23 Minute Body Scan

Touch base with yourself. Starting with a brief intention, and then tuning your awareness to the direct sensations within your body. Gena Bean guides you towards following a classic body scan mentioning some options for numbness or pain during meditation.

Transcript

Taking a moment to tune into what your intention is for this meditation.

So it might be relaxation,

It might be some form of peace,

It might be giving yourself a little break in your day.

Some of you have been working,

And then you have this time,

And then it's likely you're moving on to some other responsibility.

So if your intention is to give yourself a moment of respite,

Noting that,

It might happen,

It might not happen.

But we'll see.

If at any point your mind starts to race,

Sometimes opening the eyes so that you can really notice your surroundings and be where you are,

That can help to mitigate mind racing.

But if it feels comfortable for you,

Having your eyes closed is always welcome.

And allowing your awareness to alight gently on your feet,

Just noticing your feet from the inside.

Hmm,

What's going on with my feet right now?

So the balls of the feet,

The arch,

The heel,

Any part of the foot that is predominant,

Just feeling it.

Huh,

That's predominant right now.

So if you're wearing socks,

It might just be the pressure of the fabric of your sock,

Or your shoes if they're tied.

If your feet are bare,

You might feel air blowing through.

Tops of the feet,

Ankles,

Inside the feet.

On some days,

Some meditators have a sense of the bones or the muscles,

The joints inside.

You might even briefly wiggle your toes to feel that movement.

As you move up through the ankles and into the lower legs,

There's the shins in front,

There's the calves in back.

Then there's some muscles,

You might have a sense of the muscles inside or the bone.

So you're not so much thinking about the leg as feeling it,

Direct sensation from the inside as you move up into the knees.

And as you're simply receiving the feeling inside your knees,

There might be a sense of nothingness,

A numbness.

And if you're paying attention,

And the only thing to pay attention to is a zero,

It still counts.

It's still excellent mindfulness.

In that case,

You would simply say,

Hmm,

That's kind of a zero right now.

Okay.

And still having an open awareness of what's going on in the knees anyway.

If you're in a position where you'd benefit from bending and straightening the knee in order to feel the movement in the joint,

That's an option for you if you'd like to take it.

There's nothing all that special about what we're doing here,

Other than we don't usually do it.

Just paying attention to the parts of our body that don't get much attention most days.

And bringing the awareness up into the thighs.

Tops of the thighs,

Backs of the thighs,

Inside and out.

If you're sitting in a chair,

You might feel the pressure of the chair underneath your thighs.

If you're lying on the bed,

It might be similar.

There might be a place where you feel the fabric of your pant leg.

There might be a place where you feel the fabric of your pant leg.

There might be a sense of nothingness.

Sometimes things are positive,

Sometimes things are negative,

Sometimes things are neutral.

And the experiment,

If you're choosing to experiment,

Is to have a kind of open field of awareness and whatever kind of sensation happens to be in your upper leg right now,

Simply noting it,

Receiving it.

Sometimes we even say befriending it,

If that's possible.

And then moving up into the hips.

And in this lower part of the torso,

Sometimes there can be more emotion,

Especially in the pelvic area.

So if at any point something arises for you,

You can move back down to the feet and just feel the feet.

Or pay attention to anything that works for you,

Maybe even ending the meditation.

You're in control.

But just feeling the hips if you are choosing to continue with the scan.

There is a joint inside each hip.

There is a joint inside each hip.

Again,

You might bend and straighten at the hip and see how that feels.

You might include the rest of the pelvic area.

If you're seated,

You might feel your buttocks against the chair,

A little pressure there.

Whatever's present,

Just feeling it.

And of course,

Taking care of yourself and moving your attention away whenever you need to.

Perhaps moving up into the lower back,

The belly,

The lower part of the torso.

There are organs of digestion and elimination inside.

There might be a belly gurgle.

Then moving up into the upper part of the torso.

The chest,

The breasts.

In back,

There's the scapulas.

