Body Scan

A mindfulness based stress reduction body scan that invites you move your attention away our busy minds and instead bring greater awareness into our body.

Transcript

This is a recording of the mindful body scan.

So unlike a yoga nidra practice where the main emphasis is on relaxing the body,

This body scan is rather designed for you to use regularly to help you assume an active and powerful role in your own health and wellbeing.

So it's best to listen to this recording and do what it says while in a comfortable place,

Perhaps the place that's free from interruption.

Seeing if you can look at this time as an opportunity to be both by yourself and fully with yourself.

So we're not trying to go into some different state or time-space continuum.

It's simply just showing up and being fully with yourself.

It's an opportunity to nourish yourself,

To open to the experience and the potential of strength and healing within.

It's interesting in the West,

We are constantly in our thoughts,

We're constantly in our heads.

And sometimes we forget that this whole body feels and knows that there is just this deep wisdom beyond words.

Seems like we've built all of these inbuilt kind of habits that ignore and minimize or completely shut down the possibility of really feeling into our own aliveness.

So with this body scan,

It's an opportunity to connect a little more to the body,

To this marvelous sensing instrument that can bring you much closer to yourself,

To the world and to others.

So if you can,

Just seeing this practice as a time for gentle exploration of each present moment.

It's an opportunity to explore bodily experience,

Which can be really helpful.

You can begin to notice what feels good,

What perhaps you withdraw from or what doesn't feel good.

Perhaps noticing when you tense up,

Perhaps noticing when you can give yourself space.

This is a time for simply being with your exact experience,

Being just as you are.

Seeing if you can do so without criticizing or judging or wishing it to be different or trying to change the experience in any way.

While many people prefer to do the body scan lying down on the floor,

It's up to you if you wanna do it in a different position,

If sitting or being on a chair or even on your bed.

What really matters is your presence in the moment.

What really,

Really matters is that you are showing up for what's happening right now.

So with that in mind,

Just finding your position now,

Getting yourself into place,

Whether it is lying down or seated,

And perhaps closing the eyes and just beginning to drop into the fact that you're breathing.

And just paying attention to each breath as it's arising in the body,

As it's perhaps entering in through the nostrils.

And each breath as it's leaving the body.

Just letting this flow of breath just anchor you,

Letting you really fully arrive into the practice.

If it feels right to you,

Perhaps attending to the breath at the belly,

The lower abdomen,

Perhaps just noticing the rising and falling with each cycle of breath.

Just feeling the ribbon,

The waves of the breath.

And all you need to do is just simply ride to the waves of the breath from moment to moment.

And if at any time when you're listening to this body scan,

The sensations in the body become too uncomfortable,

Or perhaps emotions arise that are unpleasant or difficult,

Just knowing that it's always possible to return to the breath as a safe place,

As a place for you to rest in until you are ready to venture again into the body scan.

Just beginning now to take your awareness from the breath all the way down to the bases of the feet.

Just noticing how you can guide your attention down through the legs,

The lower legs,

Into the feet and all the way to the soles of the feet.

And just resting your attention there on both the left and the right sole.

Just seeing if you can notice anything that's felt there,

Any aliveness.

Perhaps you can sense the air on the skin.

Or if you're wearing socks or shoes,

Perhaps you can feel the cotton or the texture,

The fiber against the skin.

Maybe there's a sense of moisture or dryness at the soles of the feet.

Or even there's an experience of toughness or translucence of the skin.

Just taking in the inner arch and the outside edges of the foot.

And then if you can,

Just bringing your awareness now up to the toes,

Perhaps along the ridges of each of the toes,

All 10 of them.

And again,

Just noticing what's felt here.

Perhaps there's just a slight breeze of the air brushing over the toes.

Maybe you can feel the connection of each of the toes.

There's a slight energy between each.

Can you feel into the nail bed?

And to the tops of the toes.

And again,

Is there dryness or moisture?

Coolness or warmth?

And then over onto the tops of the feet.

And just exploring the tops of these feet,

Just noticing what can be felt,

What can be experienced here.

Can you feel the bones,

The ligaments?

Perhaps the flowing of the blood and aliveness that's within.

And it might be possible to really feel the feet from the inside out.

And then when you're ready,

We're gonna gently begin to release our attention on the feet and we'll just slowly begin to move to the heels and the ankles.

And then we'll just slowly begin to move just to where the feet are perhaps touching the floor and the way that the feet are flopping out,

Just feeling the experience even of gravity.

And moving that awareness now up to the calves and the shins.

Perhaps tracing your awareness up the inner seam of the legs and the outer seam,

All the way to the knee.

Continually broadening your awareness out to experience the wholeness of these parts of the body,

But then also narrowing the awareness way in so that there might just be one tiny little experience that's felt or known,

Just a little muscle twitch,

Just a little itch.

