The Body Scan For Awareness & Acceptance

The Body Scan is a classic mindfulness-based practice that allows you to step into your body, cultivate awareness and acceptance for what is already here. You are complete, as you already are.
This 30-minute meditation will guide you through awareness of the breath, each body part individually and then the body as a whole.

Watch yourself slip into neutral.

Transcript

This is the body scan practice and it will last for 30 minutes.

Standing in a comfortable position,

Whether that's sitting in a chair with your back away from the backrest,

Feet flat on the floor and your hands in a relaxed position,

Or sitting cross-legged on the floor,

Bolstered by enough cushions to create a stable tripod position where you can rise in a dignified posture,

Your head balancing naturally on the top of your spine,

Or lying down on the floor on a mat with a blanket to cover you to make sure you're warm enough for the duration of the practice,

Bolstering your knees to keep them bent should you normally receive any lower back tension and placing a cushion underneath your head for comfort.

You are welcome to practice this on your bed if you're sure that you won't fall asleep,

As what we are trying to do is to fall awake rather than fall asleep,

Allowing your hands to fall gently next to you,

Palms facing up.

So taking your seat,

This is my invitation to you to step out of chronological time,

Following my guidance as best you can,

But knowing that what's important are not my words,

But the nature of your inner experience.

I'm not saying that this is going to be easy,

But just allowing yourself to notice your inner experience,

Letting go of any tendency for things to be different to what they are and allowing yourself to be exactly as you are in this moment.

This is a time set aside entirely for you.

My invitation is to do what the practice asks as best you can,

But bearing in mind that there is no right way to feel as we lie or sit here.

Give yourself the permission to feel whatever it is that you are feeling in this moment and knowing that that is okay,

Even if difficult or challenging thoughts or feelings arise,

Just holding them with awareness and not judging them,

Allowing your experience to unfold moment by moment and knowing that if you need to tune out my voice to get a deeper silence underneath the guidance,

Feeling free to do so and then returning to my instructions when appropriate.

So bringing awareness to your body as a whole,

As you lie here or sit here,

Taking note of the volume of space that you're taking up and knowing that from the perspective of mindfulness,

As long as you are breathing,

There is more right with you than wrong with you,

No matter what the condition of your body.

This is not an opportunity to set goals for your practice or to strive for a sense of being relaxed,

But rather relaxation being a natural byproduct of this practice.

Cultivating mindfulness does not get rid of our waves of experience or just allow us to ride them,

But it will help you to become more ocean like.

Now bringing your awareness to your body as a whole,

Taking note of the effect of gravity as you lie here,

How it pulls you downwards into your chosen position,

The sinking feeling that allows you to melt into the surface that you are lying on or the cushion or chair that you are sitting on,

But if you are sitting,

Having a dignified and erect posture,

Noticing the sensation that your clothes and the fabric of them provide against your skin,

Perhaps taking note of the individual hairs between your skin and the fabric of your clothes,

Taking note of the quality of the fabrics that you've surrounded yourself in today and the comfort that they provide for you.

Perhaps you get a sense of temperature in the air that surrounds you.

And then when you're ready,

Drawing your attention to your natural breath cycle,

Following the length of your inhalation and following the length of your exhalation.

Not changing the breath in any way,

But allowing it to be exactly as it is as we sit or lie here,

Perhaps noticing the space in between your in-breath and out-breath,

Taking note of the texture of your breaths and really allowing your attention to rest and ride upon the cycle of your breathing.

Perhaps the breath is more prominent for you in a particular body part.

For some,

That may be your belly as it rises and as it falls.

Perhaps for you,

You feel it more naturally in your chest as the diaphragm expands,

Allowing oxygen to fill your chest.

And as it contracts,

Putting the CO2 out as a natural waste product.

Perhaps for you,

You feel the breath more naturally as it sits at your nostrils.

You can feel the cool air as you inhale and as it exchanges into warm air on the exhale.

Just taking this moment to allow whatever your experience of your natural breath to be exactly as it is.

And knowing that throughout the duration of this practice,

You can return to the breath as an anchor point to bring you back into the moment at any time.

Maybe for you,

Your anchor point might feel more natural to be the feeling of gravity.

And allowing whatever anchor point you choose to be exactly as it is.

Now my invitation to you is for a moment just to allow your breath to dissolve from your mind's eye.

And taking your attention and delivering it to the toes of your left foot.

The big toe,

The little toe,

The toes in between.

Feeling a sense of any sensation that's available to you in the toes of your left foot as we sit or lie here.

Perhaps you get a tingling,

Maybe a sense of temperature,

Maybe a sense of the fabric or the blanket or the cool air that surrounds them.

Just allowing whatever your experience of your left toes to rest center stage in the field of your awareness.

