Reading Your Body & Emotions with Body Scanning
By Mia Jones, Pre-Licensed Professional
Emotions can be difficult. Despite being intensely personal, they can be hard to decipher, explain, or accept. Talking with another person, like a therapist, can help you find the words for how you are feeling. However, there is another way—learning how to listen to your body’s signals.
The mind-body connection is an amazing thing: you can physically feel anger, anxiety, joy, and love. Just think about how many sayings revolve around the stomach alone: butterflies in your tummy, your stomach dropping, a kick to the gut. When a feeling is intense, it is understandable that your priority is not examining your emotions. When you are ready to understand and process that pain, body scanning can be a helpful tool.
What is body scanning?
Body scanning is a mindfulness meditation exercise in which you bring your attention to different areas of the body, moving from your feet to the top of your head or vice versa. You can start by getting into a comfortable sitting position in a quiet space. Try a few minutes at first. The goal is to notice what is present without judging it; you do not have to feel relaxed or notice every part of your body.
For beginners, I recommend a guided body scan meditation, such as the one linked below, or trying it with a counselor. You can keep your eyes open, change position, or pause if focusing inward feels uncomfortable.
Body scanning offers a way to practice interoception—awareness of your body’s internal signals. Interoception is not just about emotions; it also helps you notice hunger, thirst, and muscle sensations. Research on mindfulness programs suggests they can improve self-reported interoceptive awareness, although that does not mean a single body scan will have the same effect for everyone.
Imagine you have just had a frustrating conversation over the phone. While it is fine to decompress, perhaps this time you sit in a chair and take note of how your body feels. Is your jaw tense? Does your face feel hot? Do you notice a headache beginning? These sensations might accompany anger. You may also notice nausea or tightness in your throat alongside anxiety.
These are clues to explore, not a diagnosis or a fixed emotion code. Physical sensations can have many causes. Through discussion with a therapist or self-reflection, you can begin making connections between situations, physical sensations, and emotions. Recognizing emotions can be a first step toward accepting and processing them.
Body signals: what should I look for?
People experience emotions differently, and culture and context matter. Research on self-reported bodily maps of emotion describes patterns across groups—not rules that every person must fit. Some pleasant emotions may feel light or energizing, while distress may feel heavy or tense. Your own experience is what you are learning to notice.
Happiness
Happiness may come with lightness in the head or chest, easier breathing, or an upright posture. It can feel activating: moving and taking action may seem easier. With excitement or elation, you might also notice warmth, a faster heartbeat, or restlessness.
Love
Love is complex and can feel different across people and relationships. Here, I mean the sensations that arise when you feel love or give or receive a loving action. You might notice warmth, less tension, or a sense of ease. Some people notice their heartbeat or breathing more strongly, especially around the chest and torso.
Fear and anxiety
Fear can activate the body in response to perceived danger. You might notice a hollow feeling in the stomach, goosebumps, sweating, a faster heartbeat, quicker breathing, or muscle tension. People respond in different ways, including feeling ready to move or feeling frozen.
Anxiety can linger beyond an immediate threat. It may come with tension, headaches, dizziness, stomach churning, trembling, or a sense of being unable to act. These sensations overlap with other experiences and health conditions, so avoid assuming that a physical symptom is necessarily anxiety.
Anger
Anger can feel energizing and heavy at the same time. You may notice restlessness, warmth, a faster heartbeat, or tension in the jaw, fists, and forehead. Naming those sensations can give you a moment to notice what is happening before deciding how to respond.
Sadness and depression
Sadness may feel heavy or draining, with tears, pressure around the eyes, or a knot in the throat. Depression can include low energy, numbness, or difficulty finding motivation, rather than constant tearfulness. Sadness and clinical depression are not interchangeable, and a body scan cannot diagnose depression. If these experiences persist or interfere with your life, a counselor can help you explore them.
Beyond body scanning: layers of emotion
One way to understand emotions is to distinguish an initial emotional response from feelings that develop as we interpret that response. These are sometimes called primary and secondary emotions. The categories are a useful framework, rather than a single universal classification.
For example, you might first feel hurt after a difficult interaction, then feel ashamed because of expectations about how you “should” react. Culture, values, experiences, and beliefs can all shape these layers. Body scanning may help you notice the sensations involved, while reflection and therapy can help you understand their meaning.
If you need an open ear and support processing your emotions, you are welcome to meet with me or another available counselor.
Try a guided body scan
Body Scan Meditation from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center includes guided audio and practical instructions to help you begin.
References and further reading
Hartmann, M., Lenggenhager, B., & Stocker, K. (2022). Happiness feels light and sadness feels heavy: introducing valence-related bodily sensation maps of emotions. Psychological Research, 87, 59–83.
Nummenmaa, L., Glerean, E., Hari, R., & Hietanen, J. K. (2013). Bodily maps of emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 646–651.
Guy-Evans, O. (2026). Primary and secondary emotions. Simply Psychology.
Treves, I. N., et al. (2025). A meta-analysis of the effects of mindfulness meditation training on self-reported interoception. Scientific Reports, 15, 38889.
About Mia Jones
Mia Jones is a pre-licensed professional supervised by Tim Jenkins, LCPC. Her relational, trauma-informed, person-centered approach supports people exploring emotions, relationship patterns, anxiety, depression, grief, identity, and life transitions. She offers appointments in Orland Park and Oak Lawn.