Hi,
This is a body scan meditation that draws on information from neuroscience.
If you have enjoyed body scan meditations in the past,
You're probably going to like this one,
I hope you do.
If you have found though that it's been difficult to access using the traditional Vipassana style instructions,
I think that updating those instructions with an understanding of how the map of our bodies is laid out on our brains will be very helpful for you in terms of easier and quicker access to the experience that the Buddha was talking about.
So let's get started.
Get comfortable in whatever your meditation position is.
Use whatever you need to in terms of cushions,
Blankets,
And what have you so that you're ready to begin.
I'm going to recommend that you close your eyes.
If you're comfortable doing that,
Let your eyes close and start to pay attention just to this moment as you find yourself sitting or lying right here.
Become aware of your breath.
Maybe deepen your breath a little without applying too much effort.
Just increase how deeply you're breathing a little bit more so you can really be aware of the inhale and the exhale.
Moment by moment,
Moving in and out.
And start to notice the sensations that go with the movement of breath.
So we're not making anything up.
We're not looking for anything special.
Just notice you already are aware of your breath moving.
What tells you that your breath is moving in and out?
Maybe you feel something in your belly or your chest.
Pay attention.
Maybe you feel something in your throat or your nostrils,
Perhaps even at the tip of your nose or against your upper lip.
Be aware of the breath moving in and out just right now.
As you come home to your one precious body,
As the breath rises and falls,
Notice your hands.
Be aware of where your hands are resting,
Maybe what they're resting on,
The sensations of that,
Maybe the air against your skin,
The position of your hands,
Feel your fingers and your thumbs,
Your palms and the backs of your hands.
And you'll probably notice it's pretty easy to start this way.
Imagine your hands letting go a little more.
And notice the sensations that might go with a sense of just relaxing and letting go through your hands and fingers.
And now you may find it's fairly easy to become aware of your lips and your tongue.
Bring your awareness to your lips and your nose.
It's easy to become aware of your lips and your tongue.
Bring your awareness to your lips and your tongue.
Notice any sensations there.
As you imagine your lips and tongue softening a little,
Relaxing,
Feel your tongue inside your mouth.
Again,
Without looking for anything specific or making anything up,
Just be with the sensation experience of your lips and tongue.
And as you soften there,
Let the softening spread all the way through your face and your scalp and your ears.
Imagine the tension draining from your jaw.
And feel the base of your skull relaxing right where the back of your head meets your neck.
As best you can,
Tune in on the base of your skull and send the message just to let go and relax a little there.
And you may find that it's easy to drop your awareness from the base of your neck and it's easy to drop your awareness from the base of your skull deep down into your belly.
Sensing your belly from the inside,
Imagine uncoiling there,
Your belly uncoiling and softening,
Your low back releasing.
And now really feel as receptively as you can all the way through your belly and your low back.
From the inside expanding out and all the way around,
Notice any sensations there.
We don't have to be able to name them,
Just be with the experience of sensation in your belly and your low back.
And let the awareness spread from your belly and low back up through your chest and your upper back,
Feeling all the way around your chest and upper back and as your breath rises and falls,
Notice how it feels in your chest and maybe in your upper back too as you sense this whole area from the inside out and all the way around.
Let the awareness keep creeping up your body now from your chest and upper back through your neck and your throat and out through your shoulders and your lower back.
Feel the breath as it moves,
Sensing your neck and your throat and your shoulders.
Imagine awareness and energy just pouring down your arms,
Pouring down from shoulders to fingertips.
As you sense your upper arms and your elbows,
Your forearms,
Your shoulders,
Your toes,
Your forearms,
And your wrists,
And again your hands and fingers and thumbs.
Notice now how we've kind of painted a heightened awareness picture,
If you will,
Of your upper body from your waist up to your head and down to your fingers.
And sense that,
Sense how we've basically turned on all of these brain circuits and amplified awareness of the upper body,
However that is for you.
As your breath rises and falls,
I want you now to send your awareness into your feet and toes.
Really bring attention to a receptive sensing of your feet and toes.
Notice the position they're in,
Notice any sense of temperature,
Maybe the air against your stomach,
Maybe the slight sense of pressure from what they're resting on.
Really sense your feet and your toes in this moment.
And perhaps you can hear my sleeping puppy next to me who just made a nice relaxing sigh,
I think.
He's a little bit sleepy.
Nice relaxing sigh,
I think he's enjoying the body scan.
As you feel your feet and toes now,
Feel your hips,
Feel whatever you might be sitting on or if you're lying down,
Whatever your hips are resting on.
Notice the sensations of pressure from what you're resting or sitting on,
And anything else you feel as you pay attention to your pelvis and your hips,
Your groin,
Sensing all the way through that region.
Just putting receptive attention there.
And imagine now awareness and energy streaming down your legs,
Sensing your thighs,
Inner and outer thighs,
The backs and the fronts,
And as you sense your thighs feeling your knees,
The position that your legs are in,
As you sense your knees feeling down,
Through your calves and your shins,
Feeling your ankles,
And again your feet and toes.
And notice now how we've mapped your lower body,
And that that awareness of your lower body is now being transferred to your lower body.
And that that awareness of your lower body can join the awareness of your upper body as you sit in your center,
Aware of your whole body at once without focusing on any particular area.
This is my one precious body,
Alive in this moment.
This is my breath rising and falling.
And let yourself be at home as you are right now.
Right now.
Now you may notice that this awareness of your body can be grounding,
So it's a sense of being in touch with the ground beneath you,
Being centered in your own embodied experience.
That can be really helpful in daily life.
You may notice a sense of calm,
Perhaps self-acceptance,
Gratitude.
Notice anything that feels good,
Even if my words so far haven't described it,
Notice what feels good to you right now,
And take it in.
Let it in a little more,
Extend it in time,
Soak it up more deeply into your very cells.
If you're an experienced meditator,
You might sit for longer now and practice just allowing the awareness experience of your sensations to keep unfolding.
And you may find that your attention is drawn to different places in your body,
And sometimes you'll find that those sensations are related to thoughts or emotions.
It can be a really fascinating journey,
Very healing,
And it can give rise to great insight into your life and into the human condition.
Insight is the translation of this word,
Vipassana,
Which is where we get body scan meditation from.
So if you're experienced in that way,
Feel free to stay with this as long as you like.
If you're a newer meditator,
Take a few more breaths here.
Stay with awareness of your body in this moment and your breath rising and falling.
And if you're ready to bring the meditation to a close,
You can start to think about opening your eyes and moving your body in whatever way you need to.
And I'll see you next time for more neuroscience and somatic psychology informed,
Somewhat Buddhist meditation.
Thank you so much.
I'm Julian Walker.