And now drawing your attention from the left toes to encompass the left foot as a whole.

The sole of the foot,

The top of the foot,

The heel of the foot,

The ankle joint,

The intricacies of the ankle joint,

The bony structure of the foot,

Perhaps the angle as it flops to the side if you're lying down or the contact with the surface that you are sitting on.

Whatever that is,

Allowing it to rest there with this breath and with this moment.

And now drawing your attention from your left foot,

Navigating its way through the left ankle joint and into the lower left leg.

What is this like for you to rest your awareness in the lower left leg?

Knowing that what we are doing here is not thinking about the lower left leg,

But we are using our attention to feel the sensations that are in the lower left leg,

Whatever that is for you.

Perhaps your experience of the lower left leg is that there are no sensations in the lower left leg and knowing that that's okay,

That is your experience.

And drawing your attention when you're ready from the lower left leg and up into the left knee joint,

Again navigating its way through the tendons and the cartilage and the bony cap at the top,

Drawing your attention,

Noticing any sensations that are here as we move and letting your attention just rest in the thigh of your left leg.

So from the top of your knee joint to the outer edge of the left thigh,

Around the back following the line of your lower left buttock and coming into the groin,

Experiencing this area as a whole,

Getting a sense of the bone in the centre and the fleshy outer,

Whatever your experience allowing it to rest in your awareness.

And as your mind wanders,

As it surely will,

Just acknowledging for a moment where your mind has wandered to and then noticing where it is befriending it gently and kindly,

Escorting your attention back to the thigh of the left leg.

And now,

If you wish,

I'd like you to take a more deeper and intentional breath in through the nose,

Down through the body and out into the left leg to the toes and reversing the cycle on the exhale and allowing the breath to draw back up the left leg,

Up the body and out through the nostrils and letting go of the left leg as a whole,

As the breath lets go.

And now taking your attention and dropping it into the toes of your right foot.

How is it to be the toes of your right foot in this moment and with this breath?

The big toe,

The little toe and the toes in between,

The spaces in between the toes,

The ball of the foot,

The heel of the foot,

The sole of the foot,

The top of the foot,

Really taking your awareness and allowing it to envelope the right foot as a whole.

What sensations are available to me in my right foot?

And with curiosity,

We take that attention and we deliver it to the right ankle,

Navigating our way through the intricacies of this complicated joint,

Drawing it through the right ankle and into the right lower leg,

Getting a sense of the shinbone at the front,

The cushioned flesh at the back.

Perhaps you get an idea of the muscles in between.

Taking your attention and drawing it up through the right lower leg into the right knee joint.

Taking your curiosity and delivering it to the right knee joint.

How is this for me?

How does this feel in this moment?

And when you are ready,

Taking your attention from the right knee and delivering it to the right thigh,

From the top of the knee joint to the outside of the right hip,

To the inside of the groin and around the back of the buttock,

Really navigating the long thigh bone down the center and the fleshy outer.

And if your mind wanders,

Just allowing it to gently be escorted with friendliness back to the task at hand.

And in this case,

We are investigating the right thigh.

When you are ready,

Taking a deeper and more intentional breath in through the nostrils,

Down through the body,

Down through the right leg and out to the toes.

And again,

Reversing the cycle and allowing the exhale to navigate your breath up through the right leg,

Up through the torso and out through the nose and allowing your right leg to completely dissolve from your mind's eye as we rest here in awareness.

My next invitation to you is to take your attention and allow it to hold the pelvic girdle starting in the left hip,

Traveling through the sacrum at the back,

Traveling to the right hip,

Moving from the right hip down and up through the genitals and back to the sacrum.

This can be an area which holds a lot of tension for many people.

In whatever sensations are available to you here,

Whether pleasant,

Unpleasant or neutral,

Just holding them in your awareness with an objectivity that allows you to witness the sensation without labeling it.

There are two things that we can do when working with challenging sensations.

One is to move mindfully.

Move your position to allow yourself some relief as we are not here to torture ourselves.

Or you can use your attention.

You can use the focus that we are cultivating here to draw right up close to the sensation.

Perhaps this is an acute sensation that is screaming for your attention.

But what other qualities does it have?

Perhaps it has a texture.

Perhaps it has a color.

Does it have an attitude?

We are not here to think about these sensations,

But to really deeply feel them.

And you can use your attention to move mindfully,

Curiously and with a friendly nature towards what we are feeling,

Especially when it is challenging.

My next invitation to you is to draw your attention from the pelvic girdle up into the lower torso.

Perhaps getting a sense of busyness.

Maybe for you,

You are very aware of the last meal that you have had.

Or perhaps the lack of it.

What does that feel like?

What's the feeling tone surrounding perhaps the craving for nourishment in the form of food or the avoidance of it if we are too full?

