Body Scan Meditation: Relax And Reconnect With Your Body

A gentle mindfulness body scan to help you relax, release tension, and reconnect with your body.

In this practice, you’ll be guided to bring awareness to different areas of the body, noticing sensations without judgement and softening any areas of tension. Using the body as your anchor, you’ll train the mind to return to the present moment with ease and kindness.

This meditation supports you to:
• Release physical tension and stored stress
• Develop body awareness and presence
• Calm a busy or wandering mind
• Feel more grounded and relaxed

You can practise seated or lying down - simply allow yourself to arrive, notice, and let go.

Transcript

So today we will do a body scan meditation and if you wish you can stay seated wherever you are or you can lie down if you wish to. I'll just give you a few moments to prepare yourself and your environment so it's super comfortable and nourishing for you and then mindfulness meditation is about training the mind to remain in the present moment non-judgmentally. We can use our breath as the anchor to the present moment and today's practice we will use body sensations so maybe there's tension or ease whatever you feel in the body we are not going to label them is it good or bad or judge them in any way we just bring the awareness to the different body parts that I will call out and maybe silently acknowledge it release any tension but we're not attaching to them we're not labeling them we're just aware of the sensations and whenever the mind wanders to thoughts or anything else distractions around you just notice it with kindness let it go and then come back to the sensation within your body. So let's begin our mindfulness body scan meditation and just allow the body and mind to arrive in this very moment I'm just noticing how the body feels today and in this moment and again we're not labeling just noticing how the body feels today maybe there's tension somewhere in the body you may gently notice the contact points between the body and the surface beneath you notice any sounds around you you may gently close down the eyes or soften the gaze and now guide your awareness to the top of the head notice if there's any tension and just release any tension with each breath move your awareness to the back of the head and neck softening the muscles around the forehead and eyes relaxing the face dropping the shoulders away from the ears send your exhale and some love to your shoulders the muscles around the shoulders and melt away any tension any stark energies soften the arms elbows lower arms wrists hands and each fingers feel the weight of the arms as they're resting in your lap or beside yourself on the floor if you are lying down move the awareness to the chest belly upper back middle back lower back feel any sensation in these areas and just observing without labelling them move the awareness to the hips thighs feel the muscles softening and relaxing and gentle awareness moving the knees lower legs shins and scalp ankles all the way to each of your toes toes feel the whole body softening and relaxing into this present moment you now feel the whole body as a single field of sensation and just observe what comes up but anytime the mind wanders to thoughts please bring it back to the present moment by focusing on the sensation within the body and now gently bring the awareness back to the body and those physical contact points between the body and the surface beneath you notice any sounds around you and just observe how you feel now in this moment and if you are lying down you may gently turn to one side and push yourself up to seated but still having the eyes closed and just sitting upright when you're ready and just take a moment to thank yourself for pausing for meditating together and for nourishing the mind and body with this gentle mindful flow practice and when you are ready you may gently open the eyes and welcome yourself back to the here and now