Body Scan

A simple guided body scan meditation, delivered in a soothing tone. This can be used as a powerful tool to help you navigate a loud mind, challenging emotions, or moments of anxiety. It can help you to reconnect with the body if you feel trapped in a depressive loop. Or it can be a simple formal practice as part of your mindfulness journey. Thank you for listening.

Transcript

Hi there,

My name's Ryan and I'm going to guide you through this body scan meditation today.

First,

Find a comfortable seat.

This might be sitting in a chair,

This might be sitting cross-legged or it might be lying down.

The position is really less important.

What's important is that you're comfortable and that your spine is relatively straight.

So if you're sitting,

We want to have a relaxed posture with a straight back.

Okay,

Now I'm going to invite you to gently close your eyes.

In just a moment,

I'm going to ask you to take a long,

Slow,

Deep breath in through your nose,

Pause at the top and then gently blow out as if you're breathing through a straw through your mouth.

We'll do three of these breaths together.

Okay,

Breathing in through our nose.

Hold and exhale.

Second breath.

Hold and exhale.

And one more for good luck.

Hold and exhale.

Coming to your normal breathing now.

Now I invite you to bring awareness to the sensations of sitting.

Can you feel your feet on the ground?

Can you feel gravity pulling you down into your seat?

Perhaps you can feel the air against your skin or your skin against your clothes.

Most of us will spend most of our lives living from behind the eyes,

The sense that consciousness and life is lived from a center in the head.

Now there's nothing wrong with this,

But what about all the other sensations?

What about all the other experience that's happening all the time that perhaps we're unaware of?

Bring awareness to the sounds around you.

There might be sounds in the room that you're meditating in.

You might be able to hear sounds outside.

Just see what you notice.

Now these are just part of the present moment that we're sitting into here.

And what you might notice is that these sounds come and go as they please.

And we have absolutely no control over them,

Which is quite liberating in a way.

And I invite you to take the same attitude towards thoughts and sensations in the body.

They happen as they will.

We have very little control over them,

If any at all.

And if we can learn to accept them,

Embrace them as part of this present moment,

Then we may deepen our meditation practice.

We may deepen our experience of each moment.

Drawing your awareness now to the toes of the left foot and just noticing what's there.

We're not trying to create sensation there.

We're not trying to imagine the toes.

We're simply seeing what are we experiencing in this part of our body in this moment.

And if the answer is nothing,

Well,

Can you lean into that experience of no sensation?

Moving now to the sole of the left foot.

Breathing into any sensations that might be present in the sole of the left foot.

The top of the left foot.

The left ankle.

The whole of the left foot.

Breathing into any sensations that might be there.

Moving up to the left calf,

The back of the left lower leg.

Can you feel anything there?

Any sensation,

Any experience at all?

The left shin.

The left knee.

The whole of the left lower leg,

From the knee to the tips of the toes.

This might be tingling,

Warmth,

Cold,

And it also might be nothing at all.

Drawing awareness now to the top of the left thigh.

The sides and the back of the left thigh.

The left glute and the sit bone.

The left hip and pelvis area.

The whole of your left leg,

From the hip,

Down through the knee,

Down to the left toes.

And bringing awareness to the toes of the right foot now.

Breathing into this part of the body,

And noticing any sensation at all.

The sole of the right foot.

The sole of the right foot.

The sole of the right foot.

The top of the right foot.

The right ankle.

And breathing into the whole of your right foot,

Any experience at all.

Bringing awareness to the right calf,

The back of the right lower leg.

Now the right shin bone.

And coming up to the right knee now.

Expanding awareness to the whole of your right lower leg,

From the knee to the tips of the toes.

The top of the right thigh.

The sides and the back of the right thigh.

Leaning into any sensation or experience in this part of the body.

Coming to the right glute and sit bone.

The right hip and pelvis area.

The whole of the right leg,

From the hip,

Through the knee,

To the tip of your toes.

Bringing awareness now to the belly button.

Perhaps you can feel your stomach expanding and contracting with each breath.

Moving up the body now to the solar plexus,

At the base of the ribcage where our diaphragm is.

And bringing awareness up to the chest cavity now.

And bringing awareness up to the chest cavity now,

The ribcage itself.

Perhaps you can feel this expanding and falling with each breath.

And bringing attention now to the heart.

Are you able to feel your heart beating?

Coming up now to our collarbones,

The left and the right collarbone.

The whole of the front of your torso,

From your belly button up to your collarbones.

Bringing awareness now to the base of the spine.

Just creeping your awareness up the spine,

One vertebra at a time.

Perhaps you can feel your weight against the back of the chair,

Or the mat if you're lying down.

Coming up through the mid-back.

And the upper back,

Between the shoulder blades.

And resting awareness at the top of the spine,

Where it meets the neck.

The left shoulder blade.

And the right shoulder blade.

