Calming MBSR Body Scan

This body scan meditation is in the style of MBSR as formulated by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is useful for helping bring our awareness back into our somatic experience. Symptomatically, it can help calm anxiety, and prepare one for sleep. Many thanks to my teachers over the years, including Neda Gould and David Potter of Palouse Mindfulness.

Transcript

Welcome.

This body scan meditation is designed to help bring greater attunement between our mind and our body by systematically moving our awareness through different parts of the body.

The meditation is often done lying on the back,

With the palms facing up,

If that feels appropriate,

Or it can be done sitting in a chair,

Or even standing.

Ultimately,

What is important is cultivating our awareness,

Our sensitivity,

And our ability to be with present-moment experience in a non-judgmental way.

The goal is not some particular posture.

So please take a moment and ask yourself,

What posture would be most appropriate for me today?

During the practice,

You may experience pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neutral sensations.

Sometimes you may experience intense sensations or areas of numbness.

That's all perfectly okay.

Again,

The goal of this practice is not to experience any particular sensation.

Rather,

We are practicing the ability to approach whatever is present with a sense of openness.

With as much kindness and gentle curiosity as we can in this moment.

If during the meditation,

You come across areas in the body of intense sensation,

You may experiment and see if you can make space to explore that sensation.

Or if that's not right for you to explore in this moment,

It's always okay to shift your attention to a place of greater comfort,

Perhaps the soles of your feet or to your breath.

And then when you're ready,

You can just pick up wherever we are in the body scan.

Now I invite you to begin to notice where your body makes contact with the floor or the chair.

Feeling sensations of pressure in the back of the heels,

The calves,

The back of the thighs,

The buttocks,

The back of the torso,

The back of the arms,

And the back of the head.

Feeling the experience of being supported by the floor or the chair beneath you.

And now I invite you to notice the fact that you are breathing.

Noticing the physical sensations of the breath,

The coolness or warmth of the in-breath and out-breath,

The rise and fall of the chest or belly,

Maybe a sense of the entire body as it rests here breathing,

The gentle rhythm of in-breath and out-breath.

And now when you're ready,

I invite you to bring your awareness all the way down the body into your left big toe.

Noticing physical sensations in this part of the body.

There might be temperature or pressure,

Coolness or warmth,

Perhaps the feeling of the sock or the shoe squeezing gently the big toe.

You might not notice any sensations as you have your awareness here on the left big toe.

And if that's the case,

It's no problem.

Just noticing that that's where your awareness is resting.

Now I invite you to expand your awareness so that you can take in both big toes,

The left big toe and the right big toe both.

Noticing how your awareness is capable of zooming in to a fine focus of one small part of the body or expanding to take in a larger portion of the body.

Now you might expand your awareness again to take in all of the toes,

The left pinky toe,

The left middle toes,

Left big toe,

Right big toe,

Right middle toes and right pinky toe.

Noticing this field of sensation in the body.

We're not thinking about the toes or moving the toes in order to feel sensation.

Just allowing the awareness to rest on this part of the body and seeing what arrives,

Temperature or pressure or perhaps feelings from the inside of tingling or pulsing.

Whatever you feel today is just what's here.

And now when you're ready,

Allowing the awareness of the toes to fade into the background a little bit and bringing the awareness to the soles of the feet,

The very bottom most part of the feet.

Again in this part of the body,

We're looking for the physical sensations of temperature or pressure or feelings from the inside of tingling or pulsing,

Whatever's here.

No need to judge or change anything.

No need to move the feet in order to create sensation.

Just noticing what's here right now.

Now when you're ready,

Allowing the souls to fade into the background and perhaps bringing your awareness into the heels.

Again,

Noticing the ability of the awareness to take in a broad part of the body or a more narrow part of the body.

Now perhaps moving the awareness to the sides and the top of the feet.

Noticing physical sensations in this part of the body.

And now perhaps allowing the awareness to broaden again and taking in the entirety of both feet.

