Short Seated Body Scan

This is a short yet comprehensive seated body scan practice, based on the traditional practice from MBSR and MBCT programmes. The pace is purposefully swift, to help you cultivate a sense of groundedness, full-body awareness and presence when you need it most.

Transcript

This is a 15 minute guided body scan meditation.

You can choose to sit on a chair,

Or on a cushion or stool on the floor,

Inviting a straight,

Dignified and yet relaxed posture,

A posture that signals to ourselves that we are about to affirm our commitment to our health and wellbeing.

Your intention to explore your experience as it arises throughout the practice is the most important quality you can bring.

Allowing the eyes to close,

If that feels comfortable,

Or simply relaxing your gaze.

Throughout this practice,

My words are just guidance.

Please only do what is right for you in each moment during the practice.

Taking a moment now to become aware of your body as a whole,

Sitting here.

Aware of the space around you,

Above and below,

Left and right,

Front and back of you.

There are likely to be moments when your mind will wander.

This is quite normal and the nature of the mind.

When this happens,

Consider returning your attention to the region of the body you were exploring,

With patience and kindness.

It may also be helpful to consider an anchor for this practice to return to whenever the mind has wandered,

Such as the feet on the floor,

Your hands resting in your lap,

Or your breath.

So now,

As best you can,

Becoming aware of the points of contact between your body and whatever is supporting your body right now.

Sensing into those points of contact.

Feeling,

For example,

The soles of your feet touching the floor or the buttocks on the chair.

And now,

Bringing your attention to the breath.

No need to change the way you're breathing.

As best you can,

Locating where you can sense your breath the most,

Such as the rising and falling of the chest or belly,

Through your nostrils or your lips,

And then,

If possible,

Bringing your breath down into the abdomen,

Quite central in the body,

And being here with your breath for a few moments.

And now,

Moving your trail of awareness down from the abdomen into the top of your left leg,

And down the upper left leg,

Down the left knee,

Down into the lower left leg,

Into the left foot,

All the way down into your left big toe.

As best you can,

Sensing into the left big toe,

As if with a torch of awareness,

You're shining a light on just your big toe,

Allowing this to be a very alive exploration of sensations.

How about the toenail?

The pad of your toe?

Or the bones inside the toe?

No need to go chasing any sensations or to wiggle your toe,

Just allowing your attention to rest in the big toe and experience sensations,

Such as warmth,

Coolness,

Or tingling,

Perhaps,

Or whatever is present.

And now,

Moving your focus into the little toe of your left foot,

And then all the toes between the little and the big toe,

And the spaces between the toes of the left foot.

And now,

Moving your awareness to the bottom of your left foot,

To the sole,

With its instep and heel.

As best you can,

Becoming aware of any sensations in the bottom of your left foot.

And now the top of your left foot.

And now becoming aware of your ankle,

This very bony part of the body,

Which is so important,

With its muscles and ligaments.

What sensations are you experiencing here?

Now,

Being playful with this,

Seeing if you can,

On your next inhale,

Breathe into your left foot.

On the next in-breath,

Breathing deep into the trunk of your body,

Down the left leg,

All the way down into your left foot.

And as you exhale,

Allowing the breath to come back up from the left foot and the left leg,

Up to the trunk,

And then out through your mouth or nose,

As if your left foot is a balloon that inflates when you inhale and deflates as you exhale.

And then on the next exhale,

Letting go of the left foot,

And moving your attention up to your lower leg,

Between the left ankle and your left knee,

With the shin in the front and the calf muscle in the back,

Sensing into what is here in this part of the body.

And letting go of the lower left leg and bringing your attention to your left knee,

The skin over the kneecap,

The hollow part of the knee.

And letting go of the left knee and bringing your focus to the upper left leg with the big bone and big muscle groups.

What is here?

Any sensations of tingling,

Warmth,

Heaviness,

Or simply registering a blank when there are no sensations present.

And now for the next couple of breaths,

Visualizing that we are breathing into and out from the whole left leg.

Breathing down into the left leg as you inhale,

And then visualizing the air coming up from the left leg,

Up the trunk all the way to the face,

Out through your mouth and nose.

And on the next exhale,

Letting go of the left leg into the background of your awareness.

And now moving the trail of your attention across to the right hip,

The right upper leg,

Down the right knee,

The right lower leg,

The right foot,

And doing a similar practice of exploring sensations all the way from your right big toe to the right hip.

And now breathing into and out from the whole right leg.

And letting go of the right leg on the next exhale and bringing your attention to the pelvic region of your body,

Allowing your attention to rest here for a few moments.

What is here?

Then moving your focus into the back of the pelvis,

Where it connects to the lower spine,

An area where we often store a lot of tension.

And then moving your attention up the spine vertebrae by vertebrae,

Appreciating for example all the nerves that are safely housed in the spine,

And all the muscles around the spine,

Taking the whole lower,

Middle and upper back into consideration.

Now letting go of the back and bringing your attention to the front of your body,

The abdomen,

The heart area,

The torso with the pecs or the breasts,

Allowing your attention to rest here and playfully exploring with a kindly attention,

As ever if the mind wanders,

Returning it with kindness to the practice or your anger.

And now taking a few conscious breaths,

Filling the whole upper body,

Front and back,

With your breath,

With fresh energy,

As you inhale.

And then allowing that air to be released through the mouth or nose as you exhale.

Now letting go of the upper body on your next out breath,

Bringing your trail of awareness to both arms,

From the shoulders down the upper arms and the elbow joints and the lower arms,

The wrists,

The hands,

All the fingers,

And exploring with a kindly attention and curiosity which sensations can be discovered in your arms and hands.

And then breathing into and out from both arms and hands.

Now letting go of the arms on your next out breath and bringing your awareness to your neck,

The throat in the front,

All the muscle groups and the back of your neck in the place where the spine connects to the skull.

And now the whole of the skull,

Sensing into the skin on top of the skull.

And then down the forehead.

The whole face.

And what do your tongue and the inside of your mouth feel like right now?

What sensations are here?

And how about your ears and your nose?

And as we come towards the end of the practice,

Now breathing into the whole body on the next couple of in breaths and then breathing out from the whole body on the out breaths as if your whole body was a balloon that inflates when you breathe in and deflates as you breathe out.

And as you rest and sit here,

Becoming aware of sounds to reconnect with your environment.

Sounds near and far.

And then gently opening the eyes if they were closed.

Taking a few moments now to consider how you could take this sense of groundedness,

Full body awareness and presence with you into the next part of your day.

Reviews

Wise and effective guidance style. Christoph, thank you so much for taking the time to guide us through this beautiful self-awareness moment. Much peace and love back to you. Igo. 🙏❤️

I feel very grounded and relaxed after doing this short body scan, thank you 🙂

Interesting practice. A type of yoga nidra. I will revisit. Thank you 🙏🏻