Body Scan (MBSR) 20" | Week 2

This Body Scan Meditation is part of the official Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Training (MBSR). It is made for week 2 and contains less explanatory cues at the beginning of the meditation.
This meditation is directed towards cultivating awareness (of bodily sensations and sensations of thought), and training the mind to focus.

Transcript

Welcome to the body scan meditation.

Come to lie down in a comfortable position.

Make sure you will not be disturbed.

Bring the arms alongside the body,

The palms facing up,

The legs slightly wider than hip width apart,

Allowing the feet to fall open to the sides.

Maybe bringing a cushion underneath the knees or supporting the head,

Taking a blanket,

Knowing that this is also some time for yourself,

Some time to nourish the mind and body.

Now bring your awareness to the sensations of breathing in the body,

The physical sensations of breathing.

And notice whatever is arising in this moment,

Whether these are sensations of thought,

Thinking,

Or something from the past or in the future,

Or sensations inside the body.

Just noticing this and then slowly bringing your awareness to the body,

The body as a whole,

As it's lying here on the mat,

Feeling all the touch points of the body on the mat or whatever surface you're lying on.

The head,

The shoulders,

The sit bones,

The legs,

The heels.

Feeling the weight of the body on the mat.

And from there,

Again,

Bringing your attention to the sensations of breathing in the belly,

Maybe even placing the hands on the belly.

Feeling the belly rising and falling with the breath.

Noticing the hands moving with the rhythm of the breath in the body.

Now shifting your awareness to the chest area,

Feeling the breath in the chest without needing to change the breath in any kind of way,

Just allowing it to be as it is.

Moving up to experiencing the breath at the tip of the nose,

The point where the air is moving into the body and also moving out of the body.

And from there,

Slowly moving your awareness down the body,

Down the upper body,

Lower body,

Then all the way down the legs to the big toes.

Noticing whatever sensations you experience by the big toes,

The small toes and the little toes in between.

Whether this is tingling,

Pressure,

Warmth,

Coolness,

Or maybe sensations of clothing touching the skin.

So observing whatever sensations you experience by the toes.

Moving down to the bottom of the feet,

Around the top of the feet,

Inside the feet,

Fully experiencing the feet as a whole.

Bringing all your attention there.

Shifting to the heel,

Where the heels are touching the surface,

Feeling the weight of the heels.

Bringing the awareness to the ankles,

All the way around the ankles and inside the ankles.

Just notice whatever sensations you experience here.

If there is nothing to notice,

Then just holding your awareness there.

Shifting the tension to the lower legs,

The calves,

The area between the ankles and the knees,

The softer side at the back and the long and bony part in the front.

Surrounding your calves and shins with awareness.

Part of the body that we don't often pay attention to.

Just bringing your awareness there,

Experiencing whatever sensations are arising this moment.

Seeing the mind wander off in thinking.

And just noting this,

Acknowledging where the tension has wandered.

And then gently,

Yet firmly,

Bringing your awareness back to the calves and shins.

Knowing that you didn't do anything wrong,

It's just a quality of the mind to wander off in thinking.

So just noting and gently,

In a kind manner,

Bringing your awareness back.

Now moving up to the knees,

The bony part at the top,

The ligaments to the side and the area underneath the knees.

Shifting your awareness to the thighs,

The big muscles of the thighs,

The quads at the top and the hamstrings on the back.

Inside the thighs.

Just noticing what is there.

Maybe even a difference between both sides.

And shifting your attention to the sit bones,

The weight of the sit bones on the mat.

Bringing awareness to the pelvic area at the front.

And now on the out breath,

Releasing the tension from the pelvic area and the in breath,

Allowing your attention to move towards the belly.

Feeling the breath in the belly.

Maybe also noticing any sensations inside the belly.

Some pressure or tension or gurgling.

In front of the steeper area in the belly,

Moving towards the lower back.

Maybe even noticing a gap between the lower back and the mat or the surface you are lying on.

The lower back is an area where we often hold a lot of tension or where we suffer.

Just observing how it is in this moment without needing to think about it or do anything with it.

And also whenever there is thinking about any area in the body or about the exercise,

Then just noting this thinking.

And then gently yet decisively bringing your awareness back to the part of the body or focus which is now the lower back.

Shifting to the front,

To the part below the diaphragm.

All the way to the back as well.

So this whole area,

The middle part of the body,

Surrounding it with the tension.

Observing sensations interior to this side of the body,

This part of the body,

Whatever is arising.

Moving to the chest area.

And noticing how the breath affects this area of the body.

And maybe you can also experience the breath at the back side of the body by the upper back and the shoulders.

Bringing your awareness there.

And taking a moment to notice if there is any muscles in the body tensing.

And often as our mind engages in thinking,

We tend to tense some muscles.

So if this happens,

Just see if you can really relax whatever muscle you're tensing.

And just noting this and thereafter returning back to bringing your awareness by the shoulders.

And moving along the upper arms,

The lower arms towards the hands.

The fingers.

And seeing any sensations in the fingers.

Whether this is tingling or pulsing.

Warmth and fullness.

The air moving around.

And touching the skin.

Shifting the awareness to the back side of the hands.

The inside,

The part where the thumb is connected to the hand.

Holding your awareness by the hands.

Shifting up there to the lower arm.

Noticing the part of the lower arm that is touching the mat.

The elbows.

The upper arms.

Moving up to the lower part of the neck.

The middle and upper part surrounding your neck with awareness.

Bringing your awareness to the throat area.

To the jaws.

Also a place where you often hold tension.

And maybe even seeing if you want to allow the mouth to drop slightly open to release this tension.

Completely relaxing the jaws.

Noticing whatever sensations is experienced in the body by the jaws.

Maybe the mind has wandered off and thinking again.

And then gently noticing this.

Also any kind of emotion of restlessness.

Acknowledging this and bringing your attention back to the jaws.

Moving to the part inside the mouth.

The interior of the mouth.

The sensations of the mouth.

The saliva,

The gums,

The teeth.

Shifting awareness to the lips.

And up to the nose.

To the part where the breath comes into the nose at the tip of the nose by the nostrils.

Noticing the slightly cooler air coming into the body.

And the warmer air moving the nose to the body.

Moving your awareness to the eyes.

More like seeing the eyes in your sockets.

The eyebrows.

And bringing your awareness to the backside of the head.

The part that is touching the matter surface that you're lying on.

Feeling the weight of the backside on the head.

Noticing the whole scalp.

And sometimes we tend to kind of engage muscles by the eyes or the jaws when we're trying to focus on a certain area.

And if this is the case,

Then just re-relaxing.

Just noticing and re-relaxing.

Now bringing your awareness to the top of the head.

And from here try to expand your awareness to the whole body.

So feeling yourself lying here.

The head,

The upper body,

The arms,

The legs,

The calves,

The feet,

The hands.

Noticing your body lying here.

Noticing the breath.

And staying here for a few more breaths with full body awareness.

Whenever you're ready,

Wriggling the toes and the fingers.

Slowly waking up the body.

Allowing the light to come into the eyes again.

Taking time to finish off this practice.

And thereby ending the body scan.