21 Minute Body Scan Practice

We begin by settling in and finding a comfortable position. Next, we bring our attention to our breathing, feeling our body breathing in and breathing out. Then, we direct our attention to the body, starting with the toes. We scan the entire body over the 21 minutes and end where we started, with whole body breathing.

Transcript

Body scan.

So let's start by finding a comfortable position either sitting in a chair or lying on a bed or on the floor.

I'm inviting yourself into this moment by connecting with your breath,

Noticing the body breathing in and breathing out,

Maybe imagining the body inflating like a balloon,

The whole body breathing in,

The whole body breathing out,

Just allowing yourself to become aware where you are right now,

Maybe feeling your body in the chair or the weight of your body on the floor if you're lying down.

And as you're breathing,

Feeling the body soften a bit,

Sinking a bit into your chair or into the floor,

Enjoying that sensation of your whole body breathing.

And now directing your attention to your toes,

The toes on both feet,

Noticing your big toes and your little toes and all the toes in between.

What can you sense in your toes?

And then moving from your toes into your feet,

Noticing where your toes connect to your feet.

What can you sense here?

Maybe tingling or pressure,

Maybe nothing,

And all of that is perfectly okay.

Inviting your attention to scan the foot,

Noticing the top of the foot,

The sides of the feet,

Noticing the soles of the feet and the heel.

What are you aware of in the heel?

Noticing the back of the heel as you bring your attention up to your ankle,

Letting go of the toes and the feet,

And now focusing your attention on the area where the foot attaches to the leg,

Feeling both ankles,

And then moving your attention up the lower leg,

Noticing the shin and the calf,

Noticing the bones inside the leg and the skin on the outside.

What can you sense in your lower leg?

Bringing the attention up to the knee,

Perhaps noticing the area where our legs bend and sensing something here,

Or perhaps the mind has wandered,

And if that's the case,

Simply noticing where the mind is gone and bringing the attention back to the knees,

Moving up the leg from the knee to the thighs,

Noticing the front of the thighs,

The back of the thighs,

And the big long bone inside our thighs.

What can you feel here?

Now letting our attention fade away from the thigh and directing our attention to the area where our thighs meet the torso at the hips and feeling into our hips the joint of the hips,

The bones and the skin and the area of our hips.

What are you aware of here?

And then moving our attention up the body to the whole torso and sensing the front of the body,

The sides of the body,

The back,

Noticing any points of strain or tension,

Perhaps in the lower back,

Taking a moment to identify the sensation,

Directing our attention to feel what's physically happening in this area of the body,

And if that direction of attention is too much,

Focusing the attention on the breath,

Which is always in the background,

And then redirecting the attention to the next area of the body,

In this case moving up the back to the mid-back and upper back,

Moving up the spine,

Noticing perhaps your posture and the feeling that this posture invites,

Noticing the front of the body,

The belly,

The chest,

And moving up the chest,

Coming to where the body and the arms connect,

Now drawing our attention to the arms,

Moving down the arm through the upper arm,

Noticing the muscles and skin and bone in the upper arm,

And what can you feel here?

Continuing to direct the attention down the arm to the elbows and feeling into the elbows,

Perhaps noticing skin touching cloth,

And perhaps noticing nothing,

And then allowing that to be the noticing of nothing,

Moving down the arms to the forearm,

Noticing the muscles and the flesh and the skin and bone in the forearm,

And directing the attention to our wrists.

Often our wrists doing so much work today as so many people work with computers or devices for fun or as a job and just taking a moment to appreciate the wrist,

Then directing the attention into the hands,

Noticing the palms and the top of the hand,

Noticing the fingers,

The pinky and the thumb,

The fingers in between,

Feeling the skin of our hands,

And what can we notice here?

What sensations are in our hands?

Moving back up the body and the arm to where the arms connect to the torso again and into the shoulders.

What are we aware of in our shoulders?

And taking a moment to check in with our attention,

Noticing if the mind has wandered or if the attention is on the shoulders,

Noticing also the upper back,

And now directing the attention up into the neck,

Noticing each vertebrae in the upper part of the spine that makes up our neck and the work that the neck does to hold up the head,

Appreciating that for a moment,

And then directing our attention back to the physical sensations.

What do we notice here in this part of the body?

Moving to the front of the neck and noticing the throat,

Up the neck into the jaw,

Noticing the jawbone,

And if you can,

Feeling inside your mouth,

Noticing your teeth,

Your tongue,

The roof of the mouth,

Where the tongue and the mouth meet.

What are you aware of in this part of the body?

Bringing your attention to the face,

Noticing the chin,

The lips,

Noticing the skin of your face,

And the cheekbones underneath,

Noticing the nose and perhaps feeling the breath,

Breathing in and out as you scan the body for sensation.

What's present in the nose now?

Noticing the eyes,

The eye sockets in the head,

Noticing the skull and the skin and hair covering the head,

And then drawing your attention all the way to the top of the head.

What are you sensing here at the top of the head?

And perhaps imagining breathing out of the top of the head.

And then continuing to focus on the breathing and expand the breath now to include the whole body from the toes all the way to the top of the head.

I'm taking a moment here to return to breathing with the whole body.

Imagining the body inflating and deflating with each breath,

Noticing what you sense with the whole body breathing.

And opening your awareness to include sensing the whole body.

Breathing and sensing the entire body.

And as we bring this practice to a close,

Maybe putting your hand on your belly or your chest,

Taking a moment to appreciate yourself for the time you're dedicating to practice.

Resting in appreciation and gratitude.

Noticing what feels different now after this practice of directing your attention throughout the body.

And appreciating that feeling of aliveness.

Accepting whatever is present in the body and in the mind.

Making space for everything.

And anchoring into the present moment through the breath.

Reviews

Really nice body scan practice but beware of the bell at the beginning and end 🙏🏻

Really lovely body scan. Glad I was warned about the bell at the end, it was pretty piercing! But overall this is a really nice meditation, I will definitely return to it ❤️

Very nice meditation, but those loud bells scared the love out of me ;)

I enjoyed this practice and felt very Intune with the body and sensations. Thank you!
I would make one suggestion for the future: Please use a different starting and ending bell, it was too piercing and didn't seem to lead to a soft ending. I look forward to hearing more from you!