Let's begin the body scan by bringing your attention to your feet.
Noticing first any obvious sensations such as the feet making contact with the floor,
The mat,
Sensations of pressure,
Hardness,
Softness.
Your socks touching your skin or the temperature of the air.
See if you can become aware of your toes without moving them.
And gradually scan your attention up through the ankle joints into the legs.
Imagine that your awareness is like a spotlight illuminating systematically each part of the body.
Scanning up through the lower legs,
The knee joints,
The upper legs.
Feeling your own body as best you can.
Noticing the simple sensations of pressure,
Contact,
Tingling or movement,
Temperature.
Reading the body with non-judgmental interest,
Curiosity.
And now imagine directing the breath down through the legs and out the soles of the feet.
Or breathing into this part of the body using whatever images or visualizations might facilitate this process for you.
On your next exhalation,
Releasing the legs from your awareness and moving your attention up into the torso.
Beginning with awareness of the buttocks making contact with the floor,
Your chair.
Becoming aware of sensation,
Hardness,
Softness,
Pressure.
Exploring the pelvic area with your attention,
Hips,
Pelvis,
Lower abdomen.
Beginning to distinguish between the sensations themselves and the sensations themselves.
And now imagine that your awareness is like a spotlight illuminating systematically each part of the body.
Noticing the simple sensations of pressure,
Contact,
Tingling or movement,
Curiosity.
And now imagine directing the breath down through the legs and out the soles of the feet.
Now moving the attention up through the torso,
Into the mid-torso.
Feeling the whole circumference of the waist,
The sensations created by the breath in this part of the body.
And moving the attention up into the chest.
Feeling the sensations of clothing touching skin,
The ribcage expanding and contracting with the breath.
Any other sensations you're able to experience.
Feeling the sides of the torso and the mid and upper back.
See if you can distinguish between the muscles,
The bones,
Shoulder blades,
Spine,
Soft tissue,
Skin.
As you feel your own body,
Not trying to relax anything,
Improve it or fix it.
Just connecting accurately and non-judgmentally with what is true in this moment.
And now filling up the whole torso with the in-breath.
Inhaling through the nostrils,
Directing the breath down to the base of the belly.
Expanding first the belly and then the chest.
Filling the breath all the way up to the collarbones.
And exhaling completely.
First the chest and then the stomach until all of the air is expelled from the torso.
And repeating this for a few deep breaths as you direct the breath to the part of the body we just attended with mindful awareness.
See if you can think of this type of awareness as the interest a good friend would take.
We check in with each part of the body.
How are you?
How am I right now?
On your next exhalation,
Releasing the breath and releasing the torso from your awareness.
And moving your attention now to your hands.
Resting wherever they are.
Notice the sensation of touch,
Pressure,
Contact.
Perhaps feeling the temperature on the skin of your hands.
Maybe a sensation of moisture or dryness.
Can you feel each finger distinguishing one from the other?
And then scanning up through the wrist joints into the forearms.
Noticing what you feel.
If there's an absence of sensation,
Notice this too.
Blank,
Numb.
There's no need to create sensation or to alter your experience in any way.
Scanning up through the elbow joints into the upper arms.
As you check in with your own body.
Just noticing what's here and now as best you can.
And now directing the breath down through the arms.
Perhaps imagining the breath leaving the palms of the hands.
Or using the visualizations of light or color if you prefer.
Sweeping the arms with the in-breath and the out-breath.
And on your next exhalation,
Letting go of the arms.
And moving your attention to the top of your forehead.
Scanning down the face with your awareness.
See if you can feel every square inch of the face.
As you scan down the forehead,
The eyebrows.
Feeling the area around the eyes.
The eyeballs in their sockets.
Feeling the bridge of your nose.
All the way down to the tip and the sides of your nose and nostrils.
Feeling your cheeks.
The sides of your face.
Your ears.
Bringing awareness down to the jaw.
Your mouth and lips.
Inside your mouth,
Your tongue and your teeth.
Palate.
Feeling your throat.
Inside and your neck.
Outside.
Bringing this non-preferential awareness to each part of the body.
Bringing your awareness now to the top of the head.
If you're lying down,
Feeling the weight of the head.
The pressure or contact that it makes.
Whatever your position.
See if you can distinguish between the hair,
The scalp and your skull.
Bringing the awareness down to the neck.
And feeling the shoulders.
And now imagine the breath.
Sweeping through the entire body.
The entire length of the body.
Using your imagination as you visualize the life force of the breath moving to every single cell in the body enlivening from the top of your head to your fingertips and your toes unifying the field of the body and now releasing the breath and using this last minute to just rest in the present moment nothing to accomplish improve fix or control allowing the body to be fully supported in your chosen posture the breath to breathe itself and the moment to unfold as it is
