Mindful Body Scan

This Body Scan practice encompasses a journey throughout your entire body, observing the breath and sensations of the body. Allow any mental chatter to quiet and become supported by and grounded in the present moment. This meditation is used during the MBSR Training

Transcript

This is a body scan meditation,

A meditation we do lying down.

Make yourself comfortable on a mat or on your bed.

Your arms and legs are straight,

Your feet are gently falling sideways and you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you.

You might want to cover yourself with a blanket to keep warm.

And then become still in this position.

Let your body be carried by the earth.

Now focus your attention on your breath.

Bring your awareness to your abdominal wall,

Expanding on your in-breath and contracting on your out-breath.

You might be sensing your breath more prominently in another part of your body,

Your nostrils or your chest.

Feel your nostrils cooling off on your in-breath and warming up on your out-breath.

Or feel your chest expanding on your in-breath and contracting on your out-breath.

Observe where you feel your breath the most clearly,

Your chest,

Your belly or your nostrils.

During this meditation the sensations in our body are the primary focus.

We are going on an exploration throughout our entire body.

There are many sensations we can feel.

We can feel warm,

Cold,

Itching,

Stinging,

Aching,

Tingling sensations.

Your body might feel soft or hard,

Stressed or relaxed,

Moist or dry.

Explore every sensation you feel in your body.

We will be looking at them with patience and an open mind,

Without judging.

This meditation is no contest.

If we have vague or even no sensations,

That is what we are experiencing.

That is what is happening right now.

Now move your attention to the toes of your left foot and expand your attention to the sole of your left foot,

Your heel,

To the top of your left foot,

To your entire foot and include your ankle to your focus of awareness.

Focus on your entire foot and the ankle.

Now bring your attention to your lower leg,

Your calf and your shin and include your knee.

Now bring your attention to your upper leg,

Your calf and your shin and include your knee.

If you are distracted during this meditation,

There is no need to catch up.

Just join us where we are right now,

Which is at the lower leg,

The calf and the shin.

Now let go of your calf and shin and bring your focus of awareness on your thigh and include your hip bone.

Focus on the sensations in your thigh and your hip.

Now broaden your attention to your entire left leg.

So focus on your hip,

Your thigh,

Your knee,

Your calf and shin,

Your ankle and your entire foot.

And use your breath to help you with that.

Breathe in through the sole of your foot towards your hip and breathe out from your hip towards the sole of your foot.

And again breathe in through the sole of your foot towards your hip and breathe out from your hip towards the sole of your foot.

On your next out breath you let go of your left leg and you move to the toes of your right foot and expand your attention to the sole of your foot,

Your heel,

The top of the foot,

The entire foot and include your ankle as a focus of your attention.

Now shift the focus of your attention to your lower leg,

To your calf and shin,

Your right calf and shin and include your knee.

Remember to explore the feelings in your body with an open mind,

Without judging and with patience.

Noticing everything in your body requires practice.

Give yourself this time an opportunity.

On your next out breath you let go of your lower leg,

Your calf and shin,

Your right knee and focus on your right thigh and include your hip.

On your next out breath you let go of your left knee,

Your calf and shin,

Your left knee and focus on your right thigh and include your hip.

On your next in breath you broaden your attention to your entire right leg.

Start with your hip,

Your thigh,

Your knee,

Your calf,

Your shin,

Your ankle and your foot.

Then breathing in through the sole of your right foot towards your hip and breathing out from your hip towards the sole of your foot.

And in again through the sole of your foot towards your hip and out from your hip towards the sole of your foot.

Now,

Bring your awareness towards your pelvic area,

Your genitals,

Your urinary bladder,

Your anus.

Bring aware of the senses in your pelvic area.

Keep in mind that this is not a contest.

We are simply exploring the feeling in our body.

These feelings can be strong,

Vague and sometimes even non-existent.

Explore whatever there is.

Now let go of your pelvic area and shift your focus to your lower belly,

Your stomach,

Your intestines,

Your belly button.

Bring your awareness towards the senses in your lower belly.

If your mind wanders off,

Just notice it and come back to the meditation without judgement.

Now become aware of the sensations in your lower back.

Think of all the sensations that are available to you.

And on your next out breath,

You let go of your lower back and use your in breath to shift your focus of attention towards your upper back,

Your spinal cord,

Your rib cage,

Your shoulder blades.

