Sensory Scan Meditation For Stress Reduction

Purposefully engage with your senses to ground and orient yourself to the present moment and strengthen the noticing brain, which helps to engage the 'rest and digest part of us. Our senses only happen now, which is the only time we have. You'll feel more calm, refreshed, and ready to face the rest of your day.

Transcript

This is a sensory scan meditation by Allison Peet, Certified mindfulness-based stress reduction instructor and owner of From Within Wellness. So let's begin. Let yourself get comfortable in whatever posture feels comfortable. Seated, Standing, Reclined. We'll be using the five senses and more to strengthen the noticing brain and strengthen our access to the present moment. After all, The five senses are only happening in the present moment. Letting yourself settle in, Taking a few deeper, Fuller breaths, Perhaps rolling the neck or the shoulders to encourage the body to soften a bit. And if the eyes are closed, Let them peep open just for now, Bringing attention to the reception of sight, The sense door of seeing, Just pure seeing. And of course, There's also a sense of perceiving, So you're bringing in information through the eyes. And letting the eyes wander around the space that you're in. Of course, Mind will come in and start to have judgments and comments about what you're seeing, And this isn't a problem. What's interesting is to notice liking and disliking, Wanting and not wanting, Thinking about what you're seeing, But you're also simply experiencing light coming in through the pupils. So letting yourself get more interested, More curious about shades of color, Textures, Shadow, Light, Reflections. You're seeing and you're aware that you're seeing. So now here's the purposeful part of this. So you're letting sight not be in the foreground of your experience. So releasing this from center stage, So to speak, Of your awareness. So that may mean to let your eyes close if you feel comfortable and safe doing that. This is one sense that we can purposefully shut down a bit by closing the eyelids. You can do this fully or even partially. So if you're partially just letting your gaze unfocus, Letting it be really soft, Lowering the gaze so that the eyes aren't wandering around the room so much if you're indoors, And bringing attention to your sensory experience of just noticing the space around you. Even with the eyes closed, Can you get in touch with the space, Perhaps the four walls, Just the external environment that you find yourself in. How are you sensing this? Just kind of noticing and being curious about your experience. As you feel ready, Bringing the reception of sound into your experience. Getting in touch with the soundscape around you, Happening spontaneously. Not a lot of control over what happens in the sound environment. Letting yourself receive, Perhaps sounds outside of the room you find yourself in, Or a bit closer in, Maybe even the sound of your own breathing, Sound of digestion. Getting in touch with the bare qualities of sound, If that feels right to you right now. Maybe volume, Layers of sound, Silence in between or underneath the sound. Resting in awareness of receiving the soundscape. Nothing to do, Not an invitation to try really hard to do the hearing. Notice it comes very naturally. If you care to now inviting your awareness a little bit closer into your own experience. Releasing sound, Of course sounds will happen, Coming and going, Constantly shifting and changing. There's a very, Very transient nature of sound. So releasing, Letting sound kind of go to the wings and bringing to center stage. Receiving another sense, Which is the sense of smell. And it's a really interesting place to practice when it feels pretty neutral. There's nothing strong, Whether pleasant nor unpleasant, That's going on in the realm of scent, Fragrance, Odor. And if there's not much happening, Can you let yourself pay attention? Is there anything subtle? In this practice of mindfulness, Subtle is significant. Releasing attention of the sense of smell and then coming down just a bit into the mouth. Receiving any flavors in the mouth. Taste. Letting this become vibrant, Alive. Any residual flavors from maybe what you ate prior or drink. As you feel ready, Releasing attention in the realm of the mouth, The tongue. And widening experiencing now to include the entire body, If you wish. The sense organ of body. This home that you are living in. The sense door of touch. Sensing temperature. Sensing pressure against the support beneath you. Sensing clothing. Sensing your own breath. Whether we experience sight, Sound, Sense of smell, Taste, Touch. Many of this doesn't include a lot of thinking about what you're doing. It's actually experiencing it directly, Non-conceptually. Going deeper than the level of the thinking mind. Going into the intelligence of this beingness. Interoception, This body's ability to feel from the inside. Proprioception, Which is feeling your own body in time and space. And another sense organ perhaps you could explore would be the mind. Is the mind just another sense organ? Perceiving it all. Receiving it all. Making sense of it all. So if you care to, Perhaps choosing one sense that feels most accessible, That feels most vivid and alive. Or allowing all of it to be here. You choose. Being creative with this. But this is the heart of the being mode. Accessing your humanness. Accessing this deep awareness of whatever is arising. Knowing you can always touch in to any of these senses to ground attention in the present moment. Taking this into your day whenever you need it. Thank you for your practice.