Body Scan - A Mindfulness Practice

A secular body awareness practice inspired by the work of Jon Kabat Zinn (MBSR) & Mark Williams (Mindfulness - Finding Peace in a Frantic World). Regular practice develops present-moment awareness for inner peace, emotional balance and resilience.

Transcript

The body scan.

This is a body awareness practice.

Finding a quiet location and lying down on your back on either a mat or thick rug with the feet hip width apart and the arms lying alongside the body.

You may use a flat cushion to support your head and cover yourself with a blanket if you like.

You may also place a cushion underneath the knees to ease any pressure on the lower back.

And closing the eyes or keeping them open with an unfocused gaze.

Feel free to open them at any time during the practice if you feel you are falling asleep.

And now getting a sense of the body as a whole,

Lying here.

Bringing awareness to the surface beneath the body.

The sensations of contact between various points in the body and the ground.

And gently reminding yourself that there is really nothing for you to do at this time.

There is nowhere to go,

Nothing to achieve.

The intention of this practice is simply to become aware of physical sensations as we take this journey through the body from one body part to the next.

So we are not looking for something special to happen,

We are simply allowing things to be just as they are.

So letting go of the tendency to want things to be different from how you find them or judge how you are doing.

Sometimes you may feel no sensations at all and that's okay,

Simply acknowledging this.

And from time to time the mind will naturally wander away from the part of the body you are exploring.

When you notice this,

Gently acknowledging where the mind had wandered off to,

Then bringing it back to the part of the body you intended to focus on.

And now turning your attention to the breathing sensations in the centre of the body,

In the lower abdomen.

As you connect with the gentle rising and falling of the belly wall with each in and out breath.

Just taking a few moments here,

Sensing the breath moving in and out of the body.

And now taking a deeper in breath and on the out breath,

Shifting your attention from the abdomen all the way down both legs and feet.

And resting your attention in the toes,

Exploring any sensation you find here.

Tingling,

Vibrating sensations,

Warmth or coolness or no sensation at all.

Whatever you experience is okay,

There is no right or wrong.

And now shifting your attention from the toes to the bottom of the feet.

And beginning to explore any sensations in the soles and heels.

Staying curious about what you observe here.

You might notice for example sensations of pressure where the heels make contact with the ground.

And now expanding your awareness to the rest of the feet,

Into the top of the feet,

To the ankles.

And holding both feet in your awareness,

Becoming aware of any and all sensations in the feet.

And on the next out breath,

Letting go of the feet and shifting your attention upwards to the lower legs.

The shin in the front,

The calf in the back.

And checking in with any sensation present here.

From the surface of the skin to the inside of the legs.

And then shifting further upwards to the knees,

Letting your attention rest here.

Noticing which sensations change and which stay the same.

And then shifting your attention further upwards to the upper legs,

The thighs.

What sensations are here?

Perhaps sensations of contact with your clothes,

Sensations of heaviness or lightness,

Vibrating pulsating sensations or anything else.

And now holding both legs in awareness.

And on an in breath,

Imagining guiding the breath down the legs and into the feet and toes.

And then sticking with the sensation of guiding the breath downwards on the in breath and up the legs on the out breath.

Getting a sense of the legs being bathed by the breath.

On the next out breath,

Letting go of the legs,

Having them dissolve in your awareness as you shift your attention to the hips and the pelvis.

The left hip.

The right hip.

The whole pelvic area and all the organs within.

On an out breath,

Letting go of the hips and pelvis.

Then turning your attention to the back of the body,

To the region of the lower back.

And taking in any sensation present here.

Expanding your awareness to take in the middle and the upper back.

Once again sensing the length of the back in contact with the surface beneath you.

When you become aware of any intense sensations such as tension in any part of the body during the practice,

See how it is to breath into this area to explore it further.

Then see how the sensations may change when you breath out of the area.

Just experimenting with this.

On the next out breath,

Letting go of the back.

And from here connecting to the shoulders.

And from the shoulders all the way back to the front of the torso.

And dropping your attention into the lower abdomen.

And once again sensing the movement of the breath here.

As you go along you may find yourself getting distracted with thoughts,

Worries,

Day dreams or just wanting to move on.

Or experiencing feelings of boredom or restlessness.

It is okay when this happens,

It is not a mistake.

Just taking this opportunity to notice these thoughts and feelings and perhaps noticing how they are affecting the body.

And so acknowledging this experience without judging yourself in any way,

Then bringing the mind back to the sensations of breathing in the abdomen.

And now taking a deeper in breath and on the next out breath letting go of the abdomen and connecting upwards to the chest.

Perhaps sensing the movement of the breath in the chest area and any other sensation that is present for you.

Taking a deeper in breath and on the out breath letting go of the chest.

And shifting your attention back to the shoulders.

And down both arms left and right.

Bringing awareness to the hands and all sensations present in the hands.

Perhaps tingling sensations,

Warmth,

Moisture or anything else.

Then expanding awareness to the lower arms,

The elbows and the upper arms.

All the way back to the shoulders.

And holding the entire arms in your awareness and all sensations in the arms.

On the next out breath letting go of the arms and connecting upwards to the neck,

Back and front.

And all the way upwards to the face,

The chin,

The lower and upper jaws,

The mouth and lips.

Exploring sensations on the inside of the mouth.

Shifting attention to the cheeks and to the ears left and right.

Receiving any sensations in the ears and receiving sounds.

Connecting back to the centre of the face,

To the nose and the nostrils.

And then connecting to the eyes and all sensations in the eyes.

The eyelids,

The eyebrows and the space between the eyes.

And the forehead.

And the back of the head.

Sensing the pressure of the head against the mat or rug.

Then shifting awareness to the top of the head,

To the crown of the head.

And inviting you to experiment with breathing into the body from the crown of the head,

Guiding the in breath all the way down the body and on the out breath all the way up again from the feet to the crown of the head.

And playing with the sensation of guiding the breath down and up again if this feels comfortable for you.

Spending a few moments to become aware of the body as a whole.

And allowing the body to be just as it is.

Allowing you to be just as you are.

Whole and complete.

Resting in awareness moment by moment.

Reviews

Calming and relaxing

Unbelievably calming and relaxing. This will be one I will come back to on a regular 🙏♥️