Body Scan

A body scan guided practice with Lyndsay Lunan. This practice invites gentle and kind attention to move through the parts of the body and explore where, in the light of conscious awareness, tension may want to release.

Transcript

BELL And body scan practice.

So if we just begin by settling into the first few out breaths.

And just seeing if we can let the mind soften into the sensation of the out breath.

It's almost as though as we breathe out we could feel the mind kind of powering down,

Quietening down into the sensation of breathing out.

BELL And then really feeling for the sensation of the breath in the body.

So if we just begin by trying to get a sense of how our own breathing feels this particular day,

This particular time.

Just noticing what's going on with my breathing.

So we're not trying to control the breathing,

Correct the breathing.

We've been breathing all day and now we're just bringing awareness to the sensation of the breath.

Feeling whether the breath feels shallow or deep,

Whether it has a quality of shakiness or smoothness.

Almost as though the awareness could just climb inside the ribbon of breathing.

Breathing in,

Feeling the air enter the body.

And breathing out,

Feeling for the exhalation of air,

Allowing the out breath right to its very end.

Let me see if we can just let the mind sink down into the sensation of breathing,

Just a minute or so.

BELL BELL And as with all of our practices,

We notice that our mind has drifted into distraction or thinking.

And this is not an error of practice.

To notice thinking is an act of mindfulness.

Just as we recognize sounds in the environment,

Sensations in our environment,

We can notice there's thinking.

That's what's happening in the present moment.

There's thinking.

And then just see if we can unhook the mind from the toe of thought and really draw our awareness back into the sensations of the body.

We're really giving permission to the mind just to rest into felt sensation.

BELL So we're going to move this concentration of breathing into the body.

As we breathe in,

Drawing awareness into the body.

And as we breathe out,

Allowing for a quality of release through the body.

So that the whole body can benefit from our conscious awareness.

So we could begin just by breathing awareness into the face and into the scalp.

And just sensing into how do the muscles of the face feel.

Letting the awareness move through the forehead into all the little muscles of the eyes.

Breathing awareness into the jaw.

We might notice what's happening with the muscle of the tongue.

Or whether the tongue is pushed up in the palate of the mouth.

And then with each out-breath,

Just seeing if we can bring a real quality of release.

As though the skin of the scalp can slacken.

Breathing out to allow the muscles of the forehead to release.

The space between the eyebrows can kind of drift apart.

And softening into the muscles of the eyes.

Into the jaw.

Letting the muscle of the tongue soften and sink down in the palate.

So this whole theatre of the face,

Constantly on show,

Constantly responding,

Can become quiet.

With each out-breath,

Just allowing the face to soften and become still.

And then with the next in-breath,

Really breathing our awareness into the shoulders.

And into the throat.

So we're just sensing into what's going on with the muscles of my shoulders this particular time.

How do my throat and shoulders feel?

Maybe just seeing if there's any gripping in the throat.

Whether there's any holding in the shoulders.

Maybe we could let the shoulders just drop and soften a little more.

So with each in-breath,

Just drawing a deeper and deeper awareness into the felt sensation of the shoulders.

Space between the shoulder blades.

And if there's a sense of solidity in the muscles,

It's almost as though we aerate the shoulders with the breath.

Oxygen can come in and move through the shoulders.

Allowing the space between the shoulder blades to kind of drift apart.

Allowing the shoulders to soften,

To be light.

Allowing the in-breath to deepen sediment by sediment.

So we bring our deepening quality of release.

Next,

Breathing our awareness into the arms.

Feeling into the volume of the arms,

Down into the muscles.

All the bones of the arms.

Bones of the wrists.

Bones of the hands.

And into the skin of the palms of the hands.

And just seeing if you can sense into the energy of the arms and the hands that hold so much of our busyness,

So much of our doing.

And again with the out-breath,

Seeing if we can really soften through the arms.

Softening right into the fingers.

Almost as though all of our thinking,

All of our activity,

All our tiredness could be breathed out through the skin of the palms of the hands.

So we bring our deepening quality of release.

Next we could move our attention down into the chest and into the muscle of the heart.

We might have a sense of the rise and fall in the chest.

