Mindful Body Scan

A basic mindful body scan practice. This practice centeres on the Buddhist teachings of labeling thoughts and body sensations as pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. This practice can help us shine the light of awareness on our body and mind while working to reduce reactivity.

Transcript

Greetings.

Today we're going to start with the basic mindful body scan,

A simple meditation that will serve as the root for all other practice.

At any time,

You'll be able to take this meditation and use it as your core.

Now,

Let's start by getting in an upright,

Alert,

And comfortable posture.

No need to sit cross-legged in a traditional sense.

Sitting on a chair or on a cushion will work just fine.

The point is to be comfortable,

Yet alert,

Preferably not lying down to start until you've gotten enough practice that you feel you can lay down and do so without falling asleep.

Once you've found that comfortable spot,

Just sit for a second.

Now let's start with some invigorating breaths,

Deep,

Slow,

Controlled.

In through the nose,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Hold for three,

One,

Two,

Three,

And then out through the mouth,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six.

If you find that length is too long for you,

No problem.

We'll do it a different way.

Again,

In through the nose,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold it,

One,

Two,

Three.

Out through the mouth,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Now,

Take a few more of these deep breaths,

This time going at your own pace.

At any time during the meditation that you might feel a little drowsy or low on energy,

Feel free to take a few large,

Deep breaths where you inhale longer than you exhale.

This will help revitalize your energy.

Taking longer breaths on the exhale will help to calm your body and mind.

And taking longer breaths on the inhale and shorter breaths on the exhale can help to invigorate your mind and body.

Use those two types of breaths at any point throughout the meditation where you feel you're either a little bit drowsy or a little bit energized,

Just a little too energized,

Maybe feeling a bit of anxiety or your heart fluttering.

Now let your breath return to its normal relaxed state without trying to control it.

And let's put our focus today,

Our attention will start with our feet.

And throughout this body scan,

We'll move up through our bodies,

Shining the light of awareness on each body part.

There is no end to this meditation.

It could be as short or as long as you want.

This is just a basic version to get you started to learn what different parts to focus on.

But you can go much longer or you can shorten it up on days where you just don't have a time.

Let the meditation work for you.

Starting at your feet,

Notice the energy.

Notice any tenseness or sensations in your feet without judgment.

No shoulds or coulds or woulds.

Just noticing the sensations that are there.

If there is a need to label,

Label one of three things.

Whether the feeling you're noticing is pleasant,

Whether the feeling you're noticing is unpleasant,

Or whether the feeling you're noticing is neither present or unpleasant.

No attachment to either pleasant or unpleasant.

Okay,

Let's move the awareness up into the ankles.

Noticing any sensations.

Any tenseness,

Tightness that might be there.

Labeling it as pleasant or unpleasant or neither.

Now let's bring that attention up into our calves.

Now,

Bringing that attention back and moving up into your knees.

Lots of people carry all sorts of feelings in their knees.

When you take away the words,

You're used to describing those feelings.

What is left?

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or is it neither pleasant or unpleasant?

Moving that attention up again into your upper legs.

Feeling the awareness around your glutes,

Hamstrings,

And quadriceps.

Going deep,

Deep into the bones.

Is this a place you've put your attention before?

What sort of feelings come up?

Are they pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neither?

No goals,

No contest to be won for pleasant or unpleasant feelings.

No striving,

Just noticing.

Just noticing what's there.

The goal being understanding,

Not judgment.

Moving the attention now from the glutes into your hip flexors and the hips themselves.

Bringing your attention in and around your sexual organs.

Maybe some sensations coming from your bladder or your colon.

No judgment,

Just awareness.

Moving the attention up again into your lower abdomen.

Feeling what's going on with the light of awareness within your intestines,

The area in and around the belly button,

And even the lower part of your spine.

Any tension that may be present,

Instead of fighting it,

Just look with awareness.

Look deeply.

What's going on there?

Are the sensations pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or neither?

If there's any unpleasant sensations,

Try to breathe deep into them.

In the same way that you would breathe deeply to energize,

You can breathe deeply to bring energy into an unpleasant sensation,

And then follow it up by a few deep exhalations to breathe out any tension that may be present.

