2½ Minute Body Scan for Mindful Calm

A short body scan which can take you into the present moment in a calming way by guiding you to pay attention to your body from head to toe. This short body scan is a great way to build a few periods of rest into a busy day. By breaking your chains of stressful or painful thoughts, the body scan can give you a simple way to step back from the day's busyness and preoccupations and into mindfulness. At night, doing this body scan can help you get back to sleep instead of thinking anxious thoughts - you can slow it down by counting two or three breaths between each part of the body.

Transcript

The body scan is now used throughout the world to help people deal with stress and it's very,

Very easy to do full stop.

You just pause and become aware of how your body feels from the top of your head right down to your toes.

Just get a sense of that wave of awareness just flowing down from head to toe.

You could even imagine that you're standing under a shower and that the water is that awareness that's flowing down along your body.

If you notice any areas of tension,

Just imagine that you're breathing into them,

Right into the centre of them,

Just to soften them a little,

And then move on.

Don't get stuck in them,

Just move on.

You can use a body scan like that when you're sitting,

Studying,

When you're walking,

When you're lying down,

When you're trying to get to sleep at night.

You can use it in almost any situation and you will find that it's generally a calming exercise to do,

Because very often our emotions have a physical side to them.

And if we can just attend to the physical side,

Just give that some attention,

That can help to calm down the emotions.

So just practice now and then,

Just feeling that wave of awareness,

Just from the top of your head,

Down through your neck and your shoulders,

Down through your chest and your tummy and your back,

Down through your thighs and your knees and your calves,

Right down into your feet,

All the way down to your toes.

Just feel that wave of awareness of your physical sensations.

And if there's any discomfort or stress or tension in your body,

As I said,

Just imagine that you're breathing into the centre of it to soften it,

Then move on.

And when your mind drifts away as you're doing this,

As it will,

Simply bring it back to your body scan.

So make the body scan part of your practice.

It's very simple and easy to do and you will feel many benefits from it.