On the sides,

There's the muscles.

There's the muscles.

There's the muscles.

There's the muscles.

The chest,

The breasts.

In back,

There's the scapulas.

On the sides,

There's the rib cage.

Inside is the spine.

You might be aware of some form of movement along with the breath.

There are muscles between the ribs called intercostal muscles.

There are muscles in the ribs called the intercostal muscles.

There are muscles in the ribs called the intercostal muscles.

And depending on how things are going with the breath and what your position is,

You might feel the ribs opening like a balloon on the inhale and gently falling back towards the spine on the exhale.

But you might not be feeling that.

I'm using my voice to indicate things that I've heard meditators report to me and things that I've felt myself.

But you're out in the field of experience.

You're the one who knows what's predominant in your awareness right now.

There might even be a sense of the heart beating.

Moving to yourWild Chief,

You might see a couple of moving up into the shoulders,

Then allowing the awareness to go out into both hands and the fingers.

Palms of the hands,

Backs of the hands,

The little muscles and joints inside the fingers.

If you want to make slow fists and release it in order to feel the gentle motion that happens,

Go ahead and do that.

Maybe including the wrists and the forearms in your awareness,

The elbows.

And if at any point pain does arise,

It might be in one of the joints you're feeling right now,

Or you might have felt it earlier,

Or you'll feel it in the future,

You have a number of choices.

And one of the best ones is to just stop meditating in some way,

Maybe just opening your eyes and walking around the room a little.

If you're feeling pain and you're choosing to stay with the meditation,

That's always welcome.

It's one of the ways to feel the reality of your human experience,

To just be with what's true.

With any sensation,

A positive sensation,

An emotional sensation,

Or even painful sensations,

It's possible to tune in as if you're focusing a camera.

Tuning in and feeling,

Hmm,

What's the texture of this?

Is this sharp?

Is it smooth?

If it had a taste or a color,

What would it have?

Any sensation can usually be befriended in some way,

As part of the reality of experience within the context of a meditation.

Moving the awareness up into the upper arms,

Maybe including the armpits,

Moving into the shoulders.

And again,

Seeing if it's possible to have an open field of awareness and noting what's real.

There might be pleasant sensations in your shoulders right now.

There might be some kind of tension.

There might be a painful thing,

Such as a pinch or an ache.

Those are very different types of pain.

And if you're feeling safe enough,

If you're secure in your environment,

If you feel okay with this meditation,

You might tune in to,

Well,

What's really going on in the shoulders?

There's no need to change it.

Being with it.

If a very good friend of yours were feeling pain,

You might try to hug them.

And so that's one of the invitations with this form of meditation.

Befriend every part of yourself.

And if there's some part of yourself in pain,

Seeing if there's a way to give it a little hug.

I'm here for you.

We're in this together.

Bringing the awareness up into the neck.

The skin level of the neck,

Maybe inside the tonsils,

The vertebrae of the neck.

Moving the awareness up into the jaw,

Maybe including the teeth and the tongue,

The lips,

Cheeks,

Nose,

Eyes,

Eyebrows,

Ears,

Top of the head.

Seeing if there's some sense of inside your head,

The brain.

We just went systematically through each part of the body.

We just went through in a way where I mentioned the different parts of the body and the intention was to feel it or not according to what was real.

And now seeing if there's a way to have a more loose awareness of the whole body altogether.

So including the head and the face and the ears and the neck,

Including the shoulders,

Including the arms all the way down to the fingers,

Including the chest,

Including the rest of the torso,

Including the whole spine down to the tailbone,

Including the hips,

Including the legs through the knees down the calves and through the ankles and including the feet and the toes.

In some way just feeling the whole body,

Being aware of what's predominant in your awareness,

Putting out a kind of welcome mat to whatever happens to be here as it is.

As it is.

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Reviews

Good bodyscan no music 🤗🙏🏻

Thank you! I definitely learned something. I appreciate the thoroughness and the touches of levity 😊.