Nalu | Mind The Flow, Day 16 Of 28 - Full Body Scan

Nalu is the Hawaiian word for wave. It can also mean mindful observation. During this series, we follow our main character, Nalu, as they explore mindful and meditation practices and deepen their understanding. On day 16, we move through a full body scanning.

Thank you to Mika Mimura Erickson for licensing the music track.

Transcript

Hello everyone.

Welcome back to Nalu Mind the Flow.

Grateful to have you here today.

If you're joining for the first time,

Then welcome.

If you are returning after having joined before,

Then welcome back.

Grateful to have you here as we follow Nalu,

Our main character,

Exploring mindfulness and meditation practices throughout our 28-day journey.

So thank you again for joining.

In previous days,

We've explored the breathing,

We've taken control of the breathing,

And then we've explored body sensation.

For the last couple of days,

We've been moving slowly throughout the body and exploring any sensations that we may find there.

And we've been kind of piecing it together in parts.

So for today,

We will follow Nalu as they then learn how to take a full body scan from the top of the body to the bottom,

And from the bottom of the body back up.

Much like a full wave breaking along the shore,

Or like you might see the wind moving the trees back and forth,

We're noticing,

As Nalu has noticed,

How these waves and these flows and these forms also work within our bodies the same way that they work in the world outside.

So again,

Thank you for joining.

Please find a way to sit back and relax.

You might like to have your eyes opened or closed or partway open for this.

And for the very beginning here,

We'll just notice the quality of our breath as we come into the current moment,

Leaving behind any of those things that have happened to us previously today or this week or this month or this year,

Just letting those fall away as the attention comes in to the attention right there on the breath,

As the breath comes into the body,

And right there on the attention on the breath as the breath leaves the body.

And just notice those sensations there of how it feels to have the breath moving in and the breath moving out from the body.

And just observe.

And you may find,

As you start to observe the breath,

That you're already starting to experience sensations around the body.

This is great.

As we zoom our attention in and we begin to focus our attention on what's currently happening in the current moment by using the breath,

We also start to feel some of the current moment sensation.

Maybe that's just the way our hair is falling or our clothing is falling on the body or maybe there's a breeze or a change in temperature in the air.

Just observe those sensations as they happen.

And then in just about a minute,

We'll start from the top of the head and we'll kind of swiftly move through a body scan.

So just allow your attention to relax.

Allow yourself to relax into the moment.

Just being observant and being curious right here,

Right now,

Just noticing what's happening.

And then for today,

Bringing the attention right there to the top of the head.

So just noticing what any sensation,

What sensations,

If any,

Are happening on the top of the head.

And we're just going to take a nice spiral pattern down the body.

And so just take your mind's eye and scan around the body and just notice sensations or notice the absence of sensation and just keep slowly moving and spiraling down,

Maybe across the forehead,

Maybe across the face,

And then spiraling down around the back of the neck and down around the chin area in front of the neck and just keep moving your attention in a slow spiral down the body,

Passing by the neck area,

Observing the shoulder area,

Maybe the upper back as we slowly circle down the body,

Maybe the front of the chest area,

Moving over the shoulders.

Nice,

Even flow throughout the body and just noticing sensation wherever it may occur.

We're moving a little bit quickly,

But that's okay.

The idea here is just for us to practice this technique and feel what it's like to keep the attention moving as we then circle around the upper arm onto the upper back and then the other arm and continue to circle,

Maybe the solar plexus area,

The upper rib cage.

Circling around,

We may pass over the elbow area of the arm as we move down into the mid-back,

Scanning the second arm.

And as we move circularly down the body,

Scanning the lower arm area as we reach the hips,

Moving across the pelvic area and the stomach,

Moving across the low back and the buttocks and slowly scanning down the body,

Rotating slowly and moving.

And now we're going to start just with the right leg.

Keep that circular motion going as you move around the hip area.

Notice the joint where the hip meets the body and just keep rotating slowly around into the upper thigh,

Rotating down past the knee into the calf area,

Slowly rotating and circulating,

Just observing those sensations in the calf and the ankle,

Down into the right foot,

Maybe even the right toes,

Observing the sole of the foot and then just very gently drawing your attention back up that leg and then moving over to the left leg in the hip area,

Noticing the upper hip where it meets the body,

Noticing the inner thigh and then just rotating again around down through the left leg,

Slowly and gently rotating,

Maybe around the knee,

Down through the calf area and rotating down to the bottom of the left foot and the tips of the left toes.

And now gently working your way back up the left leg,

Scanning and rotating up the left leg of the body and again one more tiny bit of attention on the right leg,

Rotating down there on the foot and scanning back up the right leg of the body.

Both legs meet in the hip area and now you're slowly rotating back up the body,

Across the abdomen,

Across the low back,

Your seat in the chair,

Rotating around,

Moving your attention in a nice,

Slow,

Easy fashion and noticing any sensation that crops up along the way.

Maybe at this point,

Looking at the left fingertips and the left hand and then scanning up through the hand,

Through the wrist and the left arm,

Moving up the body into the upper arm,

Past the elbow,

Up into the left shoulder and then swiftly moving your attention down to the right fingertips and the right hand and then just scanning up the right side of the body,

Right side of the arm,

Right arm,

Scanning up past the elbow,

Past the upper arm and into the shoulders and now taking that rotation and rotating around the midsection of the body with the upper arms,

Rotating back up into the shoulders,

Around into the neck and back up into the head as we return the attention on sensation,

The curiosity about sensation to the head area,

Rotating around the head area and maybe ending up here at the top of the head again and just observing sensation and then just taking a minute to relax.

That was quite a whirlwind there,

Pretty quick to do it in 10 minutes but we gave it our best shot as Nalu has done.

So just relaxing into a nice comfy spot,

Maybe taking a deep breath,

Maybe letting out a little bit of a sigh and thanking you for coming out today for Nalu Mind the Flow.

So appreciate you having you here and really appreciate you joining along in that whirlwind journey that we had through sensations on the body.

I'm hoping that this brings you back to a very comfortable seated or lying back position and some new awareness about your surroundings and noticing and observing and being observant and hopefully enjoying a little bit more as we return to the thoughts of the day.

Thank you again for joining and I hope to see you next time.