towards any areas you have not visited yet, spend some time here, just noticing. Continue this repetition, this ritual of scanning, listening, noticing, and coloring. Notice how your mind wanders, or if any critical or judgmental words come to the surface. Just notice them, maybe represent these by drawing a color or symbol in the head space of your body outline. This is what mindfulness is. We are noticing our thoughts, we are curious about them, we do not judge them. And eventually we learn that our thoughts are not necessarily our truth, that we can let them go as easily as they float in. Our pain is energy, and while very real, it may also have heavy emotions tied to it. And emotions we do have control over, they truly can come and go as quickly as we choose.

Complete your scan and add anything else you want. Is there still tension? Any pain? Are you feeling calm? Inspired? Overwhelmed? What could you draw to represent your state of mind right now? Are there questions that come to mind? Realizations you could write on your page? Again, we are noticing, observing, we are open to listening so that any inspiration can flow through.

I realized in this process that I hold fear around my migraines because I don’t yet know what triggers them. It scares me to feel this pain. It frustrates me because it limits me. Thoughts like “it’s not fair” or “I could do so much more if I didn’t suffer through these” surfaces. But I was able to connect how unhelpful these thoughts are, that they represent fight or flight, not rest and digest.
I then imagined the energy that was all stuck in my head starting to move down, through the vines, into the earth like roots. It is here but it can move out, and I don’t need to be afraid. Maybe you can envision areas where energy is tight just melting away, relaxing, calming, or lightening in color.

Take as much time as you need or desire finishing your scan. Make any notes around it, giving it a date and time if you like. This is an artistic journal entry, and represents this moment in time.

End your scan with a moment of gratitude and self love, acknowledging this time and attention you have given to yourself.

Final Thoughts

I hope you will give it a try next time you are feeling pain, or overwhelmed, confused, lost, anxious, or stressed as a way to express artistically what you are feeling. You can certainly return to this practice regularly as a journal entry, to record your thoughts, document an event, or even to celebrate an accomplishment. How cool would it be to look back through your journal and see a series of these body scans?

Although I can’t guarantee pain relief from this exercise, I truly hope it helped you on some level. Here are my other most visited avenues for pain relief when I have a migraine:

Epsom Salt Bath
Headache Meditation (my favorite is here on Insight Timer)
Laying in a quiet, dark room on my side, with an ice pack on my feet (I think it helps pull energy out of my pain areas) -listening to either meditation music or a guided meditation

However you use this blog post, I wish you well and send you peace and love.

🤍 The light in me sees and honors the light in you, bright one. 🤍

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Body Scan for Pain Relief Art Exercise