Your Body Keeps the Score

Where Does Your Stress Live?

Ask anyone where they hold stress and most can point to the spot immediately — tight shoulders, a clenched jaw, a knot in the stomach. This is not metaphorical. Chronic stress produces measurable physical changes: elevated cortisol, increased muscle tension, disrupted digestion, and suppressed immune function. The psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk spent decades documenting how traumatic and chronic stress is stored not just in the mind but in the tissues of the body itself.

Most of us live in our heads. We process emotions as thoughts, strategies, and narratives. But the body has its own intelligence, and it is often trying to tell us something we have not yet been willing to hear.

The Body Scan: A Forgotten Practice

The body scan is one of the oldest meditation techniques, central to both Buddhist Vipassana traditions and Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Despite its pedigree, it is often overlooked in favor of breath-focused or mantra-based practices. That is a mistake.

A 2021 study at the University of Cambridge found that participants who practiced a 20-minute body scan daily for eight weeks showed significant reductions in inflammatory biomarkers — measurable changes at the cellular level. The practice works by redirecting attention from the thinking mind to the feeling body, activating the parasympathetic nervous system and signaling safety to the brain.

"The body does not lie. When we learn to listen to it, we discover truths that the mind has been working hard to avoid."

How to Practice

Lie down or sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Begin at the top of your head and slowly move your attention downward — forehead, eyes, jaw, throat, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, belly, hips, legs, feet. At each area, pause. Notice whatever is present without trying to change it. Tightness, warmth, numbness, tingling — all of it is information. Spend roughly one to two minutes per region.

The key is non-judgment. You are not scanning for problems. You are simply visiting each part of yourself and saying, "I notice you. I am here." Over time, this practice builds what somatic therapists call interoceptive awareness — the ability to sense your internal state. And that awareness is the foundation of emotional regulation, resilience, and genuine self-knowledge.

Your body has been carrying your story for years. This month, take the time to listen.

With care,
The Salus Team