Contemplating The Body: Introduction To The Body Scan

This is a practice in how we make space for ourselves, allowing the body to be as it is and be felt as it is. Gently moving our awareness inward as we begin to listen to - and get to know - the body's language.

This practice can be done in any position, although sitting or lying down will often be more supportive for deepening the relaxation.

Transcript

Finding a comfortable position for yourself, A position where you feel, Okay, I can stay here. This is workable. And in this adjusting, That's also part of when we begin to listen inwardly, What's comfortable in the body right now. Feel free to close your eyes if that's okay for you. And sometimes we're also very tired, So if we close our eyes, We just know that I will fall asleep in a minute and then I'm out of here. So then it can be helpful to keep your eyes a little bit open. You are the authority in your body, So just feeling into what's good for you, Allowing your awareness to come into the body, Feeling just what's this, The first invitation when you arrive in your body, What you, What's the first thing that you hear when you begin listening, Or the first thing you notice, What becomes the first thing that's in the forefront of the body space. Or something maybe, I can feel my body is energetic today, Or it's a little bit tired today or feels this way or that way, Or maybe there's some emotional intensity or feelings going on. And then the practice is to make space for that, The practice is to allow the body to be just as it is, Allowing yourself to breathe with yourself. So this is, This is the body space, This is your body space in this moment. We are exercising the practice of allowance, Allowing ourselves to be just as we are. And bringing the awareness down into the feet, Feeling the toes, Feeling the soles of the feet, Both feet. Sometimes if we're new to the practice, Especially, We'll need to wiggle the toes a little bit to feel where the feet are, They can feel very far away. We feel this contact from in the feet, We can maybe feel if they have a certain temperature if they're cold, Or colder than the rest of the body, Or warm or warmer than the rest of the body. Just something neutral, Allowing yourself to breathe, Exploring the feet with your awareness and breathing at the same time. Breathing at the same time, Not so contradictory, It's there, They can go, They can go good together, Breathing and exploring the body at the same time. Bringing your awareness to the ankles and the lower legs, The legs that carry us around during the day, The feet that carry us around when we're walking, Running. Feet, Legs, Our contact to the ground and the earth. Allowing yourself to breathe at the same time, Feeling into the lower legs and feet, Now knees and kneecaps, And the softness behind the knees, And the protection of the kneecap. It's a complex joint. Maybe now even if we're not moving, There's just this inherent knowing that this is a joint that can move. This is also a vulnerable joint for many of us, And sometimes we have injured the joint, Sometimes it hurts. And then just bringing the awareness down, Any intensity, That won't be here in the knee joint or any other places in the body. Bring our awareness to the upper legs, Maybe taking a deeper breath, In-breath, And releasing and unlocking. Out-breath, If that's available to you. Feeling both legs and both feet. Exploring if it's available to you that they can just feel a little bit heavier, And just resting, That this message in the present moment is that they don't need to move around right now. They can just stay here. Rest. Sometimes part of the practice is also finding the courage to rest. Finding the courage to rest in the body, And also in the mind. If you discover that we have a very active mental activity going on, Then we are actually making our mind a little bit more narrow than it needs to be right now. When we find the courage to rest, We rest also in the mental space. It's allowing the thoughts to change into birds, Just let them fly over the sky. We are not criticizing the birds, We are not harming them, We just let them fly freely. We're making this mental space as vast as the sky, The mind as vast as the sky. So we're not the bird, But we're the sky, More like the sky. And breathing deeply, Grounding in the legs and the feet, Feeling your hips, Feeling your buttocks. If you're sitting down, You can maybe feel your sit bones on the ground. If you're laying down, You may already feel your legs resting towards the ground. Feeling into the pelvic area, The genitals, And the lower part of the torso. Exploring if it's possible to breathe all the way down here into the chest. Lower part of the belly, Lower part of the torso. In-breath, Out-breath. Our somatic awareness deepens also, The deeper our breathing rhythm becomes. Maybe we can feel the touch of the breath from the inside in the lower belly. In-breath, Out-breath. Allowing the awareness to come down to the back, To the lower back, The tailbone, The muscles of the lower back, In the mid-back, In the lower back, In the mid-back. It may also be an area of the body that many of us know with a little bit of discomfort or tension, Because it carries so much around, Carries our back. Sometimes we are not sitting so well for the body, Or there's a little bit of ache in the back. If that is present for you, If you can hold it with your awareness, Sending some friendliness, Kindness to your lower back and mid-back. Some warmth, Including the lower back and the mid-back, In your body space. Even if there is intensity, It is so very welcome. Breathing into the lower back, Allowing the breath to touch the lower back and the mid-back from the inside, And breathing out. Let's bring the awareness to the shoulder blades, The area between the shoulder blades, Just behind the heart. Also an area that can sometimes tense up a little bit if we need to protect our heart in some way. Sometimes it protects the heart from the back. Tense this up a little bit. Again, Breathing into the area in between the shoulder blades and breathing out from there. Moving forward in the body to the chest and upper part of the abdominal area. Breathing in and breathing out, Feeling this area. In the shoulders, Arms, Upper arms, Elbows, Lower arms, Wrists, And hands. Just feeling these shoulders, Arms, And hands, Whole torso, Front side, Back side, Lower part of the body, And the legs and feet. Breathing into the whole body and breathing out, Including the throat, The neck, Face, Feeling the face from the inside, The head, The skull, The ears. Bringing awareness into the body space. Noticing the feeling of the body as a whole in this moment. Are you here? Yes, You are. Here we are. Allowing this breath to go a little bit deeper. In-breath and out-breath. If your body could speak, What would it say right now? A word or just a sound or color? Just a feeling. The body can speak in any language. It doesn't need to be an understandable language. Sometimes it's really complete and not understandable. Just allow the body to speak in its own language. And also, In all contemplative inquiries, When we listen inside, The word, The sentence, I don't know, That's really qualified as well. I don't know. Taking a deep breath in and releasing on an out-breath. Allowing your body to stretch. Stretching your arms over the head, Stretching your legs. If you have had your eyes closed, You may blink them open. Just have a look around. Taking a deep breath in and releasing on an out-breath.