Noticing the flavor,

The tone of the sensations available here to you.

As what we are doing is not tackling our problems head on,

But we are not resolving the problems.

We are noticing our relationship to them and the tone of that and holding that in our awareness.

And when you are ready,

Drawing your attention from the lower torso into the upper torso,

Potentially getting a sense of the ribs as they hang,

The diaphragm as you breathe.

Can you feel the lungs expanding and contracting?

The heart.

Perhaps you can feel your own heart beating.

The warmth,

The sensation surrounding the heart.

What's here for me right now?

And on your next inhalation,

My invitation is to take a more deeper and intentional breath in through the nose and down through the torso and up to the pelvic girdle and on the exhalation,

Reversing the cycle up from the pelvic girdle,

Up through the body and out through the nose and allowing the torso as a whole to completely dissolve from your mind's eye as we rest here in present moment awareness.

And as the mind wanders a thousand times,

We gently and kindly escort it back to the breath one thousand times.

And when you're ready,

Taking your attention and delivering it to your left and your right hand simultaneously,

Noticing the diligence of your attention and how it will split into two places at once.

Quite happily.

The fingertips,

The thumbs,

The metacarpals,

The bony structure,

The palm of the hand.

Are there any sensations available to you in your hands as a whole?

Perhaps there's a sense of temperature.

What is here?

What is my experience of my hands as we sit or lie here?

Bringing an investigative mind into the task at hand,

A playfulness,

A willingness,

A childlike beginner's mind.

Is this my first time of experiencing my hands in this way?

What is that like?

And delivering your attention through the intricacies of your wrist joints,

Navigating the tendons,

The bones and drawing it into your forearms,

The left and the right at the same time,

Following the bony structure,

The tendons,

The muscles and up into the elbows,

The left and the right.

Noticing how the tendons strap the hinge joint together for us,

The defensiveness of the bony structure on the outside and taking your attention into the upper arms,

The left and the right.

What is that like?

Navigating the waves of muscle up into the shoulders,

Noticing the balance between the muscle and the flesh and the outer protection of the skin as we move and flow into the shoulders,

Extending the ball and the socket joint on the inside and the muscly,

Fleshy outer.

And when you are ready,

Taking that deeper,

More intentional breath down through the nostrils,

Through the shoulders,

Past the elbows,

Into the fingertips and exhaling up through the arms at the same time and out through the nostrils and allowing both your arms to move into the background of your awareness as we lie here in stillness and in silence.

My next invitation to you is to take your attention and allow it to sit on the collar bones,

Noticing the structure,

Any other sensation that you are aware of,

Travelling from the collar bones into the neck as a whole,

Deep inside the neck,

A sense of swallowing perhaps and travelling from the neck up into the mouth.

Where is my tongue?

Is it relaxing away from the roof of the mouth?

Perhaps there's a sense of taste from that last meal that you did or didn't have,

Noticing the change in texture between the soft cushioned tongue and the hard enamel of the teeth,

Moving from the teeth into the lips,

Up from the lips into the nose,

Allowing the breath and how it travels through the nose to come into our awareness,

Travelling from the nose up to the eyeballs,

Noticing how eyelashes fold together,

The eyebrows,

The forehead.

What is available for me in the forehead,

An area where a lot of us will hold or our tension becomes visible?

How is this naturally being held,

Travelling from the forehead back to the ears and then experiencing the cranium as a whole and deep inside the head?

What is this like for me in this moment and with this breath?

And then when you are ready,

I'd like you to imagine a hole in the crown of your head,

Like the blowhole of a whale.

And this time,

Taking a deeper and more intentional breath as if you were breathing fresh air in through the blowhole in the top of your head,

Down through your head,

Through the torso,

The arms,

The legs and out into the toes and reversing the cycle on the exhale up from the toes,

The legs,

The body,

The arms and the head and out through the top and allowing the whole body to rest in awareness,

Watching it dissolve into neutral.

Being in touch with your natural peacefulness,

Resting in awareness itself,

A deep inner wakefulness as we lie or sit here.

Repeat as you are.

And as this practice comes to its natural conclusion and we open back up again to chronological time,

My invitation to you is to express gratitude to yourself for taking the time to befriend yourself in this way.

And perhaps setting an intention to nourish yourself and befriend yourself in this way over and over,

Knowing that awareness is as close as this breath and this moment.

What we are cultivating here is portable and our formal practice is a training ground for allowing the awareness and the focus that we are cultivating to spill out into our daily lives which is our daily practice.

Knowing that you can always come back to the breath,

To the anchor and to this moment.

And now resting in neutral,

In stillness and in silence until you hear the sound of the bells.

Now relax for a few minutes again.

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