Gentle Body Scan Meditation

We ease into this body scan meditation with a little movement, and then we take our time moving from the bottoms of the feet to the top of the head. Body scans can be grounding and especially supportive for people who spend a lot of time getting caught in the mind and repetitive thoughts. It’s normal to be able to sense into some parts of the body more than others. If there’s areas that feel numb or disconnected, just notice that.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to your body scan meditation.

If it's available to you,

I invite you to begin this meditation by bringing a little bit of movement into your body.

So if you're seated or standing,

Just take a moment to roll your shoulders up towards your ears with an inhale and as you exhale,

Let your shoulders relax down your spine.

And again,

Inhale to raise your shoulders towards your ears and exhale to relax.

And one more time,

Inhale and exhale.

And then we'll move the other way.

So inhale,

Rolling your shoulders towards your ears again and exhale to round them forward.

Inhale to raise your shoulders and exhale to round.

And one more time with your own breath.

Good.

Now take a moment just to shake out your arms,

Maybe roll your wrists and then switch directions with the wrists.

Good.

And then when you feel ready,

Just taking your time to find your meditation position.

So maybe you choose to sit for your meditation today or maybe you decide to lie down.

And if you're seated,

Just let your feet rest on the floor,

Hands resting in your lap and see if you can keep your spine straight while your muscles relax around your spine.

And if you're lying down,

You might let your arms splay out wide alongside your body with your palms facing up.

Let your legs be nice and long and let your feet fall out to the sides.

Just take a moment to make sure you're comfortable.

And when you feel ready,

Letting your eyes close or you always have the option to keep your eyes open,

Rested on a point out in front of you.

And we'll begin by bringing a hand to the belly and just notice how your belly expands with each inhale and how it falls with each exhale.

Feeling into the sensations of your hand on your belly,

The sensations within your hand itself.

And then just letting your attention rest with the breath,

With this gentle rhythm of the inhale and the exhale.

Just noticing how it subtly moves your hand.

And as we get settled into our meditation practice,

You'll notice that the mind is quick to wander.

It's not a big deal.

It's normal.

It's just the nature of the mind.

And so when you notice that the mind has wandered,

Either in this moment or further on in the meditation,

You just notice that and then take a moment to bring your attention back and see if you can do so without being hard on yourself about it.

Meditation is the practice of redirecting our attention over and over again.

So you can keep your hand on your belly if you'd like or you can let it rest in your lap or alongside you.

Just keeping your awareness with the breath,

With the rise and fall of the belly.

And now let your awareness slowly move down into your pelvis and then down into your legs and all the way down into your feet.

Giving yourself a moment for your awareness to arrive in your feet.

First noticing your toes,

Starting with your big toes and then moving outward.

And see if you can do this without moving your feet.

Letting your awareness spread from the toes into the tops of the feet and into the backs of the feet.

Feeling the soles,

The arches and the heels.

And feeling the pressure of your feet against the floor.

Or if you're lying down,

Just noticing the pressure of your heels against the floor.

And now let your awareness spread into the feet as a whole.

Just tuning into the sensations here.

If you couldn't see your feet,

How would you know that you have feet?

So just tuning into the sensations,

The feeling of your feet.

And as you continue to watch the sensations in your feet,

Allow yourself also to become aware of your breath moving in and out of your body.

You might even imagine your breath moving in and out through the bottom of your feet.

So now letting your awareness circle the ankles.

Now rising up into the lower legs as you sense into the calf muscles,

The shins,

The muscles along the shins.

And now noticing the knees,

The outsides of the knees.

And feeling into your kneecaps and the insides of the knees and the backs of the knees.

And now bringing your awareness into the thighs.

Sensing first into the tops of the thighs.

Just noticing the volume,

The length of the thighs.

Feeling into this large muscle.

Sensing into the size of the femur.

And then letting your awareness fill the backs of the legs.

Noticing what the pressure feels like against the floor or the seat.

And now sensing into the legs and the feet as a whole.

Noticing if you can sense warmth or coolness.

Any sensations like tingling or vibrating,

Pulsating,

Throbbing.

And maybe offering some gratitude to your legs for carrying you through the day.

For letting you run and walk,

Play,

Jump.

And now releasing your awareness from the legs on your next exhale.

Welcome your awareness with an inhale into the pelvic region.

Maybe starting at the center of your pelvis and letting the awareness expand gradually into the whole of your pelvic region.

