Long Compassionate Body Scan

Please find a comfortable position with emphasis on comfortable.

Perhaps resting on your back with your hands a bit away from your sides,

And your feet a little bit apart.

And if it feels supportive for you,

You might like to put a hand on your heart.

This is a little reminder that yes,

This is about awareness,

But it's also about loving awareness.

A reminder to bring loving connected presence to your body.

Can you sense the warmth and gentleness of your touch?

You might even like to take three deep breaths,

Just to let go of any tension that's easily let go of.

So in this meditation we'll be bringing warm-hearted attention to each part of our body.

And perhaps seeing if it's possible to incline your attention towards your body,

Like you might to that friend that brings a smile to your face,

Perhaps a pet,

Dog or a cat,

Or a little child in your life that's not yet too complicated.

And the general invitation will be if you feel an ease and well-being in a particular body part,

Inviting some appreciation or gratitude towards that part of the body.

If you have judgments or unpleasant sensations regarding a body part,

Can you let your heart soften a bit?

Can you give that part of your body or your mind some compassion?

You can even put your actual hand on that part of the body and imagine warmth and kindness flowing through.

Now bodies have a story of their own.

It's really quite natural for perhaps difficult emotions to be evoked in certain places.

So there's no need to force anything here.

If a part of the body is too difficult to stay with,

Can you give yourself a bit of compassion and just move to another body part,

Maybe one that's a bit comfortable or neutral.

Allowing the attention to gently come down to the feet and the left foot in particular.

Can you notice any sensations in the toes?

You might even like to give the toes a bit of a wiggle,

Just noticing them,

Maybe even appreciating them if they're comfortable.

I think we barely give them any kind of credit,

But think how difficult life would be without toes.

And moving to the sole of the left foot,

This tiny surface area that carries the whole weight of our bodies.

Sensations can you feel,

The bottoms of the toes,

The ball of the foot,

The heel of the left foot.

Can you send them some appreciation for the incredibly difficult work they do?

And now noticing your whole left foot,

And if your foot's reasonably comfortable today,

You can extend gratitude for that.

And if there is any discomfort,

Can you allow that area to soften?

Perhaps like it was wrapped in a nice warm towel.

Perhaps some words like,

Oh,

You know when you see a little child suffering,

Oh,

It'll be okay.

There's a little discomfort there,

But it's okay.

So moving up to your left ankle,

Noticing the intricate joint,

Bones and ligaments and synovial fluid.

Ankle joints really work hard.

It's what bends the foot,

A lot of our weight on them.

We can injure them if we go over the wrong way on our feet,

Or we're dancing in a certain way.

Yet the ankle's really doing the best it can the whole time,

Doing its absolute best.

Perhaps you can send it a little bit of gratitude.

And if at the moment there's some difficulty there,

Perhaps imagining that warmth,

Sending a bit of compassion that way.

Moving up to the left lower leg,

Two bones there,

The shin bone,

That strong calf muscle that works hard.

Can you notice any sensations in the left lower leg?

Perhaps send some gratitude or compassion if necessary.

And moving to the left knee,

Noticing sensations on the skin within the joint,

Another complex joint,

Really helpful for squatting,

For sitting,

For kicking.

Like a lot of our body parts,

It's a common place to feel pain because it's an important joint,

So the brain's going to protect it.

Giving your knee a bit of gratitude or compassion,

Perhaps even both.

Moving up to the left upper leg,

Big muscles at the front and the backs of the upper leg,

Really big heavy bone,

These heavy leg bones that help keep us upright,

Muscles around the skin,

Sending gratitude or compassion.

Moving up to the left hip,

Yet another complex joint.

How amazing is it that it works the way it works?

Allows us to sit,

Helps us bend from the hip,

Go into all sorts of weird and wonderful positions if you're a dancer,

Help us do yoga,

Joints,

The synovial fluid,

The ligaments,

The muscles,

What can you notice in your left hip?

Can you send appreciation or compassion?

And moving the attention now down to the right foot,

Repeating the same process there,

Noticing the toes,

The soles of the foot,

The top of the foot,

The bones within the foot,

Perhaps marvelling at the amazingness of the foot and including the ankle and sending some gratitude or perhaps some compassion.

Moving up to the right lower leg,

Muscles and bones.

Imagine if we didn't have a right lower leg,

It'd be pretty awkward with having your thigh and your foot and nothing in between.

You know,

We just don't give much credit to these body parts,

How incredibly important they are.

Right knee,

The kneecap and all the joint and ligaments and the cartilage,

Cartilage that we now know can regenerate.

It's not that it just wears away,

Lots of weight bearing and good diet and specific exercises can actually juice up the cartilage.

How amazing is that?