Noticing this entire field of sensation that is the entirety of the left and right foot.

Noticing whatever's here.

Temperature or pressure,

Tingling or pulsing,

Anything at all.

And when you're ready,

Allowing the feelings of the feet to fade into the background and bringing the awareness up into the ankles.

This is a part of the body that we don't pay a lot of attention to until something goes wrong.

If it feels right for you,

You might even offer some gratitude to your ankles if they're working okay today.

Noticing the physical sensations in the ankles.

Noticing what's here.

And when you're ready,

Moving the awareness from the ankles into the lower leg between the ankle and knee,

The shin and the calf.

Noticing physical sensations in this part of the body.

And you may notice as we're going through this body scan that your mind wanders.

That's no problem.

As soon as you notice that the mind has wandered,

That is a moment of awareness.

When you notice the mind has wandered,

See if it's okay to let go of the distraction.

You may even smile a little bit.

And gently come back to wherever we are in the body scan,

Right now on the lower leg between the ankle and the knee.

Noticing physical sensations in this part of the body.

And when you're ready,

Allowing this part of the body to fade into the background,

Allowing the awareness to move up into the knees.

Noticing physical sensations in this part of the body.

And when you're ready,

Perhaps allowing the knees to fade and moving the awareness into the upper legs,

Between the knee and the hip,

The thigh,

Hamstring and quads.

Perhaps noticing here the pressure of the back of the leg against the floor or the chair.

Feeling temperature or feelings from the inside of pulsing or tingling,

Anything at all.

Just noticing.

When you're ready,

Allowing this part of the body to fade into the background and gently bringing awareness up into the hip and pelvic area.

Noticing the physical sensation in this part of the body.

The buttocks pressing against the chair or the floor.

And physical sensations throughout the hip and pelvic region.

Now perhaps allowing the attention to move from the hip and pelvic region up into the lower torso.

Noticing the lower belly,

How it rises and falls with breath.

Perhaps noticing physical sensations of digestion.

Perhaps even emotions,

We sometimes hold our emotions in this part of our body.

You might feel that as well.

And if you do,

It's no problem.

We're not trying to judge or change anything or get rid of anything.

We're just noticing what's here.

With as much kindness and gentle curiosity as we can.

Noticing too the lower back.

Sometimes we hold tension in this part of the body.

If you find that today,

Maybe see if it's okay to relax a little bit.

Maybe it's not.

And that's okay too.

Just noticing what's here.

And now perhaps moving the awareness up into the middle torso,

The lower rib cage,

Diaphragm,

The middle back,

And the sides of the middle torso.

Noticing how the diaphragm just moves to bring the breath in and out without us having to do anything about it.

Noticing physical sensations.

Perhaps the middle back,

Grounding against the floor of the chair.

The torso moving with breath,

Whatever's here.

And now perhaps bringing the awareness up into the upper torso,

The chest,

The upper back,

And around under the armpits.

Noticing the physical sensations in this part of the body.

Noticing the chest as it rises and falls with breath.

Noticing the lungs expanding and contracting.

Noticing what's here.

And when you're ready,

Gently moving the awareness up into the shoulders.

Sometimes we can carry tension in this part of our body.

And again,

If you find tension here or in any part of the body,

You might gently invite it to relax.

But if it doesn't,

That's no problem.

Just notice that it's here.

We're just collecting data right now.

We don't have to do anything.

Just paying attention,

Trying to be open,

As much kindness and gentle curiosity as possible.

And when you're ready,

Allowing the awareness to move down through the arms,

Down into the hands,

And then out into the very tips of the fingers and thumb.

Noticing physical sensation in the very tips of the fingers and thumbs.

Now perhaps allowing the awareness to expand out to take in the entire length of the fingers and thumbs.

Noticing the physical sensations here.

Temperature,

Pressure,

Perhaps movement of air,

Anything at all.

Again,

We're not moving the fingers to try and create sensation.

Just resting here,

Allowing the awareness to rest on the fingers.