Really giving into the sense of groundedness here.

The feeling of being connected to the floor or to your seat.

And again noticing any sensations.

Swirling or tingling,

Pulsating,

Warmth or coolness.

And it's totally normal to be able to sense into certain areas of the body better than others.

And so if this is the case for you,

Just notice when there's a sense of numbness,

When you can't feel anything at all.

Just notice that.

And now let your awareness rise into the lower back.

Feeling into this slight arc here.

It's not uncommon for people to feel aching or some uncomfortable sensations in the lower back.

Maybe pain.

Just see if you can be with the sensations here.

Is there a sense of throbbing,

Tingling?

Maybe there's not much to sense here and that's okay too.

And now let your awareness rise into the mid-back.

And then into the upper back.

Feeling into the pressure of the floor.

Noticing the support behind you.

Being aware of any sensations here.

And now let your awareness wrap around the front of the body.

Becoming aware of your chest,

Your breast,

Your ribcage.

Maybe you can even feel your own heartbeat or the expansion and contraction of your lungs as they fill and empty with oxygen.

And just sensing into your heart as it circulates blood through your body with each pulse of the heart.

And letting yourself be amazed for a moment by the intelligence of the body.

The brilliance of the cardiovascular system.

And also noticing if there's any sensations here in the chest.

Maybe there's a temperature in the chest or a sense of tightness.

Maybe a sense of spaciousness.

And whatever you notice,

Just see if you can create some space for it to be here.

Not needing to change anything but just allowing.

And now feeling into your diaphragm and noticing how it expands and contracts with each inhalation and exhalation.

And now letting your awareness fall into the belly.

Noticing the rhythm of the breath here.

How it rises and falls like waves crashing on a beach.

Noticing if there's tightness here or maybe spaciousness.

Any buzzing or tingling.

Or maybe you can sense into digestion and process.

Just being aware of any sensations you can feel.

And also noticing if there isn't much here for you to feel into.

And now let the awareness slide into the hands.

Sensing into the temperature you might feel here.

Letting your awareness be immersed in the sensations of tingling,

Buzzing,

Pressure.

Maybe you can even sense into the very subtle feeling of the air and the environment brushing against your skin.

And see if you can let a softness be here in the hands.

And now let your awareness rise into the forearms.

Sensing into what you might feel here.

And then into the elbows.

And the creases of the arms.

And the upper arms.

And now into the shoulders and the collarbone area.

This is also a common place where people might feel some tension.

It's a common place where people store stress.

What do you notice in this part of your body?

And now letting the awareness rise into the back of the neck.

Wrapping around to the front of the neck.

And then filling the throat with your awareness.

Letting your awareness expand into this entire area of the throat.

Maybe you can sense into the subtle feeling of air as it passes in and out of the throat.

And now filling the jaw with your awareness.

Inviting in a sense of softness,

Allowing your jaw to loosen if it feels tight.

And letting your awareness spread into the mouth.

Feeling into your lips.

Maybe there's sensations of tingling here.

Warmth or coolness.

Buzzing.

And letting your awareness fill the inside of the mouth and into the tongue.

Feeling all the way down into the root of the tongue.

And letting your awareness spread out into your cheeks and into your ears.

Receiving the vibration of sound.

And becoming aware of your nose and the sensations of air as it passes in and out of the nose.

Feeling into the skin around the eyes.

And now the eyelids.

And sensing all the way into the eye sockets.

Just seeing if there's any sensations here to be felt.

Now expanding that awareness into your eyebrows,

Your temples,

And your forehead.

And wrapping all the way around your head to the back of your skull.

And then to the top of your skull.

Feeling into any sensations that are here to be felt.

And now let your awareness expand all the way from the top of your head down to your body,

All the way to the soles of your feet.

And sensing into this entire field of sensation that is your body.

Noticing how it feels to be alive in the body.

And just sensing into the sensations of the body that are always moving and changing and flowing.

And now sensing into your breath.

Noticing the rhythm of the breath and the body.

And now become more aware of the environment around you.

Maybe tuning into the sounds that you can hear inside the room or outside the room.

And maybe taking a moment to imagine the environment around you before opening your eyes.

Visualizing the walls around you,

The ceiling.

And then when you feel ready,

You can slowly blink your eyes open.

Maybe take a big stretch overhead.

Thank you for practicing.