Body Scan To Soothe Anxiety

This is a body scan to help soothe anxious feelings. We will explore sensations in the body and accept the tension and anxiety, which are part of our experience right now. By acknowledging it with gentleness and compassion, we will also notice that, like physical sensations, it is also in a state of flow - always changing, always morphing.

Is this really something to be fought, fled, or defeated? Are we not allowed to feel the way we feel?

Transcript

This is a body scan to help with anxious feelings.

We're going to start by gaining awareness of the body as a whole.

So what does it feel like to be sitting on the chair or lying down?

What does it feel like to feel the contact with the chair,

The support from the chair or the support from the bed or the sofa that you're lying on?

Feeling that you can relax into the support?

You can let go.

You can let any tension drain out of your body into the support,

Into the chair or into the bed,

Into the floor through your feet as well.

And what other sensations are going through your body now?

Are there any areas of tension?

Is there any tightness anywhere?

Or any areas that feel nice and relaxed?

What about the temperature?

Are you warm,

Cold,

Does it vary throughout the body?

Is there any tingling anywhere?

And what about your emotions?

Are you aware of anything?

Maybe in your chest area or your stomach area?

Any feelings right now?

Are any thoughts,

Any words crossing your mind,

Images appearing?

What is going on in your internal world?

And whatever is there,

All that we are doing is observing.

There's no need to judge anything,

There's no need to change anything or resist or hold on to anything.

We're just acknowledging whatever is there,

Whatever is part of your experience right now.

And then we're going to bring our attention onto the breath.

And where do you feel the breath?

You might be able to feel it down in your belly,

The belly rising and falling or your chest expanding and relaxing.

Or you might be feeling around your nostrils,

The cool air going in and warmer air coming out.

And you might be able to feel the air go up your nose and then down the back of your throat as well.

Where is the breath prominent in your body?

And wherever you feel it,

Just put all of your attention there.

Put all of your awareness there.

There's nothing else to do right now.

There's nothing to do,

There's nothing to achieve.

Right now we're just being,

Just being with ourselves and we're just watching our breath.

And again,

There is no need to change the breath,

Make it any deeper or any longer.

We are trusting our body to know how to breathe.

Just breathing normally and staying with the sensations of the breath,

The physical sensations,

Your body expanding and relaxing.

And especially for beginners,

If you find that at some point your mind has wandered off and you're thinking about the shopping,

Thinking about what to cut for dinner,

It doesn't mean that you're not doing it right.

In that moment when you realise,

Oh I was miles away,

That's a moment of mindfulness.

That's your eureka moment.

That is when you become aware.

So congratulate yourself and all you have to do is just come back to the breath.

It doesn't matter how many times we need to do this.

All that matters is that we do it.

We're forming new habits in the brain,

New pathways.

And it does take that repetition,

Just like building a muscle,

Time after time,

To teach our brain to be more present,

More of the time.

And it does become easier.

And now we're going to gently withdraw our attention from the breath and start the body scan.

And we're going to start from the feet.

So we're going to focus all of our awareness into the feet right now.

What do your feet feel like?

Can you feel into your toes?

Can you feel inside the feet?

Can you be aware of the muscles and the bones?

And if you're wearing socks and shoes,

What does that feel like?

You might be aware of a little bit of pressure from your socks and your shoes.

Are your feet warm?

Are they cold?

Are they comfortable?

And we're feeling the bottom of the feet.

And if the feet are in touch with the floor,

What does that feel like?

Having that support from the floor,

Feeling nice and stable.

And the top of the feet as well.

What can you feel?

And then we're going to put our attention up into the ankles and just feel whatever is there.

And then we're going to go up into the lower legs,

The calves,

The shins,

Come up to the knees.

What do your lower legs feel like?

Any tension?

Do they feel nice and comfortable?

What about the skin?

Can you feel the clothes on your skin?

It's not something that we normally pay attention to.

But when we start noticing things,

Noticing how the body feels,

There is so much to notice.

What do your knees feel like?

And then we're going to put our awareness into the upper legs,

The thighs,

The hips.

What are you aware of?

Can you feel the contact with the chair?

Or if you're lying down with a bed or the sofa?

And what does that contact feel like?

And if we are going through the body and finding areas of tightness or tension or pains or aches,

We can allow these areas to soften up.

We can allow the tension to go.

But again there is no need to make anything happen.

There's no need to force anything.

So if you notice that the tension has not gone or not completely gone,

That's also fine.

Remember what we're doing is we're observing.

We're like scientists.

We're just recording whatever is there,

Just becoming aware of our experience as it is.

And then we're going to let our awareness rise up into a back.

Lower back and then all the way up through the spine into our upper back.

And what does your back feel like?

This is one of the areas in the body where we do tend to accumulate tension.

It might feel tight.

Again see if it wants to relax.

And if it doesn't,

That's also fine.

Just notice what it feels like.

Oh there's a bit of tension there and this is what it feels like.

