Body Scan For Presence & Clarity

Hello, my friend. Looking forward to practicing with you in this 45-minute Body Scan meditation. This meditation supports us in training our attention, as we slowly guide our awareness throughout the body - taking time to note sensations as they rise, linger, and then fall out of our consciousness. We will work to practice awareness, acceptance of experience, and impermanence all through the medium of the body.

With a smile,
Mike

Transcript

Hello there,

My friend.

My name is Michael Lorsch and I am so happy,

So happy to be here practicing with you in this body scan meditation.

And as I was preparing to sit down and practice today with you,

I started thinking of all those times that I forget that I even have a body.

I'm speaking to those moments,

And perhaps even more so recently where we find ourselves in front of a screen or at a keyboard and lose the sense of this body that we have been gifted with.

Or perhaps when we're not even in front of a screen,

But the wonderful brain,

The computer inside our head is processing thoughts and feelings and judgments and we are in the swirl of what Jon Kabat-Zinn calls the full catastrophe of living,

Of being alive.

We may forget we have a body.

In today's meditation,

We'll use our bodies to train our attention to perhaps become more aware of the sensations that arise and fall in the body.

Taking a few moments here to find a position that's comfortable for you for this practice.

You may decide to lie down for this practice or find yourself in a comfortably seated position on a cushion or chair or even your couch.

If deciding to lie down,

Finding the length of the body on the floor,

Allowing the legs to stretch long and the feet to fall to the side,

Arms along the body.

Taking these few moments to get comfortable.

If seated,

Attempting to gain a sense of groundedness,

Noticing where you are making contact with the ground beneath you.

And then imagining a tall spine.

So you find yourself in a position that is at once relaxed,

Get alert.

Taking time now to gain a sense of the whole body here and now in this restful position.

Becoming aware of the front of the body,

The sides of the body,

And the back of the body.

And noticing just at this early stage,

What is here now?

What sensations are here in the body?

Perhaps there's a sense of ease or agitation,

A sense of sleepiness,

Whatever it might be,

Just simply noticing,

Taking inventory without an ambition to shift or change.

On an exhale,

We'll release our attention on the body as a whole.

And on an inhale,

We'll bring attention onto the breath as it enters the body with each inhale and exhale.

Noticing how with each inhale,

The belly rises.

With each exhale,

It falls.

Again,

Noticing the breath,

Not with the ambition to shift it or to change anything,

But to simply notice.

Notice your breathing in this moment.

And on an exhale,

Releasing the attention from the breath.

And with an inhale,

Moving the attention,

The awareness to the top,

Back and sides of the head.

Noticing the sensations that begin to present themselves at this part of the body.

Noticing that sensations may present themselves as pulsing,

Perhaps at the level of the skin and itching,

Temperature,

Buzzing,

And in a multitude of ways.

Taking time to notice what sensations rise and then fall in the back,

Top and sides of the head.

Noticing the sensations that begin to present themselves as pulsing,

Perhaps at the level of the skin.

With an exhale,

Releasing the attention from the head.

And then on an inhale,

Bringing the attention onto the face,

From forehead to chin and ear to ear.

Noticing what sensations present themselves in the face.

Noticing the chin and the lips,

The inside of the mouth,

The cheeks,

The temples,

The jaw,

The ears,

The eyes,

And into the forehead.

Bringing a sense of investigation,

Of investigative curiosity.

Including a sensation and just becoming curious about it.

Noticing perhaps when it begins,

As it lingers,

And then it fades.

Noticing what sensations present itself in the face.

With the exhale,

Moving the attention away from the face.

And with an inhale,

Moving our attention to the neck,

The sides of the neck,

The back the neck and the front.

Perhaps noticing here if there's a sense of constriction in the neck or perhaps not.

Noticing what sensations present itself in the face.

And with an exhale,

Releasing our attention from the neck.

And with an inhale,

Allowing the attention to fall on the shoulders,

The shoulder joint,

And the sides and back of the shoulders.

Perhaps noticing sensations made available both on the surface of the skin and beneath.

Taking time to notice what sensations are pleasant in this area of the body and what may be unpleasant and what,

Again,

May be presenting as neutral.

And with an exhale,

Releasing attention away from the shoulders.

And on an inhale,

Moving the attention to the left arm,

All the way down the left arm into the left hand.

And noticing the left hand,

The back,

The front,

The palm,

And the fingers as well as the nail.

Finding awareness to include the wrists,

The forearm,

The bicep,

And tricep to the left shoulder once again.

And if your mind has wandered,

As it is likely to do,

Simply escorting the mind's attention back to the left arm.

With an exhale,

Releasing the attention from the left arm,

Moving across the body to the right shoulder and down the arm,

The right arm,

Towards the right hand.

Finding aware of the right hand,

The front and back,

The palm,

The thumb and other fingers,

And the nails.

Finding awareness now to include the right wrist,

Right forearm,

Right bicep,

The right tricep.