Shoulder blade.

And now expanding awareness to the whole of your back,

Your spine,

From the base to the top,

And your shoulder blades.

Drawing awareness now to the left shoulder joint.

Down into the left upper arm,

The bicep and the triceps.

Breathing into the elbow joint.

And shifting awareness into the left forearm.

So we have the inside and the back of your forearm.

And coming down now into the left wrist joint.

And from the wrist into the back of your left hand.

And breathing now into the fingers and the thumb of the left hand,

From where they connect to the hand,

All the way to the tips.

Perhaps there's a sensation of tingling,

Or of warmth.

And maybe there's nothing at all.

The palm of your left hand.

The whole of your left arm,

From the shoulder joint,

Down through the back of your hand.

The wrist,

All the way to the tips of your fingers.

And just noticing what's there.

Bringing awareness to our right shoulder joint.

And the right upper arm,

The bicep and the tricep.

The right elbow joint.

The right forearm,

The inside and the back of the forearm.

Just noticing any sensation or experience here.

Coming down into the right wrist joint.

And the back of the right hand.

Breathing into the fingers and thumb of the right hand,

From where they connect to the hand,

To the tips of the fingers.

And the palm of the right hand.

The whole of the right arm,

From the shoulder,

Down through the tips of the fingers.

And just noticing what's there,

Or what's not there.

Shifting awareness now to the throat,

The Adam's apple.

Maybe you can feel the cooler air being drawn into the body,

And the warmer air being exhaled.

The chin,

Just noticing any sensations there.

Placing awareness on the left side of your jawbone.

Noticing if there's any tension in that jaw muscle.

I know I carry a lot of tension here,

And placing awareness on this part of my body is a really good signal to me if I'm feeling stressed,

Or anxious,

Or relaxed.

And drawing attention now to the left cheek.

And the left cheekbone.

Now noticing the left eye.

Even with your eyes closed,

There's quite often a galaxy of light or colour on the inside of our eyelids.

And from the left eye up to the left eyebrow.

Breathing into the left temple.

Placing awareness on the left ear.

Expanding awareness to the whole of the left side of the face.

And then coming back down to the right side of our jawline,

And noticing any sensation or experience there.

Coming into the right cheek now.

And the right cheekbone.

The right eye.

The right eyebrow.

The right temple.

And the right ear.

The whole of the right side of the face.

The lips.

Placing awareness on the bottom lip.

Perhaps you can feel where the lips are pursed together.

And the top lip.

And placing awareness now on your nostrils.

Maybe you're able to feel the air passing in and out of your nostrils.

And the top lip.

And the top of your nostrils here.

Placing awareness now on the tip of the nose.

And coming up to the bridge of the nose now.

Scanning from the tip of the nose to the space between the eyes.

The forehead.

Another place where many people hold tension.

Seeing if maybe you can just relax that if you are.

And coming now to the crown of the head or your scalp.

And gently melting awareness down the sides and the back of your skull.

And with the next breath,

I invite you to expand your awareness to the whole of your head.

Your face.

Your ears.

Your eyes.

Your nose.

Your lips.

Your forehead.

Your forehead,

The top,

Sides and back of your skull.

Noticing all of these sensations.

And with your next breath,

Expand that awareness further to include your upper body.

Your torso.

Your spine.

Your arms.

Your hands and your fingers.

And again,

Expanding your awareness to include your lower body now.

From your hips,

Your thighs,

Your knees,

Calves,

Shins,

Ankles,

Feet and toes.

And noticing all of the sensations throughout your body now.

OK,

Now in just a moment,

I'm going to ask you to take a long,

Slow,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Pause at the top.

And then gently blow out through your mouth.

And we'll do three of these breaths together.

Breathing in through our nose.

Hold.

And exhale.

Second breath.

Hold.

And exhale.

And one more for good luck.

Hold.

And exhale.

OK,

So coming to your normal breathing now.

And just letting awareness be as it is.

Not directing it to anything in particular.

Gradually expand your awareness to the sounds in the room around you.

And I invite you to gently move your fingers,

Move your toes,

Maybe roll out the wrists.

And when you're ready,

Open your eyes.

From experience,

I find this particular meditation to be profoundly helpful when the mind is busy and loud.

This can really help to remind yourself of the things that are going on in your mind.

So I invite you to gently open your eyes.

Profoundly helpful when the mind is busy and loud.

This can really help to remind me that I am not my mind.

And I am not the thoughts or the contents of my mind.

And it is up to me.

It is up to you to decide if we want to engage with those thoughts.

I hope you found this helpful.

And thank you so much for allowing me to guide you through this meditation today.

I'll see you next time.

Reviews

Excellent meditation! You pause sufficiently at each part of the body. 🙏🏼

I love the simplicity of this scan. It’s extremely soothing and grounding. Thank you so much🫶🏽

-Daph