Body Scan With Gratitude

It's called the 'Famous Body Scan' as it was popularized in the west by Dr Jon Kabat Zinn. It's roots are found in the ancient practice of Yoga Nidra.

Transcript

Okay,

Friends,

I'm sure that you have found your comfortable position,

Whether it be lying down or sitting.

That's fine.

Feeling a sense of gratitude for yourself for doing this.

Coming home to the present moment.

You're in your home and you're coming home to the moment.

Just respecting that inner voice,

Our inner voice that encouraged us to do this challenge.

You really are making yourself a great offering.

Let go of any obstacles and anxieties that you may be feeling.

Breathing in and exhaling.

Let it go.

Breathe in a breath of happiness for being safe at home.

You are one of the fortunate ones.

Bring your awareness now as you lie or as you sit to your feet.

Yes,

Your feet,

Your toes,

Your toenails,

The soles of your feet,

Your ankles,

The top part of your feet.

And just check in.

How are the feet feeling today?

Is there a sensation or lack of sensation in our feet?

Is there a sensation or lack of sensation in our feet?

Just let us shine the light of awareness in our feet.

Know that our feet love to run and walk.

But at this particular time,

We might not be able to do much of that.

And that's okay.

Moving your attention up from the feet into the shins and the calves.

And we just exploring our bodies with open hearted awareness,

Non-judgment,

Non-reactivity.

And just observing how the shins and the calves are feeling.

Shining.

Shining the light of your awareness now into your knees.

Your knees.

We're so grateful for our knees.

Our knees enjoy it when we squat down,

When we jump,

When we dance.

Let's feel gratitude for the knees.

Moving that awareness into the legs,

The quadriceps,

The hamstrings.

And just observe how the legs are feeling deep down into the femur bone.

We're so grateful for our legs.

And hopefully you will let us know that you are feeling that way.

We're so grateful for our legs.

And hopefully your legs are all working well.

Scanning our legs all the way down to our toes now and then coming back up again.

Moving our attention now into our buttocks.

And the contact with our buttocks and the floor or the chair that we're sitting on.

Observing that contact.

And just observing how the shins and the calves are feeling.

The floor or the chair that we're sitting on.

Observing that contact.

Shining the light of awareness into the pelvic region,

The groin and the genitals.

With loving kindness and awareness.

Moving our attention at our will consciously to the lower back.

And just observing the contact with the lower back and the ground underneath you.

And then gently expanding that awareness to the rest of the back.

And if you're lying down you may be aware of the contact points.

And also moving the attention up the back,

Up the spine vertebrae by vertebrae.

How's the back feeling today?

Is there any sensation or lack of sensation?

Moving our awareness now into the stomach,

Into the belly,

The abdomen.

And let's take a few moments to observe as we breathe the gentle rising and falling.

Bring your attention into your internal organs.

Your liver,

Your kidneys,

Your spleen,

Your digestive system.

And not to worry if you don't know where everything is,

But just be aware that all your internal organs are working so beautifully to keep you alive.

So let's just feel a sense of gratitude for this,

For what they do constantly.

Consciously moving your awareness into the chest region.

And let's just feel as we breathe the expanding and contracting of our chest.

Now moving your awareness into your heart,

Your beating heart.

Your dear friend that keeps working for you continually.

Let's see if we can feel our heart beating.

The breath and the heart.

Now moving your awareness up into the shoulders.

And it's a place where we can store a lot of stress,

Just softening the shoulders,

Relaxing them.

Shining the light of awareness into the arms.

Just moving gradually down the arms into the elbows.

Moving the awareness into the forearms.

Until eventually we rest at the hands.

Just observing how the hands are feeling today.

We feel very grateful for our hands that we spend time washing or writing or typing or cooking.

Caressing,

Planting,

Building,

Nurturing or just holding.

Moving your attention up your hands through your arms and back into the shoulders.

Moving that attention into the neck.

And then into the jaw,

Into your jaw line,

Your chin.

Your jaw,

When you're stressed you can clench the jaw.

Just really soften the jaw.

That's right,

Good.

Let's move the attention into the chin.

And into the mouth,

Your teeth,

Your tongue.

All around your mouth.

And feeling immensely grateful for being able to taste.

Shifting our awareness now into moving into the nose.

And being extremely aware of the sense of smell.

What can we smell now?

Is there a scent?

Breathing through the nose,

Being aware of our breath once again.

Moving to your ears and feeling any sensation or lack of sensation in your ears.

And also if we can hear any sounds.

It's so remarkable that we can hear such a beautiful gift.

We are so grateful.

Moving our awareness from our ears to our cheekbones and our cheeks.

And they lift when we smile.

Being aware of your eyes.

And if you like you can open them slightly.

We have this amazing ability to see the windows of the world.

Truly grateful for the gift of sight.

Being aware of our eyebrows and the space between where we often frown.

Soften that space.

Soften the forehead.

Move your awareness into your scalp right to the back of your head.

Every hair on your head.

Well that is if you have hair.

Be aware of the whole scalp.

And then moving into the brain.

How is the brain feeling today?

This incredible machine that uses 20% of your body's energy.

We have so many neural connections.

They say 80 billion connections in our brain.

These connections are really up to us.

How we wire our brains.

Our conditioning of how we see the world.

I love the quote by George Lucas that says,

Your focus determines your reality.

It is so true.

Feeling grateful for this incredible machine,

Our brain.

Resting your awareness now at the space just at the top of your head.

Your crown.

And now moving your attention to the last organ which is your skin.

Surrounding your entire body.

Our most resilient organ.

In that if you get cuts you heal,

If you get bruised.

It is an incredible ability just to heal.

We can see this healing happen.

Let's feel grateful for our skin.

Connect once more with your breath.

Breathing through your nostrils.

And feeling your dear friends,

Your lungs working.

I imagine them to be strong and resilient at this time.

Breathing in they expand,

Exhale they contract.

This exercise is a beautiful immune booster for our bodies and our brains.

Proven research done by Dr John Capiton as to our resilience in terms of building our immunity.

All the wonderful work that he has done and his teams have done.

So when you are ready you can wiggle your toes,

Wiggle your fingers.

Bring some movement back into the body.

If you are lying on the floor,

Roll onto your right side in the fetal position.

Gently push yourself back up.

And you can open your eyes.

Thank you for doing the body scan with me today.

Take care,

Be well.

Reviews

This was a gentle and lovely body scan. It was perfect, it helped soothe me on this extremely stressful day. Thank you

I am so thankful I found this. I have a chronic illness and this has helped me to cultivate gratitude for my body despite it's issues. Thank you.

Great combination of body scan and Gratitude 🙏 Thanks

Great for an afternoon body awareness check in and nap

I love the simplicity of this body scan. Easy to follow

Love this one it's so relaxing thank you

Loved this, highly recommend. Didn't think I could do 30mins and it was great. Whenever I noticed a judgement about my meditation, whether it was good or bad I just said "this is a judgement l" and went back to meditating.

Very effective for the morning lightening!

Pulling the plug is good! 💧

Accessible and effective introduction to the body scan. Very relaxing, but worth staying awake for so best done early in the day.

Nicely done! Very relaxing, thank you

Great way to start or end the day!

My Favourite body scan I loved the long silence In between