Once again,

The right shoulder,

Gaining a sense of the right arm from shoulder to fingertip in its entirety.

Coming back to Innovation,

I'd like to bring to you a message from Kate And with an exhale,

Releasing the attention from the right arm.

And on an inhale,

Moving the attention towards the chest.

Perhaps noticing how here the breath moves the body.

The expansion that happens with an inhalation.

The contraction that happens with an exhalation.

And perhaps at this place in the body,

The beating of the heart presents itself.

And taking note of any other sensations in the chest.

And this is a lack of confidence.

Thank you.

All right.

Dr.

.

With an exhale,

Releasing attention away from the chest.

And on an inhale,

Moving the attention to the upper back.

Noticing the muscles,

The spine,

And the ribs.

And investigating whatever sensations present themselves here.

And on an inhale,

Moving the attention to the upper back.

And on an inhale,

Moving the attention to the upper back.

And with an exhale,

Releasing attention from the upper back.

And with an inhale,

Moving it to the lower back.

The lower back often presenting a place of challenge for many.

Simply noticing if challenge is present in the lower back.

And noticing if it is not present.

With an exhale,

Moving the attention away from the lower back and around the sides of the body onto the belly.

Noticing here how an inhale rises the belly.

And how with an exhale,

It falls again.

Bringing that sense of investigative curiosity to whatever may present itself in the belly.

Not with the ambition to shift or change,

But to just take note.

That's the state of mind in which there's a lot of community and Gregg's body tying itself together in meeting the needs of others.

On an exhale,

Moving our attention away from the belly,

And with an inhale,

Moving our attention onto the pelvis,

Home to so much action of the body,

Home to organs of digestion and elimination and reproduction.

Noticing whatever sensations arise here.

Lesson.

With an exhale,

Moving the attention away from the pelvis.

And on an inhale,

Allowing the attention to fall on the left hip and left thigh.

Once again,

Taking time here to notice any sensation that may be present in this part of the body.

Expanding the awareness here to include the upper left leg and the left knee and kneecap.

And attempting to become deeply curious about the position of the knee.

From the knee expanding the awareness to include the left shin,

The left calf,

And all the way down to the left ankle.

Expanding now into the left foot,

The sides of the foot,

The top of the foot,

The sole of the foot,

The heel,

The ball of the foot,

And of course the toes.

Getting a sense here of the left leg in its entirety from the left hip through to the left toes.

If you have noticed that your mind has wandered like a mind does,

Escorting the attention back to the left leg.

Knowing that the noticing of the mind wandering and the bringing back is as important as the paying attention itself.

With an exhale,

Releasing the attention on the left leg,

Moving across the pelvis,

Bringing the attention on to the right hip and right thigh.

Noticing what sensation presents itself here.

Perhaps taking stock of the sensation and whether it is pleasant,

Unpleasant,

Or perhaps neutral.

And perhaps there's no sensation at all.

Perhaps,

Too,

Being curious of how those sensations change as we have patience with them.

Perhaps as an unpleasant sensation becomes a neutral sensation or even a pleasant one.

Expanding awareness now to include the upper right leg,

The right knee,

And knee cap.

Bringing that sense once again of deep curiosity to the position of the knee.

Expanding from here to include the right shin.

And the right calf.

Through to the right ankle.

And then allowing our attention to arrive at the right foot.

The top of the foot.

The sides of the foot.

The bottom of the foot.

The heel.

The ball of the foot.

And the toes.

Gaining a sense of the right leg in its entirety.

From the right hip through to the right toes.

With an exhale releasing the attention from the right leg in its entirety.

And gaining a sense of the front body,

The face,

The neck,

The chest,

The stomach,

The pelvis,

The arms,

The hands,

The legs,

And the feet.

Gaining a sense of the front body in its entirety.

Now shifting focus to the back body.

The ankles,

The calves,

The thighs,

The glutes,

The lower back,

The mid-back,

The upper back,

The shoulders,

And the top back and sides of the head.

Knowing the back body in its entirety.

And with an exhale releasing this attention.

And on an inhale allowing the attention to fall back upon the breath.

The inhale and the exhale.

Noticing how the breath moves the body.

How it rises and falls.

Allowing the breath to be natural here as we begin to end this body scan meditation.

An invitation now if you feel complete to open the eyes.

Gaining a sense of sight.

And perhaps looking around the room if it's available to you.

Moving the body in whatever way feels comfortable.

Taking any amount of time you need to become reacquainted to this moment now.

My friend thank you,

Thank you for practicing.

Thank you for being here with me in this meditation.

And what a joy it is to remember that we have this body in whatever form it's in.

The body can always serve as a tool in our practice of mindfulness.

And our ability to notice the sensations occurring in the body can be supportive of us returning to the present moment.

Because whatever is happening in the body is only happening right now.

Please feel free to take as much time to get up to move on to whatever your next moments might be.

Until next time my friend,

Bye for now.