That's it,

We're just observing.

We're staying with our experience,

Whatever our experience is.

There's no need to judge.

It is what it is and we notice.

And then we're going to put our attention into our belly.

Again is there any tension there?

What does it feel like?

You will be aware of the breath in your belly.

How it rises up and then it folds and it rises up again.

And then into your chest.

And again your rib cage is expanding and relaxing.

And then expanding again and relaxing again.

And what do you notice in your heart area?

Are there any emotions rising right now?

And then we're going to let our awareness rise up into the shoulders.

And if there is tension in the shoulders we can let them drop.

And then down into the arms.

What do your arms feel like?

All the way down into the wrists and into the hands and fingers.

The top of your hands,

The palms of your hands.

What do your hands feel like?

Are they warm?

Are they cold?

Are they comfortable?

Are they touching anything?

And what are the sensations right now in your fingertips?

And then back up into the shoulders and into the neck this time.

Neck and throat.

And then the jaw.

And this is another one of those places in the body where we tend to feel tension.

We tend to tighten up.

So if that's the case see if it wants to relax and let it relax.

And then up again into your face.

Feeling the mouth,

The lips,

Your nose,

Your ears,

Your cheeks,

Your eyes and eyebrows,

Forehead and your head and your scalp as well.

And then let's check in with ourselves.

How do you feel right now?

What emotions are you aware of right now?

There might still be some anxiety,

Some thoughts milling around,

Fears,

Stress,

Worries.

And if there are any anxious feelings right now,

Just acknowledge what is there.

We do have a tendency to run away and fight the way that we feel.

Resist it.

But what if we just acknowledge it?

It doesn't mean that we need to like it.

We don't need to like it.

It doesn't mean that we're not going to do anything about it.

It only means that right now this is the experience.

So what is your experience like in this moment?

What does it feel like to be you in this moment?

Feeling into the anxiety and just sitting with it.

Ah this is what it feels like right now.

This is what it feels like to be alive.

Where do you feel it in your body?

What does it feel like?

Put a label on it if you want.

What is it?

Is it fear?

Is it worry?

How does your body know?

Is it tension?

Is it achiness?

Is it constriction somewhere?

Is it clenching your hands?

Is it in your tummy?

Put labels on it,

All of it.

By putting labels on your feelings and thoughts it will help you recognise that these feelings and thoughts are not you.

We tend to identify with what we think and what we feel.

But the truth is they're not you.

You are the one who is experiencing them.

You are the one who is observing them,

Who is aware of them.

You are immutable,

You are the sky,

You are the awareness.

And these feelings and thoughts are the clouds,

They're just traversing you.

And if you put your attention on them without resisting,

Without turning away,

Without fighting,

If you just sit with them you will find that they're not solid blocks,

They're not unchangeable.

They're a lot more fluid than we think.

They get bigger and then they get smaller.

They change.

They change into different thoughts and different feelings.

They go and they might come back again and change again and go again.

There is flow,

There is movement.

It changes from moment to moment.

And if anything gets a bit too overwhelming,

Just go back to the breath.

The breath is always there as an anchor.

Just go back to the breath.

And then when you're ready you can go back to what it feels like right now to be alive.

And we can dip in and out of it.

Just being with things as they are.

And then when we're ready we're coming back to the awareness of the body,

Awareness of our feet,

Our legs,

The arms,

The back.

And we can start moving the body,

Gently starting to wiggle our toes and wiggle the fingers.

And if you need to,

Have a little stretch.

And then when you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

Reviews

Very gentle body scan. I particularly liked the aspect of perceiving what is as what it feels to be alive right here right now. That makes it easier not to fight anxiety when it arises. Thank You 🙏🏼

Your gentle and warm way of speaking helps me to glide into a more trusting state of being. And there I am able to let go of my gripping and holding tension.
Thank you for this support and your inviting gentleness!;🙏!

Thank you

Very helpful and reassuring thank you 🙏🌟

Thank you! I love your voice. It’s so unique sounding and relaxing. ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Perfect to relax my mind and body before falling asleep.

Very relaxing. Good body scan. Lovely voice. I'll be bookmarking this one and will come back to it again.
Thank you to the guide for sharing this with us. 🙂🙏❤️

Perfect

This was exactly what I needed. I love the sound of water flowing, and your soothing voice made me feel so relaxed. Now I know it is ok when my mind wanders. Thank you.

Excellent. Soothing, calming voice. Loved the sound of water in background. Thank you for sharing yourself with us!

Soothing, thank you

Beautiful, soothing, and helpful. Thank you!

So lovely and gentle and wise! I hope you continue to record more meditations. 🙏🏼❤️

Beautiful softness and simplicity

Thank you 🙏🏼🙏🏾🙏🏿🌈☮️🌎❤️

Thank you 🙏🏼❣️

Extremely well done. Relaxing and peaceful. Thanks.

Very soothing- thank you!🙏

Thank you 💙🙏🏻💙