Welcome to the Try Softer Body Scan.
Making yourself comfortable,
Making any adjustments you need.
And becoming aware of your breath.
Feeling the flow of air as you inhale and exhale.
Noticing where the breath touches your body.
Noticing anywhere this airflow causes sensations or movements around the body.
During our body scan we can cultivate three aspects that can help us in everyday life.
These are detachment,
Non-judgmental awareness and impermanence.
As you bring your awareness to a body part,
Your mind will have the tendency to create a commentary about whatever your mind notices in that area.
By moving to the next area before this commentary becomes too prevalent,
You are cultivating detachment.
Each time you are instructed to move to the next body part,
You can let go of thoughts associated with the last.
This art of letting go will strengthen your ability to detach from certain thoughts that are not useful to you anymore during the day.
So bringing your awareness to the crown of your head and just resting your attention there.
Then moving your awareness to your forehead.
Then your eyelids,
The tip of your nose,
Your lips,
Chin,
Chest,
Your abdomen,
Your hips,
Knees,
Ankles,
The tops of your feet.
And then move through your toes one by one.
Then bringing your awareness to the heels of your feet,
Up past the calves,
To the soft area behind the knees,
Your buttocks,
Your lower back,
And then tracing the spine up towards your shoulder blades,
Your neck,
And the back of your head.
And then returning your awareness to your breath and just resting your awareness there for the next few moments.
The more time we spend moving around the body and witnessing sensations and feelings,
The more we realize that our thoughts are continually applying context around sensations and feelings.
We notice that we have learned habits of judging even when we are just trying to simply observe.
During our body scans we should notice this tendency to make judgments arising,
Especially negative judgments,
And begin to gently challenge those thoughts.
Ask if these judgments are necessary at this moment.
It is by doing this we start to cultivate non-judgmental awareness,
Bringing your awareness back to your body,
And resting your awareness in the palm of your right hand,
Just noticing what sensations or feelings exist in the palm of your right hand,
Observing if the urge to apply context is there,
Just letting the sensations be.
Moving your awareness to your right shoulder,
Again scanning that area and just observing whatever sensations you can feel,
Then moving on to the right side of your chest.
Noticing if any commentary is coming up when you observe your chest,
And moving down to your right knee,
You are simply observing whatever sensations or feelings that you notice in your right knee,
And then moving your attention down to the sole of your right foot.
Then bringing your awareness to the left side of your body,
Starting with the palm of your left hand,
Again gently resting your awareness on that area,
Becoming aware of any tendency to judge the sensations if it arises,
And moving to the left shoulder area,
Again scanning the area,
Observing the sensations as they are.
Now resting your awareness on the left side of your chest,
Then moving that awareness down to your knee,
And then to the sole of your left foot.
When we start to settle into our body,
We become aware that sensations are always happening,
And that they are always changing.
Any area we bring our awareness to,
If given a short piece of time,
We can feel some kind of sensation there.
We will often notice that these sensations are changing.
Even when we rest our awareness on a very noticeable sensation,
This sensation will always be there.
It is through this we can experience the impermanent nature of life,
That the only constant is in fact change.
Finding an area where there is noticeable sensation,
And just being curious about this sensation,
And exploring the characteristics of the sensations,
Moving to that area for the next few moments,
And gently resting your awareness on those sensations.
You can either stay on the sensations in this area,
Or move to another part of the body and observe the sensations there.
If you have noticed a change in those sensations,
If you have noticed the sensations moving or shifting,
Then you are becoming aware of that notion of impermanence,
And how the body is always producing sensations.
Gently resting your attention on your breath once again as we prepare to move out of the meditation.
Feeling the flow of air through the body,
And bringing some movement to your body,
And bringing some movement to your fingers and toes,
Your arms and legs,
And making any movements you need,
Stretching,
Lengthening,
Shifting.
Acknowledging yourself for practicing meditation today,
And that by using the body scan in this way,
You can cultivate the arts of letting go,
Non-judgmental awareness,
And impermanence,
All of which will help you in your everyday life.
Over the next few breaths,
Just preparing yourself to move out of the meditation,
And opening your eyes when you feel ready to do so.
