Body Scan For Managing Pain

This is a guided body scan meditation. It is particularly helpful in expanding awareness and experience in working with the body and sensations that are arising and falling away. It also supports the relationship between that which we call pain and an absence of pain.

Transcript

Hello,

Hi,

And welcome to the body scan meditation.

We'll begin our practice today by finding ourselves in a comfortable posture,

Either seated in a chair with our feet on the floor,

Or if we have a cushion we may enjoy sitting on our cushion.

Whatever posture allows us to be relaxed and alert.

We may also enjoy lying with our knees bent and possibly holding our arm elbow bent next to us.

And we'll begin by giving just a few moments of attention to breathing and allow our attention to be settled on the breath.

Using the full sensation of inhaling and exhaling.

Allowing ourselves to collect the attention,

Easefully,

Without too much effort.

Feeling perhaps the rise and fall of the chest,

Or even the sensation of the breath entering and exiting the nostrils.

Just allowing the attention to become easeful and steady.

Breathing gently with the breath.

As we are anchoring here in the breath for a few moments,

We can gently allow our attention to drift to the top of the head and giving our attention to about a palm sized area,

The top of the head.

We'll use this idea,

If you will,

Of this palm sized area as we go throughout the body,

Noticing sensation.

Just simply to give ourselves an area of focus as we're scanning.

And so we begin noticing sensation now across the top of the head,

Down the back of the head,

Sides of the head,

Just using this palm sized area.

And as we notice sensation,

We simply notice that which is arising in awareness,

Which may feel like tingling or throbbing.

We may feel wave-like sensations,

Then we simply just give to the practice the simple act of noticing.

Starting down with the attention across the face,

Noticing what the face feels like.

Noticing any area around the jaw or the eyes,

Across the face to the ears,

Area perhaps around the mouth.

We can move down along the front of the chin,

Front of the neck,

Simply noting sensation,

Temperature.

Occasionally we may have a lack of sensation,

Something that feels numb or even spacious.

Across the back of the neck,

Down to the shoulders.

It may not be too long before thoughts arise,

And a simple practice is simply to return to wherever we are and begin again with our practice.

You may too have an experience of sensation feeling too much or too strong,

And feel free in that moment to simply return to the breath.

Give a moment of kindness to yourself,

Trust your own experience.

The guided meditation will be here for you when you're ready to return to the process,

To the meditation of the scan itself.

Noticing the attention on the shoulders,

The sensation in the shoulders,

And noticing any sensations here.

There may be tension,

Tightness,

Throbbing.

And allowing the scan to continue across the right shoulder and down the right arm,

Down to the upper arm and elbow,

Across the right wrist,

The top of the wrist,

Underneath,

Down into the right hand,

Into each finger,

Noticing sensation.

Noticing sensation through the right arm.

Now moving your attention to the left shoulder,

Upper shoulder,

Scanning down across the left arm,

Down to the upper arm and into the elbow,

Across the forearm,

Across the wrist,

Into the hands,

Into each finger,

All the way to the tips,

Simply being aware of sensation.

And coming back up,

Giving awareness to the upper chest and upper back,

Noticing sensation.

And if you're sitting in a chair,

You may notice the sensation of your back against the chair.

Scanning down across the chest,

To the upper abdomen and belly,

Across the upper back,

The shoulder blades,

Across the ribs that cover the back,

All the way down across the low back and upper buttocks.

And it's here that we may get a sense of sensation from the inside out.

Continuing to shift our attention back to the front of the body,

Across the lower abdomen,

To our upper hips.

You can continue to scan down the front of the right hip,

Across the upper right thigh,

The back of the right thigh,

Backside of our right leg,

Down to the back of our knee.

Across the right kneecap,

You may experience any number of sensations,

Pressure,

Temperature,

Or nothing at all.

Even a sense of numbness counts as sensation in this practice today.

And bring our attention to the left hip,

Front of the left thigh,

Back of the left thigh,

Again,

The back of the knee,

Front of the knee right around the kneecap.

Again you may notice thoughts arise.

You can become aware of how a thought arising about the sensation is actually a bit different than feeling or noticing the sensation,

Being with the sensation.

And as thoughts arise,

We simply return back to the practice,

Letting go of any sort of judgments that also can arise,

Further thoughts spinning out further into fantasy.

We can continue down the right leg,

Across the shin and the calf,

Down across the front of the lower leg and the front of the ankle,

As well as the back of the leg,

Across the heel,

Across the tendon from our calf to our heel.

Coming down into the foot,

Notice the sensations occurring across the top of the foot all the way to the toes and the bottom of the foot all the way to the toes.

Noticing sensation throughout the right leg,

The entire right leg.

And bringing our sensation back to the left leg,

To the front of the shin.

Maybe you notice tingling or temperature down the back of the left leg,

Lower left leg,

Across the calf,

All the way down to the heel,

Across the bottom of the foot,

Top of the ankle,

Around the ankle,

Bottom of the foot,

All the way through the toes.

You may notice sensation or not.

Feeling all the sensation of the left leg.

And allow awareness to come all the way from the bottom of the feet through the legs,

All the way up through the hips,

Backside of the hips and buttocks and pelvis,

All the way up through the chest,

Through the back,

Upper and lower,

Bringing in sensation from the hands,

Arms,

Shoulders,

Back in front of the neck,

Across the face,

Opening awareness to include the entire body.

Releasing the breath from the crown of the head all the way down into the toes.

Allow all sensation to be in the body just as they are.

We'll begin to bring our practice to a close when you're ready.

If you've had your eyes closed,

It may feel good to open them now.

It may feel good to stretch in a way that feels good to you.

And take a moment to appreciate yourself for your practice today,

For the space that you've created.

And to have a sense of appreciation for the body.

Just give a moment of reflection,

Of appreciation and gratitude in this moment.

And I look forward to being with you again with a body scan meditation.

Reviews

Very relaxing body scan. Lovely voice. Some long pauses were rather sleep inducing. Recommend for bedtime.

👍🙏💕

Thank you. I have chronic pain from decades of being a ballerina/contortionist/performing local artist + some car & other non-sporting accidents. I'm hoping to use this frquently.

Such a relaxing lovely practice that took away that annoyance that my painful body stops me doing things and instead bought gratitude that my body does its best with these chronic illnesses thank you

🙏🌺Thank you Good one!