Welcome to body scan practice.
You can choose a position.
For most of the mindfulness practices,
It's best to be sitting up or standing up.
For body scan,
You might also choose to lie down.
Find a place in your body where you can sense your breath and start observing the path of your breath through your body.
Notice the sensations in the parts of your body through which air is running.
Are there any thoughts coming in?
If you notice any,
Let them come in and pass by,
Not blocking them,
And just observing our breath.
Staying with the breath for a couple more moments,
And then expanding our attention to the whole of the body.
Noticing any tension anywhere,
Or any strong or soft sensation,
And then taking a hand of our attention as if we would walk a child,
And gently,
Slowly bringing it to our right foot.
What are the sensations in your right foot?
And now let's compare what I sense in my right foot and in my left foot.
And then coming to our left foot fully.
How does my left foot feel today?
We don't have to do anything with sensations that we find,
Just be with them.
And then we can move up to our left calf and shin.
And it might happen that in any part of the body there is no sensations,
And that's really okay.
We might just notice,
Hey,
I've got this part of the body,
It's there,
And that's enough.
And then notice the left knee,
And the left thigh.
Are the sensations pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral?
All these options are fine.
And with the next out-breath,
Let's move to our right calf and shin.
And then move up to the knee.
Do we feel the joint somehow,
Or maybe not?
And then we move up to the thigh.
And now let's move up to our buttocks.
Is there any sensation of pressure related to the contact with the floor,
Or the bed,
Or the chair?
And how our genitals feel today.
And how about our pelvic floor?
There might be small muscles that are tense or relaxed.
Let's take a deep breath in.
And move up to the belly.
What's happening in my belly right now?
Maybe there's a sense of breath,
Or maybe anything else.
Let's make a little pause to see,
Am I still here?
And now in my body,
Or have I got lost in thinking?
And if we got lost in thinking or drifting away,
That's totally okay.
It happens to everyone.
Just we might now gently take the hand of our attention,
And bring it back now to the chest.
What's present in my chest?
Maybe I notice the heart beating inside.
Or maybe anything else,
Or nothing.
If there is nothing in any part of the body,
See what the mind is saying about it.
Whether it's panicking,
For example,
Or if it's okay with that.
And then,
Taking your attention to explore what's present in your back.
Is there any strong sensation?
Or is there rather a soft sensation?
And you can also notice that maybe different parts of your back feel differently.
And then,
With another out-breath,
Let's see how our right shoulder is today.
And then,
Going down to your right arm,
The upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower arm,
And then the wrist.
Can we sense the pulse in the wrist?
And then,
The right hand.
Maybe the sense of contact with something else.
And we can compare how my right hand feels,
And how my left hand feels.
And then,
Leaving the right hand,
And moving fully to our left hand.
And slowly moving up through the wrist,
Upper arm,
And the shoulder.
And if it would happen that some sensation in another part of the body is calling for attention,
Maybe some discomfort or anything else,
You can just take a moment to give that sensation your attention.
And then,
Gently coming back to where we are right now,
Which is the neck.
You can notice if there's any tension,
Maybe swallow.
And then,
Slowly moving up to your jaw.
Is it relaxed or tight?
Noticing your teeth,
And tongue,
And lips.
And again,
Just noticing,
Am I still with this practice,
Or have I drifted away?
And it's totally okay if we drift away,
Or get lost in thinking.
Even if it happens a lot of time during the practice.
It's about finding the awareness,
And losing it,
And then finding it again.
And we might now give a little bit of attention to our nose.
Maybe it's moving when you're breathing.
Noticing your cheeks,
And eyes.
Are they moving?
Behind the closed eyelids?
Or maybe are the eyelids moving,
Even if they are closed?
And then taking a moment to explore our forehead.
So you can notice the area between your eyebrows and nose.
And your temples,
Which are above your cheeks.
And the crown of the head.
And the whole head.
And we also add the torso.
And also,
With another out-breath,
Spreading the attention to our right arm.
And left arm.
Right leg.
And the left leg.
And the whole body.
And also notice your breath.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
