Body Scanning Guided Meditation

A body scanning meditation where the awareness is used to go through the entire body, investigating it, asking it to relax and honing the concetration ability of the mind toward the body. This is just a basic practice though and can be used as a jumping off point for much deeper and thorough investigation of the body and mind.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's meditation.

We are going to be doing a body scanning meditation.

That is sometimes called a body focus meditation or just a meditation on the body.

Though it perhaps has more specific names in Sanskrit and Pali and Tibetan,

But here I digress.

I've mostly heard it called body scanning.

Body scanning could be considered a kind of non-visualization visualization meditation where what you're doing is moving the awareness around the body with the consciousness and not particularly the mind alone.

Influencing the calmness,

Relaxation and investigation of those areas to sink deeper into a state of peacefulness and have a greater awareness to put toward maintaining focus on the breath or other objects of meditation.

However,

Body scanning meditation can be continually used to sink deeper and deeper into rather blissful states of concentration and calm.

And one who practices with great devotion and discipline will find out very swiftly that this is a great practice to do if you wish to pleasantly abide in the moment before the future and beyond the past and investigate the body.

You may get incredibly specific within your own practice of body scanning meditation once you know how to do it,

Making the spaces that you focus on smaller and smaller,

Thus increasing the amount of time that it takes to do a single run through the entire body.

As well,

You may expand your awareness after some training to areas beyond the conventional body to the air around you,

The energy above you,

The ground beneath you,

And the senses of smell,

Taste,

Hearing,

Sight,

Touch and mind and more,

Depending on how deeply you are wanting to pursue this practice.

I personally very much so enjoy body meditation just as a general meditation to really and thoroughly know the body,

Be able to learn how to mentally react,

Relax certain areas of pain or frustration that can arise in the body.

So let's begin by establishing ourselves in the body,

Whether you're on the cushion,

In a chair or laying down or standing,

Just taking a moment to find our balance,

Find our grounding and find our essence of motivation in this setting.

So whether you do this in a general sense or with imagery,

Whatever is more helpful,

I want you to close your eyes and focus your awareness on the top of your head,

Moving the awareness from the breath to that area,

But maintaining the in and the out breath,

Not thinking about the breath,

But merely allowing it to continue naturally.

When the awareness has moved there,

I want you to mentally ask that area of your body to relax.

With the in breath,

Simply breathe in,

But with the out breath and your awareness on the top of your head,

Just say,

Relax.

Breathe in.

And with the out breath,

Mentally ask that area to relax.

Do so five times.

Then,

I want you to move your awareness from the top of your head to your forehead and your temples.

And in the same fashion,

Breathe in and breathe out,

Asking that area of your body to relax,

Knowing that area of your body and feeling the tension,

The strain,

And any frustrations that you may be holding in that area.

And with the out breath,

Just say,

Relax.

Then,

Moving the awareness to the eyes,

Where we hold far more pressure than we might know.

Do the same.

Simply asking them to relax,

To release,

To ease,

Whatever word you need.

Just allowing the breath to continue naturally.

Whether it's long or short,

It doesn't matter.

It's just what it is in this moment.

Then,

Moving the awareness to the jaw,

The teeth,

The mouth,

Feeling that area of your body with your awareness,

And asking it to relax,

To release,

To calm down.

Feeling it drop a little.

Feeling the jaw relax.

Moving to the back of the head with your awareness,

But not the neck.

Doing the same.

Feeling the hairs on your head,

The skin,

Or perhaps just a vague sense of being.

Just ask it to relax.

Not pulling you forward,

Not pulling you back.

Just resting with the body.

Then,

Moving the awareness to the neck,

Focusing on the muscles of the neck,

The back of the neck,

The front of the neck,

The sides.

Maybe even moving it just a little if you need to.

Asking it breathing in and breathing out,

Asking it to relax,

Letting go of any unconscious or perhaps unconventional tension that you may find.

Okay.

Moving the awareness to the shoulders,

Feeling them and their tension that they may be holding.

Where they connect to your arm and where they connect to your neck,

The rest of your body.

Just asking it to relax,

Focusing the awareness on that particular area of the body.

I sometimes imagine a white light or a gold light moving to the area of focus.

That can help you,

The awareness to move to that area.

Even allowing the shoulders to drop a little.

Then moving the awareness from the shoulders to the biceps and the triceps,

The upper arm.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Using your upper arm to relax,

To let go,

To ease,

To just dwell.

Okay.

Moving your awareness to your elbows,

The point of connection,

And asking them to relax.

Investigating this part of the body.

Feeling this part of the body with our awareness.

Feeling this vessel.

And letting it relax.

One breath at a time.

Moving our focus of awareness from the elbows to the forearm.

Breathing on the muscles,

The sinew,

The bone,

The area around the forearm,

The hair.

And just asking it to relax.

Breathing in.

Then breathing out.

