Hello and welcome back to Expansive Health Services Mindfulness Meditation Series.
The next five to ten minutes will be spent on a particular type of mindfulness practice called the body scan.
And if you look online you will find many different versions of body scan,
Anywhere from a very basic one minute version to an exhaustive hour long version.
We're going to take about five or ten minutes to do a fairly brief body scan.
So to begin let's find a comfortable position.
For this practice you're welcome to sit or to lie down,
Perhaps to find a comfortable position.
If you find it difficult to stay awake during this practice,
Perhaps a more erect or upright position or with your eyes open could help you engage in this practice.
However,
If you feel awake and alert please feel free to lay down to close your eyes,
To tune into this moment,
To just come home to yourself,
To this moment.
You may acknowledge any thoughts that are present,
Any emotions that arise,
Pleasant emotions,
Difficult emotions,
Maybe just a curiosity and a neutral kind of feeling.
If you're having any toxic thoughts about yourself or about others,
Maybe just say hello and put those to the side or to the back of your attention as we engage in this practice of bodily awareness of purposeful non-judgmental attention.
As we do so let us begin at your feet.
Bring your awareness and your attention to your toes,
The toes on both feet.
Notice any physical sensations that grab your attention,
Any pleasant sensations,
Any pain or discomfort,
Perhaps even the absence of sensation in your toes.
From your toes bringing your awareness to the forefoot and the mid-foot and the heel.
And striving to find something,
Being open and curious about what presents itself.
Moving up from the foot now to the ankle,
To the Achilles heel,
To the lower legs.
Meaning if you will,
An elevator or causeway through your body as you scan for a feeling of weight,
Any tingling.
You may notice a feeling of your clothing on your legs.
There isn't any tension in your legs,
Just acknowledging that,
Not having to do anything with it.
As you travel up your lower legs to your knees,
If you're sitting you may notice a bend in your knees,
If you're lying you may notice your knees turning out or in.
So we move up now through the legs to the upper legs,
To the quadriceps,
The hamstrings,
Any other muscles of the upper legs,
Perhaps even noticing any sensations in the skin.
Taking a travel to your pelvis,
To your hips,
To your genitals,
To your lower breathing space,
Your lower abdomen.
Again,
Paying particular attention to any pleasant or unpleasant sensations in these areas.
During this practice you may feel like you need to shift or to move or to make yourself more comfortable.
Of course that's fine if you do that.
You might even just categorize or attend to those sensations and see if you can wait a minute to make those adjustments.
We also sometimes notice emotion come up as we go through this body scan.
So paying particular attention to any emotions that arise.
As we move up now into the abdomen,
To the lower back,
Diaphragm,
Our breathing comes into sharp focus here now.
You may notice your abdomen rising and falling with each breath.
And those sensations may travel upward with you into the chest,
To the upper back,
To the shoulders,
Upper breathing space.
And if you're sitting you may notice a rising or falling,
An expansion or contraction along with any other sensations that arise.
Be patient with yourself as your attention may wander elsewhere or you may feel really relaxed and feel like sleepy.
These are normal kinds of reactions.
Please be kind to yourself and compassionate to yourself as you notice your attention wandering,
Gently guiding it back to the body as we encounter the sensations in our neck,
Upper shoulder,
Trapezius muscles,
Next to our jaw and to our mouth.
We notice as you bring your attention to this area that there's some tension there.
And without judgment you're welcome to let go of that tension or to just be an observer and partial observer to the sensations in this area.
Through your ears,
Your eyes,
Your forehead,
And lastly to the crown of your head.
And taking this last.
