Directing attention on body parts
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You should keep your attention in the 4 foundation of mindfulness from the time you wake to the point you sleep.
Two key elements for a beginner is:
- you have to make your body fully sensitive
- you have to calm the fabrications
The key ingredient in mindfulness is what ever you sense you should not react with craving and clinging noting the sensation is impermanent.
To make your body sensitive
You should make your body sensitive since all mind matter creates sensations and any changes in the aggregates is sensed through the sensation it creates. So in doing any of the 4 foundation of mindfulness sensation play a key role. Scan your body from part to part systematically without missing any part until you feel some sensation in the part you examine. Start with small areas and linger on the part during the start but keep increasing the pace you move and the size of the area seeing if you are fully sensitive to any sensation in the whole area when doing so, i.e., when you sense something in the whole area move on to another area systemically - the time to sense any sensation will become shorter and shorter until it becomes instant and through out the body.
Calm the fabrications
You have to calm all fabrication before realising the final goal.
Passive
You keep looking at sensation the fabrications will disappear. First the gross sensations and then pleasant sensation leaving you with neutral sensations. After some practice, mere looking at any fabrication it disappears.
Active
Calm the breath by looking at the process its speed and length, make the efforts to anchor the mind, if there are body sensations look at it until it disappears (it happens in a short duration) until you have pleasant or neutral sensations
Overcoming some of the hindrances
As I see it, there seams to be some hindrances to your daily practice. They might be the following:
Agitation
If your mind seams very active and restless then more from part to part fast scanning large areas but progressively staying longer and making the area a bit smaller. Note the speed and length or breathing also.
Mental Lethargy
Increase space of scanning to arouse energy. This is also a mental fabrication do generally you should do this in a medium pace (not too long or too short in any part). Do some intentional breathing increasing the length and speed marginally.
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