Welcome to a 10-minute body scan meditation.
This is a great practice to build focus and also develop a greater and clearer relationship with the sensations within your body.
Begin by sitting comfortably.
Find support so you can sit with a nice spacious spine.
Nice and tall.
Get comfortable,
Take any small movements that might feel good.
Stack your hips,
Shoulders,
And ears on top of each other.
Let the back of the neck be long and relaxed,
The chin can drop slightly down.
Let the breath move easily in and out through the nose.
Begin to smooth the breath.
Let the inhalations and the exhalations blend seamlessly together.
And then begin to slow the breath.
Allow the breath in and the breath out to be even.
Smooth and slow.
Let go of any control you have over the breath.
Let it return to its natural movement.
Bring awareness to the sense of contact between your body and whatever it is you're sitting on.
Notice your feet on the floor.
Notice the clothes on your body.
The texture.
And the temperature.
Feel the movement of air against your skin,
The tiny hairs all over your body picking up these small changes.
And notice the movement of the body as the air moves in and out through the nose.
In the next few moments,
We'll start to scan our awareness through the body,
Starting at the top and ending at the tips of the toes.
You can imagine this like being on a printer scanner with a bright bar of light moving down your body.
You can also imagine it as a submersion in water or like rain gently flowing down your body,
Highlighting whatever it is you notice.
Bring your awareness to the top of your head.
As we begin our body scan.
Move it down the scalp.
The forehead.
Eyebrows,
The bridge of the nose,
The tip of the nose.
Notice the eyes resting in their sockets,
The cheeks,
The ears.
Follow the jaw down to the tip of your chin,
Your teeth,
Your tongue.
Let the tongue be soft,
Resting at the back of your palate.
You can take the tip of your tongue and place it very gently just behind the upper teeth.
Continue to scan down the sides of your neck,
The front of your neck.
Into the shoulders.
Upper arms.
The elbows,
The inside of the elbows.
Forearms,
The wrist,
Hands and the fingers.
And as you scan,
Simply notice what you observe,
If there's any sensation present could be.
Tension,
It could be a temperature,
It could be the lack of tension,
Maybe it feels really relaxed.
Whatever it is,
Just observe without judgment.
Bring your awareness back up to your throat.
Find your clavicles or collarbones.
Scan down the ribs in the front and the spine in the back.
Observe the lungs and the heart moving effortlessly to keep you alive.
The diaphragm,
A thin parachute-like muscle underneath the lungs and heart.
Your other organs below the diaphragm and your belly.
Liver,
Pancreas,
Gallbladder,
Stomach,
Small intestines,
Large intestines,
The muscles in your abdomen.
The skin wrapping around to the back,
Meeting the spine once again.
Follow it down into the pelvis.
The bowl.
The seat of your power.
Into the pelvic floor,
Another parachute-like muscle at the bottom of your pelvis.
Notice her genitals.
Your hips.
.
.
Your thighs.
Your knees,
The backs of your knees.
Your calves,
And your shins.
Ankles,
Heels.
The many bones in your feet.
And see if you can notice each individual toe.
Big toe.
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe.
Pinky toe.
And now in your mind's eye,
Hold this image of your body.
Imagine yourself sitting in exactly the position you're sitting in right now.
And notice if any tension has crept into your posture.
If you've lost that alignment of hips,
Shoulders,
And ears.
You can imagine that there's a golden thread weaving itself.
From the base of your spine through the gluteus.
Vertebrae.
And up into the crown of your head,
Extending past it.
As if you've got a huge balloon gently floating above you,
Pulling you up by the crown of your head.
And for just a moment.
Feel into your body.
You don't have to think about it or do anything.
See if you can just sense with your whole body.
What your experience of this moment is.
Allow your eyes to stay soft in their sockets.
Allow the awareness.
To be evenly spread throughout your body.
You can feel your hands just as much as you feel your feet,
Your arms just as much as you feel your legs.
Your upper chest just as much as you feel your abdomen.
Your front side.
And your backside.
Your left side and your right side.
The outer.
Parts of your body,
Your skin.
And the inner deepest parts of your body,
Your bones and your marrow.
Breathe.
As thoughts and sensations come and go,
Simply acknowledge them.
And return.
To the sensations in your body.
Before letting it all go.
Allow your focus to wander to do what it wanted to do while you were scanning perhaps.
And then come back into your body.
Notice the feeling of contact once again of what you're sitting on.
And slowly open your eyes.
And as you open your eyes,
Keep your eyes soft.
A little unfocused.
See if you can bring 50% of your awareness to what's around you and keep 50% of awareness to what's within you.
As you go into the rest of your day.
I'll see you next time.