And so just exploring anywhere in these bottom halves of the legs,

Perhaps the temperature,

The volume,

The weight.

And then when you feel ready,

Beginning to move to the knees and just exploring the knees,

Perhaps circling your attention around the knees,

Getting a sense of the joint,

The kneecap.

Maybe you can really experience the work that's been done in the knees.

Perhaps you can really feel the fact that the knees have been bent and operated.

Maybe there's a sense of creakiness or achiness or stiffness.

And then you can really feel the stiffness,

Or maybe there's nothing at all.

And if there is no experience of sensation,

That's your experience.

So not wishing it to be anything other than what it is,

Just being with that experience of numbness or nothingness.

And then letting go of the knees and just moving up to the tops of the legs.

And so again,

Just exploring these with a sense of curiosity,

Of openness,

As you explore the backs of the legs.

Perhaps you can feel the hamstrings,

The tops of the legs.

Any clothes that are on the legs,

Whether it's leggings or jeans,

Or maybe again,

The legs are exposed,

What's that experience like?

And then moving from the inner seam and perhaps just tracing the inner seam all the way up to the groin.

And then the outer seam all the way to the hips so that you're experiencing the connectivity from knee to hip.

And then the wholeness of the legs.

And then if you can,

Really taking in both left and right leg,

Just feeling the way that they are again,

Falling out,

Perhaps the way that the femur is placed in the hip socket.

The length,

The volume,

The gravity.

And then feeling it again from the inside out.

Can you feel the breath moving this far down into the legs?

Can you feel the aliveness?

The pulsating or tingling?

It's the movement of life through the body.

And then again,

When you're ready,

Just letting go of the legs in the mind's eyes.

And instead,

Just residing right at the base of the tailbone.

And just exploring out from there.

So maybe just that pinpoint,

Just noticing what the experience is right at the base of the spine.

It's their achiness,

It's their just tension,

It's their ease,

It's their spaciousness.

And then moving into the left and the right buttock,

Is there a holding on,

Is there a tensing?

Or is there a complete letting go?

Remembering there is no right experience or wrong experience,

It's simply the experience you're having.

So not wanting to change it,

Not manipulating this experience in any way,

It's just showing up for what's here,

Now.

And so then moving your awareness around to the whole of the hips,

Experiencing the heaviness,

The weightness of this part of the body,

Of the pelvis.

And again,

On the inside out as well,

Filling into the genitals,

The reproductive organ,

Just noticing if you can experience anything in elimination or digestion.

And so just taking in the whole of this area.

Perhaps there's a sense of breath here too.

And again,

When you're ready,

Just beginning to let go of this area,

Just letting it soften in the mind's eye and instead just working up the back.

So following it from the base of the spine all the way up,

Exploring out to the entire lower back region and further up to the ribs,

The backs of the ribs.

Perhaps you can feel that sense of expansion and retraction there.

Moving further up to the upper back area,

To under the shoulder blades,

To the inner back,

The entire back area.

Again,

With this constant narrowing and broadening of awareness,

Seeing if you can attune to a pinpoint and then broadening out and seeing what else.

Always with this curiosity,

Is there burning?

Is there agitation?

Is there irritation?

What's here?

What's on the skin?

What's under the skin?

What's the experience emotionally?

And perhaps at this point you have noticed that the mind's wandered or that there is an experience of restlessness here or boredom.

And again,

Remembering that we're just showing up in the moment.

Exactly it is not trying to change it.

So what is that experience?

And simply returning back to where we're at,

Which is the entire back.

And just seeing if you can feel the weight,

The support of the back as it just rests into the floor.

Noticing where there's tension,

Noticing where there's ease.

And again,

When you're ready,

Just letting go,

Letting go of the back region in the mind's eye.

And just shifting your awareness to the belly,

Right to the lower belly.

And again,

Maybe taking up your awareness of the breath here.

Just getting that experience of rising and falling or ballooning and returning to center.

The rhythm,

The pace.

And again,

Remember we're not trying to change or manipulate the breath ever in these practices.

It's simply an awareness of how the breath is moving through the body,

How it wants to move through the body.

So just letting it do its thing.

And as we explore the entire abdomen or abdominal cavity,

Just noticing if you can feel hunger or fullness or something in between.

Perhaps you can feel the other organs.

Again,

The aliveness from the inside out.

This miraculous body and all of its processes constantly working right in this moment.

And just a tuning to it.

And again,

Maybe nothing is experienced,

Nothing's felt,

And that's fine.

But we're just seeing,

We're just seeing if we can show up for it.

And then moving slowly up to the ribs and just again,

Feeling the expansion of the ribs as they make space for the lungs and for the heart.

