Body Scan

An exploration of the physical sensations of the body, guided by Bodhipaksa. We spend far too much time in our heads, caught up in thinking. This thinking is often driven by—and creates—anxiety, irritability, painful longings, and doubt. We're happier when we think less! One way to bring this about is to spend more time being aware of the sensations of the body. This meditation doesn't just provide an experience, but trains us to adopt a different way of being.

Transcript

We're going to be taking a tour of the physical sensations of the body.

So you can do this lying down,

But it's generally more effective from the point of view of developing mindfulness to be sitting upright.

Sitting in a way that allows you to breathe freely,

That allows you to sit with a sense of poise and dignity,

But also sitting in a way that allows you to relax,

So that you're letting go of any unnecessary tensions in the body.

And just giving yourself a few moments to arrive.

Feeling the weight of your body pushing down.

Perhaps taking a few deep breaths and really letting go on the out-breath.

Noticing how the body relaxes and releases tension.

Every time you exhale.

And now we're going to begin by noticing the sensations in the feet.

So you can notice sensations of contact.

And pressure.

Perhaps feeling contact between your feet and the floor.

Better contact with any clothing that you're wearing.

Contact between the toes.

You can notice sensations of warmth,

Coldness.

You can notice the soles of the feet.

The upper surfaces of the feet.

Noticing any sensations from within the muscles and joints.

Especially any sensations of tingling,

Pulsing.

That indefinable sense of aliveness.

As you're sitting here,

You're breathing lightly,

Rising and falling.

Just seeing if you can relax the feet a little on the out-breath.

Just seeing if you can allow the feet to soften on the out-breath.

And you can become aware of the ankle joints.

And just thinking about softening the ankle joints.

And you know what the sensation's like of sitting on a seat or a wall with your lower legs dangling,

Just allowing your ankles to hang.

Just allowing your feet to hang freely.

So just bringing some of that quality of relaxation into the ankle joints.

Becoming aware now of the shins and the calves.

And you can notice the sensations on the skin.

Any contact with your clothing.

Any sense of warmth or coolness.

And you can notice the muscles.

The large,

Fleshy calf muscles on the backs of the lower legs.

And again,

On every out-breath,

Just thinking about softening those muscles.

You don't actually have to do anything.

Just think in terms of letting go of any unnecessary tension.

And being aware of the knee joints.

And again,

Just imagining that your legs are dangling,

Your lower legs swinging,

Completely free.

And becoming aware of the upper legs,

The thighs.

Again,

Noticing the sensations on the skin.

Touch of our clothing.

Perhaps warmth or coolness.

Perhaps feeling deeper pressures pushing into the muscles.

If there's contact with your seat or the backs of your thighs.

With this pressure where you're sitting.

And again,

Just softening the muscles.

Backs of the thighs,

The front of the thighs.

And you can imagine as you're breathing out that your breath is flowing down through the body.

Down through the legs.

Through the calves,

Through the feet,

Into the floor.

So with every exhalation,

There's a sense of letting go,

Sweeping downward through the legs.

And noticing the large muscles around the hips,

Noticing the buttocks.

And the weight of your body pressing down.

And if you become mindful of any tension in the hips,

Just letting go of that as best you can.

Again,

You can imagine your breathing,

Your out-breath flowing downward through the hips.

As it flows down through the legs,

The calves,

The feet into the earth.

Noticing the belly now.

And the muscles of the belly will be moving with your breathing.

So just noticing any sensations connected with those movements.

And any other sensations such as contact with your clothing,

Warmth,

Coolness,

And heart courses,

You arestopping a master's in a moment.

Perhaps even the pressure within the abdomen increasing and decreasing as you breathe in and out and you can notice the movements of the rib cage as well just letting your breathing be natural letting the breathing take care of itself and you can notice the whole length of the spine from where it's embedded in the pelvis right up to where it articulates with the skull noticing perhaps a sense of the spine changing length,

Changing shape as you breathe in and as you breathe out noticing sensations on the skin on the back feeling the shoulders rise and fall as you breathe in and out perhaps feeling some sensations in the upper arms connected with the breathing just letting the arms hang passively letting them be completely relaxed and just noticing sensations in the upper arms on the skin and in the muscles and the joints in the lower arms,

The wrists,

The hands just letting the wrists and the hands be very loose and relaxed and still and noticing sensations on the palms of the hands and the fingertips moving back up to the neck and the throat just letting the back of the neck be long and relaxed and open so that the chin slightly tucks in and it's as if the joint between the first vertebra and the skull is opening slightly and as you notice that openness you may notice the rest of the spine beginning to relax a bit more deeply and ideally the head is balanced effortlessly atop the spine and you can let the jaw relax the tongue lying soft in the mouth noticing the sensations inside the mouth softness,

The hardness of your teeth the wetness of your saliva letting all the muscles in the face be soft letting the muscles around the eyes be soft so it's as if you are sitting with the eyes defocused even though the eyes are closed letting the brow be smooth so what we've been doing is going through the body one part of the body at a time focusing on each and what I'm going to suggest now is that you simply become aware of the whole body at once so to do this we don't run around trying to collect up all the sensations we simply relax back into having a kind of defocused gaze into the body so think about relaxing your eyes that helps you to relax your attention so there are all these sensations around the body that are spontaneously and effortlessly arising and we simply allow them into awareness seeing if you can be aware of everything from the soles of the feet up to the crown of the head and just allowing sensations to be there some sensations may be unpleasant,

There may be a sense of tension,

Tightness,

Even pain just seeing if you can regard those unpleasant sensations as being just sensations like any other and if you notice any tightening of the body around unpleasant sensations using the breathing to help let go imagining your breathing flowing through and around tense or painful parts of the body but it's also helpful sometimes just to back off and take this wide view,

This open,

Defocused gaze into the body allowing tensions or pains to simply fade into the scenery so you can continue for a minute or two just observing sensations arising in the body and then I'll ring a bell and you can gradually bring your attention more fully into the outside world again you you you you

Reviews

Thank you for this meditation body scan your soothing voice made it a very pleasant experience. A Lovely way to start the day. 🙌

One of the best body scans I’ve done, thank you 🙏

Really enjoyed voice and some unique and helpful cues.

Awesome beautiful soothing calm clear voice, love,love,love.
Thanks

Excellent advanced Vipassana style scan thank you for offering this,

Lovely to hear a fellow Scot in here. Beautiful use of language. Tone and speed perfect. Thank you 🙏

Much thanks for bringing calmness and gratitude to our miraculous bodies. Beautiful meditation.

I didn’t know how much I needed this until afterwards. Thank goodness for you

I appreciate the gentle flow of release and acknowledgement of sensation or tightness. This is a great relaxation meditation. Thank you.

Thanks that was amazing, really need that today. Very relaxed. 🙏

Great pace in the practice and detail to investigate sensations throughout the body. Soothing voice

Thanks for the blessing of this meditation. 🙏🏻🦋🙏🏻

Wonerderful! Your slow pace helped me to be patient and really attend to each part of the body.

Relaxing. Put me right to sleep (until the phone rang).

Lovely voice and has left me feeling calm and relaxed and fully nourished - thanks so much 🙏

Thanks for a beautiful and skillful reminder of the body!

Excellent body scan. Thanks so much for sharing this practice with us. Namaste

Lovely soothing voice , with great well spaced delivery....felt every suggestion...thank you 😊

Wonderful Bodyscan 💫
Great calming voice 😌
Will definitely subscribe for this
Feel so much better 😊

Thank you 🙏

I feel confident with Bodhipaksha because I know he's a Triratna Buddhist and I am safe