MBCT Body Scan

This is a body scan practice for the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Program (MBCT). You are invited to practice paying attention moment by moment to the physical body with an intention of curiosity and kindness. This practice is intended to be used as homework for The Mindful Way Group.

Transcript

Welcome to the body scan practice as part of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy program.

I am your instructor,

Jen Churchill.

I invite you to take these next few moments to get set up in a position that is comfortable for you.

Traditionally,

This practice is done lying down.

However,

You are welcome to do this in a seated position or even standing.

Once you are ready to begin,

I invite you to close your eyes and start to bring your attention into your physical body,

Noticing your whole body here in space,

Dropping into the contact points between your body and the surfaces beneath you,

And now shifting your attention to your breath,

Noticing where your breath is most apparent for you,

Perhaps some movement in the chest or the abdomen,

Breathing in,

Knowing that you're breathing in,

And breathing out,

Knowing that you're breathing out.

Even feeling the passage of air through your nose or your mouth,

The sound of your breath,

Not needing to make anything happen,

But simply registering your breath as it is,

Right here,

Right now.

And as we begin to practice,

We often notice that the mind wanders,

The thoughts carry us away,

Accepting that this is what minds do.

And often this is a practice that we need to begin again and again,

Perhaps even thousands of times,

Simply bringing the attention back gently to here and now,

Knowing that there is no right or wrong way to do this practice.

Our intention is to simply show up as we are,

Allowing yourself to release any expectations or striving as you begin to bring the attention gently into the body.

We'll start with a little bit of breathing in and out as we begin to breathe in and out.

By narrowing the focus of our attention down into our feet,

Bringing attention to our big toes,

And noticing what is.

Perhaps there is a sense of pressure,

Temperature,

Contact,

And perhaps there's no sensation at all.

Maybe there is simply an image of the toes in the mind,

Or the word toes.

Now extending your attention out from your big toes,

Through the rest of your toes to your pinky toes,

Feeling the whole of all of your toes,

The spaces between the toes,

The contact between the toes.

Drawing your awareness up through the bottoms of your feet,

The balls of the feet,

The arches of the feet,

The heels,

The whole of the bottoms of your feet.

Bringing your attention now around to the tops of your feet,

Along the tops of your feet to your ankles.

Feeling the whole of both feet.

Now bringing attention up through the lower parts of the legs,

Your calves,

Your shins,

Feeling any contact here,

The clothing,

Sensation,

Temperature,

Pressure,

And simply knowing,

Staying open,

Staying curious.

Gathering your attention up to your knees,

The tops of your knees,

The backs of your knees,

The whole of both knees.

Knowing that if any point the practice becomes too much,

You're welcome to shift your attention to some other more neutral or pleasant place in the body.

Open your eyes,

Take a break,

Do what you need to do to take care of you.

Knowing that you can return to the practice whenever you're ready.

Bringing attention now from the knees to the upper parts of the legs,

The thighs,

The fronts and backs of the thighs,

And now the whole of both legs here,

The whole lower half of the body.

Drawing your attention up further now into your pelvis,

The front of the pelvis,

The back of the pelvis,

The buttocks,

The fleshy part of the hips,

The low belly,

From the most outer parts of the body to the most inner parts of the body.

This part of the body that connects the legs to the torso.

Drawing your awareness up to your low back,

Your belly,

Again,

From the surfaces of your skin,

In towards the organs,

Recognizing any movement,

Showing up for whatever arises here.

Noticing any shifts in sensation,

Shifts in attention.

Drawing your attention now up into the lower parts of the lungs,

The mid-back,

Perhaps feeling some movement of your lower back,

Your breath,

In all directions.

The breath taking up space,

Flowing naturally.

Other organs here,

The heart,

Perhaps even being able to feel the movement or the beat of the heart.

Bringing attention into the upper back,

The most upper part of the chest,

From outer sensation to inner sensation.

And recognizing those moments if your attention has wandered.

And bringing the attention back gently into the body.

Redirecting your attention now down into your fingers,

Your hands,

Starting with your pinkies,

The outermost tips of your fingers,

And then drawing your attention in through the rest of your fingers to your thumbs.

There might be some pressure here,

Tingling,

Heat,

Or coolness.

Seeing what is for you in this moment.

As you draw attention down your fingers into the palms of your hands,

And then acknowledging the whole of both hands here.

Down to the wrists,

And tracing up through your forearms,

Your elbows,

Tracing your upper arms to your shoulders,

The whole of both arms.

Drawing your attention up from your shoulders into your neck,

Starting with the back of your neck,

The base of your skull.

Wrapping your attention now around your scalp,

Through the outermost part of your head,

To your forehead.

Drawing attention across your brow into your temples,

Across your eyebrows,

Down through the eyes,

To your eye sockets,

And the whole upper part of your face,

Across your cheekbones.

Attention tracing along the bridge of your nose,

Down into your ears,

Down into your cheeks,

The hollows of your cheeks.

Recognizing your lips from the outermost part of your mouth to the innermost part of your mouth,

Your teeth,

Gums,

And tongue,

And the spaces between.

What's here?

What's available to you?

Staying with whatever,

With whatever shifting sensations or thoughts may arise,

Feelings,

Kindly and curiously seeing what's here right now.

Staying with your experience as much as you can.

Drawing attention now into your jaw,

Up to your earlobes,

Tracing the outermost edges of your ears to the innermost parts of your ears.

Tracing down through the sides of your neck,

The front of your throat,

From the tip of your chin all the way to the nape of your neck,

Down into your collarbones.

Now,

Having scanned through the whole body,

Broadening your attention again to take in your whole body here in space.

Resting with the body,

The whole of the body,

Open to whatever sensations arise.

And now,

Shifting back into your breath,

Allowing your breath to take up some space,

Perhaps even visualizing your breath expanding throughout your entire body,

From your chest down along your torso into your legs,

Out to the tips of your toes.

Down through your arms,

Out to the tips of your fingers.

And up through your head,

Out to the top of your head.

Extending the breath outward as you breathe in,

And drawing the breath back in as you breathe out.

Practicing this a few more times,

If this feels right for you.

Breathing in,

Extending outward,

And breathing out as you gather inward.

And now,

Letting your attention go untethered by open,

Move,

Shift,

Letting it go where it wants to go.

And as we begin to close the practice,

You might like to bring some movement at first,

Small movement into your fingers,

Your toes,

Your head,

Shoulders,

Starting to wake the body back up.

And then opening your eyes as you're ready,

And returning to your day.

This is Jen Churchill saying thank you for practicing with me,

And I hope you will return soon to practice together again.