And moving up to the right thigh,

Front,

The back,

The inside and the outside,

Noticing sensations,

The big leg bone,

The muscles and the right hip,

That amazing kind of ball and socket joint,

All the different directions it can turn.

Now it's self-lubricating and we know that the one of the enzymes involved called Lubricin is really helped by all the kinds of things that help our immune system and well-being.

Good diet and exercise,

Sleep,

Lovely things like the yoga and Qi Gong we've done today,

Perhaps sending that hip appreciation and a reminder that you're doing some beautiful work with it today.

And just for a moment noticing both legs and feet and of course your mind will wander because that's what minds do,

Totally okay for the mind to wander.

You've got this beautiful home base of this precious body.

So maybe we move up to the buttocks now,

Poor old buttocks get given a bit of a hard time,

So much emphasis on the way they look but how important are they,

How uncomfortable would it be if you were sitting down and you didn't have buttocks?

Think of that cushioning and that strength.

Again perhaps there's some difficult emotional judgment that comes up,

There's no need to force that away,

You can just give yourself some kindness and compassion for how you're feeling.

You can move away from the body part if you need to or send it some compassion or can you give it a big dose of gratitude and appreciation.

Bringing your awareness to the pelvic area now,

The strong bones that support your legs,

The kind of pelvic bowl and the soft tissue in your pelvic area,

This pelvic bowl holding gently all these incredibly important organs for elimination,

For reproduction and perhaps some of yours aren't there anymore.

You can so totally still send them a message of compassion for the shadow that once was,

Maybe even appreciation for the work it did before it left as it were.

Is it possible just fill your pelvic area with just kindness and appreciation and wonderment and compassion if things are difficult,

If there's difficult emotions or difficult sensations.

Moving up to the lower back,

We can store a lot of stress in our lower back.

If you notice any discomfort or tension,

You might even imagine those muscles relaxing,

Kind of melting with tenderness.

Maybe that tension is a bit past its use by day and it's happy to just,

Ah,

And perhaps that's not how it's going.

Can you give it some compassion,

That lower back,

Such an important area of our body,

Again very,

Very well protected by the brain.

So,

We do tend to get discomfort there even when there's actually nothing wrong in the tissues.

And feel free to shift your posture a bit if you need to,

That will make your back a bit more comfortable.

So,

Moving up to your upper back,

Your shoulder blades,

Often there's some tension between the shoulder blades.

Again,

Seeing if that's something that that,

Maybe that image of the warm towel could just melt away that tension or at least give some comfort.

Noticing sensations through the upper back,

Noticing that spine that's,

That's traveling right down the back.

All those vertebrae,

The spinal cord,

Fluid around it,

The ligaments,

All doing this amazing work,

Both structurally and,

And the nervous system as well.

And actually much,

Much stronger than we,

We realize this back of ours.

There's a sense of the way we talk about backs of fragility but they're really,

Really strong.

They love movement,

Especially mindful movement.

Can you send some appreciation or compassion to the back and the spine?

And moving to the front of the body now,

This abdomen,

Maybe you can sense sensations in the skin,

Clothing touching,

Maybe you can notice long-held tension in the muscles.

Perhaps on a breath out you can allow a little bit of that tension to release,

Even if it's just for a short time.

Reminding it again,

It's okay,

Nothing to do right now,

You can relax.

Perhaps sensing the digestive organs doing their work after lunch,

If you've just had your lunch.

Some other important organs in there,

The liver and the spleen,

The bowels and the stomach,

Doing this amazing stuff that is far beyond our comprehension to really get it.

And you might be someone who has perhaps an irritable bowel or another problem there,

Just keep in mind your bowels are doing the best they can.

You might even want to use your hand to give them a little,

Little gentle pat on the belly,

A little gentle rub,

Acknowledgement,

Kindness.

Again,

The focus is all on how the belly looks right,

But think of all the amazing important things it does for us.

Moving up to your chest now,

The centre of your breathing,

Your heart centre.

Can you infuse your chest with awareness,

Appreciation and acceptance?

Perhaps you might want to put that gentle hand back on the heart,

You could have one on the belly and one on your heart.

Just reflecting on that heart that pumps away constantly,

Fortunately without us having to do anything about it usually.

And those lungs that breathe,

Bringing in oxygen from the outside environment,

Connecting us to our outside environment,

Expanding and contracting in this amazing way.

And again,

Perhaps a little compassion if there's some issues with the heart or with the breathing.

And some appreciation.

They really are there for us,

They're doing their absolute best,

Sometimes in pretty difficult situations,

Right?

As best you can,

Continuing to incline your awareness towards your body with that quality of warmth you might have for a young child or a pet,

A good friend.