Letting the forearm to relax.

Noticing any stress,

Tension that might be there.

Then taking our awareness and moving it to the wrists.

Like a circle of awareness.

The place after our forearm,

Before our hands.

Feeling our wrists.

Just asking them to relax.

Then moving the awareness to the hands.

The fingers,

The palms,

The back of our hands.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Asking the tension,

The stress,

The agitation.

And just asking it to relax.

Asking the hands to relax.

Asking the fingers to relax.

Moving the awareness back.

Back through the wrists and the forearms and the elbows.

Through the upper arm.

Back up to the shoulders.

And now to the upper back.

Feeling your upper back with your awareness.

Just ask it to relax.

With each out-breath allowing that aspect of the body.

Just to relax.

Moving our awareness to the mid-back and the lower back.

Feeling its stability.

Feeling its strain.

Feeling its tension.

With each out-breath asking the lower back to relax.

Letting the body release where it needs to.

Let go where it needs to.

Moving the awareness up the back,

Over the shoulders,

And now to the chest.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Just letting the chest relax.

Asking it to relax.

Feeling the heartbeat.

Feeling the air coming in the lungs and going out.

And with each out-breath,

Letting it relax.

Moving the awareness down to the abdomen and the belly.

Feeling the air coming in and the air going out.

Using this aspect of our body to relax.

Just letting the breath rise and fall as naturally as you can.

Now,

Dispersing the awareness.

The awareness throughout the entire upper body.

To the tips of your fingers.

To the top of your head.

To your lower back.

And your upper back.

To your abdomen.

And asking the entire upper body to relax.

To let go.

Let's be in this nice state of awareness.

And with each out-breath,

Letting it relax.

Concentrating the awareness back down to your waist.

The part that connects the two halves of your body.

And asking it to relax.

To let go.

Feeling the weight of your upper body.

With every in-breath and with every out-breath,

Merely asking the waist to relax.

To 넣을.

…" moving your awareness to the butt,

The sit bones,

That thing you can feel against the cushion or the pillow or the chair.

Feeling its tightness,

Perhaps some irritation.

And just letting it relax.

Asking it to relax.

Moving the awareness to the groin and asking the groin to relax.

With each out-breath,

Just asking it to relax.

Moving the awareness to the thighs and the upper leg between the knee and the waist.

And with each out-breath,

Just asking the upper leg to relax.

Moving the awareness to the knees.

And knowing the knees with our awareness and with each out-breath,

Asking them to relax.

Feeling them on the ground.

Feeling the tension that may be in them.

And just letting them relax.

Moving the awareness from the knees to the lower leg,

The calf,

That part of us between the ankle and the knee.

And just breathing in and breathing out.

Asking the lower leg to relax.

Moving the awareness to the ankles.

That part which connects us to the feet and the legs.

Have a ring of awareness around them and within them.

And with each out-breath,

Just asking them to relax.

And with each out-breath,

Just asking them to relax.

And knowing the knees.

Moving the awareness from the ankles to the feet and the toes.

Doing the same.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Just letting them relax.

Asking them to relax.

And with each out-breath,

Just asking them to relax.

Taking the awareness and dispersing it throughout the entire lower body.

The waist,

The sit bones,

The groin,

The upper legs,

The knees,

The lower legs,

The ankles,

And the feet.

Feeling your entire lower body and with each out-breath,

Just asking it to relax.

To let go.

And to know the entire lower body.

And with each out-breath,

Just asking them to relax.

And then taking the awareness and knowing both the lower body and the upper body,

Ask the entire body from the bottom of our feet to our palms and fingers to the top of our head to relax.

With the in-breath,

Breathe in and with the out-breath,

Ask the entire body to relax.

With the out-breath,

Breathe in and with the out-breath,

Ask the entire body to relax.

Now,

Rest in this state for as long as you wish,

Knowing the arising and the falling of the breath.

Resting in the full relaxation of the body.

Even going through again if you so wish.

Sinking deeper into that concentration and relaxation.

This has been a body scanning meditation and I hope you have enjoyed it.

I'm Silas Day and thank you for sitting with me today.

Reviews

A nice slow paced body scan….very relaxing. Thanks 😊🙏🏻

This is a wonderful scan. Very calming and restful. Perfect pacing. Thank you so very, very much.

Great experience

I just couldn’t get through it in its entirety! I became so relaxed and literally fell into a very deep sleep which is something that evades me.
Namaste 🙏🏼

🙏Thank you! This is a fabulous body scan❤️❗️❗️❗️❗️you voice is calm and soothing and the scan definitely relaxes the whole body!!

Excellent body scan. Calming and not too many words.

Very relaxing body scan. Your tone and manner of instruction is so mellow and moves gently thru the body parts. Many thanks. ☮️💖🙏

As an endurance athlete and tri coach, body scanning has many practical benefits as well as spiritual. Thank you.