Now let's bring that attention into our upper abdomen and our chest area.

There are different organs going on.

We have the liver.

We have our upper small intestines.

We have our pancreas,

Our gallbladder,

Our stomach,

And even our heart and lungs.

The heart and lungs will be providing constant movement.

Explore what it's like to ride the waves of movement coming from your heart and lungs.

Is there any unpleasantness there?

Is there any attachment to an idealized speed of your heart or lungs?

If so,

It's okay.

Let it go.

Let that attachment go.

Right now,

No judgment,

Just an analyzing of pleasant,

Unpleasant or neither.

Okay.

Deep,

Energizing breaths.

Deep,

Relaxing breaths.

Now,

Let's continue moving up out of our chest and as we transition into our neck and head,

Let's spend a few seconds on our shoulders.

We often carry a lot of tension in our shoulders.

And so this could be a very great place to practice energizing breaths and relaxing breaths.

You may focus on one or the other,

Or you may alternate between the two to find a balance that works for you.

There is no perfection with breathing.

Only finding the balance that works for you.

A balance that changes every moment,

Just like our life changes every moment.

Now,

Let's continue going up into the neck.

Noticing sensations in the throat and your airway.

Moving up into your lower jaw and mouth.

Are there any sensations coming from your jaw?

Maybe a tightness or a tension.

Lots of people grind their teeth or clench their jaws and this can often result in a lot of tension and tightness around this area.

How does that tightness or tension express itself if it is there?

Is it pleasant?

Is it unpleasant or is it neither?

Now,

Let's move up.

Up into our ears.

The area of our nose.

Starting with the nose.

Are there any sensations coming from your nose?

Any on the inside of your nostrils or the outside of your mouth?

How about the smells?

Pleasant,

Unpleasant or neither?

Now,

Let's move to the ears.

For many,

This can be a great source of distraction.

We have all sorts of attachments to different sounds.

And the intensity of different sounds can often change one noise from being pleasant to being unpleasant.

With often the neither unpleasant or unpleasant spot being very,

Very thin sometimes.

Can you expand that zone of neither pleasant nor unpleasant?

Let's move up,

Continuing up into our eyes.

For those who've had their eyes closed,

Have there been any things that you've seen?

Any flashes of light or specks that might have come into your awareness with your eyes closed?

Different changes in the darkness behind your eyes.

Are those pleasant,

Unpleasant or neither?

For those who've had their eyes open and there is no right way.

You may have tried it eyes closed this time.

Maybe next time you'll do your eyes open.

And if you had your eyes open,

Maybe next time you'll do your eyes closed.

Experimenting,

Learning all the different sensations that come up when the light of awareness has shined.

With your eyes open for those who've had that open.

What sort of labeling happens?

Are those labels pleasant,

Unpleasant or neither?

Do those labels change?

Do the other sensations coming from our other senses change the significance of what you see with your eyes?

It's moving up,

Up into our brain and into our head.

Do you notice any sensations there?

How about into your scalp and the bone of our skull surrounds our brain?

Any negative sensations there?

Also known as unpleasant by most.

Any pleasant sensations there?

Or is it just neither pleasant nor unpleasant?

Now take a few seconds to return to your breath.

And when you're ready,

If your eyes have been closed,

Open your eyes and you're finished.

This is a basic mindful body scan using pleasant,

Unpleasant or neither unpleasant as a focus,

A filter for your feelings,

The different sensations that come up in your body.

As you practice more and more,

You can expand the length of this on your own sitting time.

And you can even take this and shorten it to focus on one body part or another.

Over time,

The more you get in touch with the different feelings and sensations coming from your body and mind,

You can find different ways to get in touch with the feelings.

So often,

Our stress is a result of our attachment to certain sensations and thoughts.

And trying to get rid of those may often be impossible.

But learning to reframe how we perceive them can go a long way at providing relief of a variety of different types of suffering.

I wish you well.

Namaste.

Reviews

Just wonderful Can’t tell you how relaxing this is. Thank you so very, very much.