We move up to our shoulders,

These shoulders that actually work really hard for us,

They often hold a lot of tension because they kind of have to be active a lot,

Ready to kind of fight for us,

Ready to take the weight of whatever problems there are.

Right now you might like even to use your hands and give them a gentle soft massage,

Gentle message of wow,

Thanks shoulders.

Today you can just relax,

It's okay,

It's really safe,

Perhaps imagining that tension melting and if it doesn't,

Just sending a bit of compassion.

So moving down the arms now,

Noticing the shoulder joint,

Joints,

Yet another complicated joint,

Lots and lots of tendons and ligaments,

Moving parts,

Shoulders that can actually work incredibly well even when a couple of those tendons are torn with no pain whatsoever and others who can have really sore shoulders but no tears,

It's all a bit interesting.

These shoulders,

Wow,

And the upper arms,

The muscles,

Strong muscles that help us lift something up,

Can keep our arms by our side or reach out or have them behind our backs or stretch up to the sky.

Appreciation or compassion and the elbow joints,

How important are these?

Imagine having your arms either straight or bent all the time,

Life would be quite different,

Perhaps sending a bit of appreciation to those joints and moving to the forearms,

Muscles,

The bones,

Tendons and the wrists,

The very,

Very intricate little joints,

Lots and lots of bones,

Lots of moving parts,

Lots in a small space,

Help control our hands,

Perhaps if your your wrists might need a little bit of touch and compassion right now and or some gratitude.

Bringing awareness into the hands,

Noticing sensations in the skin,

In the backs of the hands,

The palms of the hands,

All those finger joints,

Perhaps you can feel sensations going right into the tips of your fingers,

The tips of your fingers which are so densely innervated with nerves,

Just giving us this exquisitely amazing sensation when we we touch and these hands that do so much,

That feed us,

That dress us,

That write,

These hands that can hold a loved one's hand,

That can look after a baby,

That can drive,

Anyone who's had a hand out of action for a while really appreciates it when the function's back.

Sending those hands compassion if they need it,

Can you send a good dose of gratitude,

Appreciation for the amazing hands,

Perhaps now just holding and loving awareness all the parts of the body we've been with so far from the shoulders downward.

Now proceeding with awareness towards the head,

Beginning with the neck and you might like to gently touch your neck with your hand,

Just noticing how it supports your head,

Those muscles between the base of the head and the neck can get quite tense,

Give them a gentle soft touch or that imaginary warm towel and think about the other functions of this neck,

It's the passageway for air and food to come from the outside world into the inside world and the air coming back out and the blood vessels and the spine and the spinal cord coming right up into the brain.

Can you send a bit of gratitude to this neck and some compassion if it needs it and moving to your head,

Beginning with the back of your head,

That hard surface that protects your brain,

You might like to gently touch it with your hand or just touch it with your awareness and your ears,

These amazing sensitive organs of perception that tell us so much about the world that help you do this meditation,

So you can hear my voice.

Can you send some appreciation to your ears or if you're worried about your hearing,

Can you offer yourself some compassion?

Moving now to the forehead,

Another place we can hold tension,

Perhaps that warm towel or a feeling of melting tension right now and our eyes,

I mean wow,

Like wow,

The eyelids that slip up and down on our eyes,

What we can see,

The way the whole thing works,

Perhaps gratitude or compassion if there's some issues with your eyes or your sight and your nose,

We've got our mouth closed,

It's how our air comes in and out,

How we breathe,

Other functions,

The nose as well,

It's also an organ of an elimination if necessary,

Pretty useful actually,

The cheekbones,

The jaws,

Again somewhere we can hold a lot of tension as part of the fight flight response,

Perhaps a little massage,

Gently opening and closing the mouth,

Appreciating these very,

Very strong muscles and joints here in the jaws that can bite,

That help us talk,

Chew and the mouth,

How does that all work,

The tongue and the teeth and being able to eat without really having to focus on how to eat,

So useful,

Sending lots of appreciation to our mouth and all our sensory organs and of course they help us smile as well,

Our chin and our jaws and our mouth and then noticing that brain,

Billions of nerve cells communicating with each other all the time to help you make sense of your world,

Keep you safe,

Can you give a big thank you to your brain,

Yes it gets a bit over the top and sometimes the thoughts can be a bit annoying but it really is trying its best,

Noticing the effect of spending this time really being with the body and appreciating it,

Perhaps notice how it would be to give some kind and compassionate attention to your whole body,

You might even want to offer it a shower from head to toe of appreciation,

Compassion,

Gratitude,

Maybe even respect,

Whatever is called for even if you can't find a word for it.

And this quote by a young feminist American poet named Nariya Wahid and I said to my body softly,

I want to be your friend,

It took a long breath and replied,

I've been waiting my whole life for this.