I practice mantra meditation and pranayama lying down and in lotus position (both because I have a chronic illness and I had a recent surgery, so I cant be upright all the time). I try to practice the correct form of breathing into the stomach, however my body dysmorphia gets in the way. I have pretty intrusive body dysmorphia—I feel like my stomach is fat (I dont have any full blown eating disorder that needs treatment but the body dysmorphia on it's own is uncomfortable and intrusive, it makes me feel like I cant relax and comfortably breathe etc). This makes belly-breathing difficult because I feel hyperaware of my stomach in a negative way.
Is there a type of meditation that helps with body dysmorphia or are there any common techniques to get around this?I have heard of a Buddhist meditation practice called "body scanning " that involves awareness of the body. But I'm also interested in yogic practices or hindupractices, it doesnt have to be buddhist only.
This is fairly important to me as even if I cant do advanced buddhsit practice , breathing properly, through the belly not the chest, helps me relax and lower blood pressure when dealing with severe pain (I'm a recently post surgical patient), and so I need to do it, but like I said , the intrusive body dysmorphia arises when I do this type of breathing and it's hard to relax and do it correctly then.