Become aware of the senses in your upper back.

If you feel you might fall asleep,

You have several options to avoid that.

You can either stretch your arms upwards or sideways.

You can open your eyes or maybe remove your blanket.

If you do fall asleep,

There's no need to catch up once you wake up.

Just step in where we are at that moment.

From the upper back,

We move to the chest area.

We move to our lungs,

Our respiratory system,

Our heart,

Our circulatory system.

Become aware of your chest area,

Your rib cage,

Your sternum,

Your breast area and observe the sensations in your chest area.

Remember whatever there is.

Class community.

On your next in-breath,

You shift your focus of attention towards your left hand.

To the fingers of your left hand,

Your thumb,

Your index finger,

Your middle finger,

Ring finger and pinky finger.

Broaden your attention with the palm of the hand,

The back of the hand and include your wrist.

Focus your attention on your entire left hand.

Now let go of your left hand and focus on the sensations in your lower arm,

Including your elbow.

And remember,

This is no contest.

If there are no sensations,

There are no sensations.

Let go of your lower arm and focus on your upper arm and whatever it is that you're sensing there.

And include your shoulder,

Your left shoulder.

If your mind wanders off,

Just notice it and come back to the meditation without judgment.

On your next in-breath,

You shift your focus from your left upper arm and shoulder towards the fingers of your right hand.

Focus on every finger on your right hand.

And include the palm of your hand,

The back of your hand and the wrist.

Focus on your entire right hand.

And now bring your attention to your lower arm,

Including your elbow,

Your right lower arm.

And now,

Let go of your left hand and focus on your right hand.

Focus every sensation in your right lower arm.

Use your next in-breath to shift your attention from your lower arm to your upper arm,

Including the shoulder.

Explore whatever there is.

On our next in-breath,

We broaden our attention to both of our arms,

The entire arms.

And we're using our breath to do so.

We breathe in through the palms of our hands towards our armpits.

And we breathe out from the armpits towards the palms of our hands.

Breathe in again towards your armpits,

Through the palms of your hands.

And breathe out from your armpits towards the palms of your hands.

And now,

Let go of both of your arms.

Move your attention to the neck and the throat and its sensations.

Move further up towards your jaw,

Your teeth,

Your tongue,

Your mouth.

Become aware of your sensations in this area,

Your jaw,

Your teeth,

Your tongue,

Your mouth.

And move further up and move your attention to your cheeks and your nose.

Think of all the sensations that you could feel.

And then shift your attention towards the eyes and the eyebrows,

And especially that And move to your forehead and your temples.

Bring your awareness to the top of your head.

Focus on the sensations on the top of your head.

Now focus your attention on the sensations on the back of your head.

Now broaden your attention to your entire body.

Use your breath to guide you.

Imagine there's an opening in the crown of your head.

Breathe in through that opening.

Breathe in through your head,

Neck,

Chest,

And somewhere in that area,

Your in-breath becomes an out-breath.

Breathe out through your belly,

Legs,

And feet.

And imagine you can breathe out through the soles of your feet.

Now breathe in through the soles of your feet,

Through your legs,

Belly,

And somewhere in your belly,

Your in-breath turns into an out-breath.

Breathe out towards the crown of your head,

Through your chest,

Neck,

And head.

Continue by breathing in through the crown of your head,

Out through the soles of your feet.

In through the soles of your feet,

And out through the crown of your head.

Breathe in through the crown of your head,

And out through the soles of your feet.

Breathe in through the crown of your head,

And out through the soles of your feet.

And breathe in through the soles of your feet,

And out through the crown of your head.

Breathe in through the soles of your feet.

Become aware of your entire body and its sensations by breathing in through the crown of your head,

And out through the soles of your feet.

In again,

Through the soles of your feet,

And out through the crown of your head.

We've reached the end of this meditation.

First of all,

Congratulate yourself for finishing it,

And use it whenever you want to take good care of yourself.

Start wiggling your fingers and your toes,

And stretch out a little bit,

And come to your right side to push yourself upwards to a seated position.

Thank you for joining me in this meditation.

Till next time.

Reviews

Good thorough body scan!

Very gentle yet thorough.

I am grateful for this nuturing meditation experience ♡