And that says equality and energy in the heart right in this moment,

Attention and emptiness,

A heaviness,

A lightness.

Maybe there's just a felt sensation of the beating of the heart,

Of this pulsating of life this pulsating of life through the body.

Moving over now to the breasts or the chest.

And to the entire upper chest region,

To collarbones and to a place where again,

We might feel some of our stress,

Some of our tensions and noticing if there's a tightness or a restriction.

And again,

There is no wanting to change it.

It's just an exploration of what is here.

What's the actual experience of tightness?

Is it cool or heating?

Is it tight?

And is it changing or is it constantly remaining the same?

And then just broadening that awareness over the ridges of the shoulders.

And we're gonna begin to move down the arms.

So just starting to just casually move through the upper arms to the elbows,

The forearms and all the way down into the palms and the backs of the hands.

Just getting a sense of the fingers and the way that the fingers are.

Are they tense?

Are they relaxed?

Are they curled?

And again,

Can you feel the experience of the fingers next to one another?

Connected.

The energy there.

Filling into the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands.

The entire experience of the hands right here.

Seeing if you can feel the hands from the inside out.

And then slowly moving up to the wrists.

What can be felt there is their tightness,

Achiness,

Crackiness.

Up the forearms and into the elbows and the way that the elbows are bent or straight.

The biceps and triceps,

Have they been worked?

Can you really feel them?

The bones.

And the inner seam of the arm to the armpit and the warmth and moisture there maybe.

And then the outer to the shoulder and again,

Maybe there's tension or tightness or maybe there's ease,

Spaciousness.

Just whatever's here to see if you can show up,

Really feel it,

Experience it.

And then from there,

Just moving into the back of the neck letting go of the arms,

Letting go of the torso and instead just residing right at the back of the neck and moving your awareness slowly up to right at the base of the head,

Wherever it's rested.

And perhaps again,

Feeling the weight here.

The experience of the whole head as it's supported by the ground.

Moving over the entire body.

Moving over the entire region of the scalp.

Perhaps you can feel the boniness of the skull.

Can you feel the brain,

The frontal lobes?

And then moving over to the hairline and the left and the right temple,

The brow.

Just noticing if there's a holding,

If there's a tension or if there's a smoothness.

The cheekbones,

The eyes in their sockets,

The way that the lids have lightly closed or perhaps they're open.

Taking in whatever the experience is of eyes closed or open,

Maybe the experience behind the lids.

And if the left and the right jaw,

Whether they're tight or whether it's relaxed,

Unhinged or hinged.

And the teeth and the tongue,

Whether the tongue is relaxed at the root or if it's quite active.

And then returning to the nostrils and to the nose and to the experience of breath right there,

Right at the tip of the nostrils.

And just feeling this experience of the breath as it enters into the nostrils.

Perhaps a slight difference in temperature on the in-breath to the out-breath.

Just any sensation of the air as it moves from the tip of the nostrils right at the base of the lip all the way up.

And just remaining breathing now,

But perhaps on the in-breath,

Breathing in through the nostrils and all the way down to the tips of the feet.

And then on the exhalation from the soles of the feet or the tips of the toes,

All the way back out through the nostrils.

Breathing in again from the nostrils all the way down to the tips of the toes and the tips of the fingers.

And on the exhalation from the fingertips and finger toes all the way back out through the nostrils or even through the crown of the head.

So that we're really taking in the wholeness of the body,

This entire breathing,

Living vessel.

And just staying with this moment to moment experience of the body,

Breathing from the top of the head all the way down to the tips of the fingers and the tips of the toes.

And just staying with that experience until you hear the sound of the bells.

So as you come to finish the body scan,

As you gently wriggle your fingers and your toes,

Just bringing a sense of movement back into the limbs,

Just congratulating yourself for spending this time and energy to nourish yourself in this way.

For continuing to make choices to really wake up and to live with this more aware way of being.

And knowing that you can carry this awareness of the body's deep wisdom beyond the body scan,

Beyond the practice sessions and into each moment of the day wherever you may find yourself.

Reviews

Brilliant

Thank you! This was interesting. I'll definitely use it again, but it's not something I'd use to relax (as you stated in the beginning). Again, thank you!

Wonderful, one of the best body scans I've done. Thanks.

Beautifully done body scan. Thank you!

Loved it! Beautiful voice, wise direction, thank you xx

Thank you for a lovely start to my day 💚

Deeply loving and insightful. Thank you

Very nice body scan, thank you!

Truly excellent.

Very nice! What I've come to realize with this meditation today was I did not beat myself up when my mind wandered.

Nice basic body scan. Thank-you

Excellent. Thank you.

Marike continues with calm, personal style for another meditation. Hopefully stay focused instead of asleep next time...thank you⛵️

Classic body scan. Well done.