Now perhaps allowing the awareness to move into the palms of the hands.

Noticing what it feels like in this part of the body.

And now perhaps to the backs of the hands.

Noticing physical sensations,

Warmth or coolness,

Pressure or touch.

And now I invite you once again to allow your awareness to expand a bit and see if you can take in the entirety of both hands.

The palms and the backs of the hands,

The lengths of the fingers out to the very tips.

Noticing the entirety of both hands as a field of sensation.

Now perhaps allowing the hands to fade into the background and moving the awareness into the wrists.

Perhaps noticing how awareness might change as you move from this broad sense field of both hands into this more narrow sense field of just the wrists.

Noticing what that's like to have the awareness zooming out and zooming back in.

And when you're ready,

Moving the awareness again from the wrists into the lower arm between the wrists and the elbow,

The forearm.

And now perhaps moving the awareness into the elbows.

Another part of the body that we don't pay much attention to until typically we bump into something with it.

If it feels right for you,

You might offer some gratitude for the functioning of your elbows today.

And notice the physical sensations in the elbows.

Now perhaps moving the awareness into the upper arms between the elbows and the shoulders,

The biceps and triceps.

Noticing what's here right now.

Now perhaps moving the awareness into the neck and throat.

Another part of the body in which we can sometimes hold tension.

If you do find tension here,

You might invite it to relax,

But it's okay if it doesn't today.

Again,

We're just collecting data.

We're not trying to judge or change anything in any way.

Your only job right now is to notice what's happening in your body with as much openness,

Kindness,

And gentle curiosity as possible.

Noticing the physical sensations on the circumference of the neck.

And possibly noticing too the coolness of the air on the in-breath through the throat and the warmth of the breath and the out-breath.

Now I invite you to allow the neck to fade into the background and bring the awareness up into the head.

You might begin with the forehead,

Noticing physical sensations here.

Moving down into the eyebrows,

The eyes and the eye sockets,

The cheekbones,

And the temples.

And the cheeks themselves.

You might bring awareness to the nose,

Noticing the physical sensations of the outside of the nose and perhaps the coolness and warmth of the in-breath and the out-breath inside the nose.

Noticing the upper and lower lip.

Noticing how the lips have both an outer and an inner part inside the mouth.

Noticing the upper palate,

The top part of the mouth.

Noticing physical sensations in the tongue.

The teeth and gums.

Now perhaps allowing the awareness to move down into the jaw and the chin.

Up into the ears.

And then to the top of the head.

And down the backside of the head,

The entire scalp.

Noticing physical sensations.

And now,

If it feels right for you,

I invite you to allow your awareness to gently expand so that it takes in the entire length of your body as you rest here breathing.

Is it possible to expand the awareness out so that it takes in the entire sense field of the body as a whole?

Is it possible to allow things to be just as they are?

Beyond tendencies of the mind to want things to be a certain way.

Beyond liking and disliking.

Noticing the abundance of present moment experience.

And acknowledging our ability to be present with whatever arises in the moment.

And as this meditation comes to an end,

You might want to wiggle fingers and toes.

Take any movements that feel good.

Maybe stretch it out.

And as you're ready,

Reestablishing contact with the world outside your body.

This ends the body scan meditation.

Thank you.

Reviews

Excellent MBSR…soothing, calm voice and pace. Thank you

Very pleasant body scan

Excellent body scan. Clear, focused, gentle. A good pace.

There are many MBSR routines on Insight Timer; this is one of the best.

Great voice, thanks!

Great voice really helpful thanks

Hard. But I’m going to try to keep at it.

Good calm body scan

A thoroughly excellent body scan meditation. Just what I've been looking for. Thank you ! 💫🙏

Not a lot of guided meditations have helped me fall back to sleep at night (or while driving). I did with this one (laying down). So many great qualities- simple, logical, a voice that doesn’t distract, and overall idealistic 😎🙏 in the words chosen. My engineer friends would approve. Thank you.

very pleasant, voice, content and duration - thank you! ☺️