Seeing if we can really bring our awareness into the sensations of the muscle of the heart.

Maybe noticing the speed of the beating of the heart.

Noticing whether there's space around the heart when we breathe,

Whether there's feeling of constriction or tightness in the heart.

Our heart is working so hard for us all day,

Responding to every physical activity,

Every thought,

Every feeling.

So in these moments when we come to rest,

When there's nothing we have to do,

We need to really let our heart know,

I have stopped.

And really allow the heart to rest.

Breathing in,

Allowing the heart to benefit from the kindness of our awareness.

And breathing out,

Allowing the heart to slow down and to soften.

So we can really bring our awareness into the chest and into the muscle of the heart.

And then moving the awareness down into the stomach,

The muscles of the gut.

And as we breathe in,

Just really sensing what's going on in the muscles of my stomach.

Seeing if you can notice if there's any quality of gripping or holding in the stomach,

Even subtly.

And then with each out-breath,

Again seeing if we can really soften into the belly.

So the belly can kind of slacken and let go.

There's nothing to hold on to,

So the muscles of the stomach can release.

Breathing in the kindness of our awareness.

Breathing out the gentleness of release.

And we might follow our awareness down through the back,

Through the spine.

Sensing into all the knuckles of the spine,

Down the back of the neck,

To the upper back,

Into the lower back.

Breathing into the lower back.

Breathing out to allow a quality of release all the way through the back,

Down into the hips.

And if we're laying down,

Just seeing if we can really allow the hips to release into the floor.

So sensing into the support of the floor,

It's the floor that's holding us,

So all of the muscles can let go.

And then breathing in to bring awareness into the legs.

The awareness come into the muscles of the legs,

Bones of the legs,

Bones of the knees,

All the bones of the ankles and the feet.

Breathing our awareness into all the sensations in the skin of the soles of the feet,

All the nerve endings of the body end.

And then breathing out to really soften into the legs.

And again we can imagine all of our activity,

All of our doing,

Our thinking,

Our planning,

Our tiredness is breathed out and released through the soles of the feet.

Which is the basicах you can do this with.

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So just feeling into what does my body feel like.

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And again just feeling the movement of the breath through the whole body.

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And if we've cultivated any sense of rest we can notice this is my own body's capacity for stillness.

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And it's available to me whenever I bring my attention to the body.

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Reviews

What a wonderful body scan. Very detailed and profound. Thank you. I do agree with the previous reviewer that the meditation bells at the end are very disrupting to continued relaxation and even sleep. Might you consider leaving them out OR making another/second version without the bells? Ive seen other teachers do this.

Excellent meditation for drifting to sleep. I like that this has no distracting music. Lovely slow paced natural speaking voice. Because this is for sleep, I would have not had the bell sound at the end.

Very good meditation. Really got in touch with my body and felt its tension

Beautiful, relaxing body scan. I love your Scottish accent! Thank you 🙏

I love this body scan. So calming, so quietly delivered, such excellent pacing with perfect stretches of silence, and no background sounds.

Lovely. Nice slow pace and a gentle tone. I practice this one regularly!

My heart was racing at the beginning of this meditation but at the end I had a profound sense of peace and my heart felt relaxed. Thank you for helping me connect the tension in my body with my thoughts and anxiety. 🙏

Great body scan, nothing forced or rushed just gentle awareness

Beautiful body scan for anytime of the day or night.

Thank you for the kindness and generocity in your tone

Thank you very much.
It gave me much stillness and wisdom

Gentle guidance and soft voice, tha was calming and serene. I will return to this lovely place again and again.

the best guided body scan i’ve tried. i love the pace, the simplicity and of course the wonderful accent!

This is my new favourite meditation, as I explore body scan meditations.

Wonderfully supportive and calming. All my thanks and appreciation Lyndsay.

Super helpful body awareness meditation! Much thanks!

Loved it! Would use it for sleeping if it wasnt for the Doonngg in the end 😄

Beautifully guided, thank you. Love the visual and physical sensation of breathing into my shoulders and between my
shoulder blades.

Lovely body scan. Thank you for your gentle guidance 🙏

Enjed using this lovely practice and will definitely return to it. Calm soothing voice.