I will teach the awareness practice to a client. The awareness practice can be used as a means by which to identify areas of discomfort in the body, facilitate a reawakening of the connection between the mind and body, and to promote a sense of calm.

The goal is for the client to implement this practice every morning up awakening and every night before sleeping (while lying down). He will continue the practice for one month, when he meets with me to discuss his experiences. The overall goal is to promote a sense of calmness and also to promote awareness of his physical body.

Client is a 48 year old male who was recently divorced. He suffered from childhood trauma, and, after his divorce, noticed body aches and anxiety. Medical history of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. No past surgeries. Used to run for exercise, but has stopped doing so in recent months.

I envisioned incorporating this teaching into his typical mental health appointment, as he had requested. The client's relationship with his own physical body seemed to be damaged. As such, using a body awareness practice may promote healing of that relationship. Using a body based practice also allows the client to access aspects of his unconscious which could not be accessed using talk therapy alone. As the client's tolerance for feeling present in his body increases, perhaps other body based practices--such as different asanas--may be considered.

Allowing for the quieting of the mind via the awareness practice, while in a supine position lying on the bed could be considered a mixture of raja yoga (meditation component) and hatha yoga (if one considers the lying posture to be corpse pose or svasana).

Client was a bit tentative about doing meditation, for religious reasons, and was more comfortable calling the practice an awareness practice.

The client was contented with the results of this practice and decided to continue to perform it even after the one month period. He noticed that sleep was easier and that, during the daytime, he felt more awake and less anxious. His body aches were decreased and he would even sometimes perform this awareness practice at work while at his desk. I would suggest that the client continue this practice and consider, perhaps in the future, adding some conscious stretching (as tolerable). Perhaps a JAPA practice might be helpful for him.

Yes. I applied the plan the client reported performing the practice regularly for a month. The goals were achieved. The client felt an increased sense of ease, felt more comfortable in his body, and overall reported a decrease in body aches.

No. The plan was straightforward and the client picked up on the practice easily. In the future, I will continue to use the phrase awareness practice as opposed to meditation, as this client was comfortable with that phrase and likely would not have been comfortable with the practice if it had been called meditation.

Yes. I will always remember to gather information from the client regarding his/her thoughts about yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices, prior to introducing one. In this case, the verbage used to describe the practice could have closed off the client to the utility of a yogic practice. Thankfully, it did not.