MBSR Body Scan For Present Moment Awareness

The 20-minute Body Scan is an opportunity to wake up from Auto Pilot habits of thinking and doing by inviting our attention to rest in the moment-to-moment experience of felt sensations in the body. The mind will surely wander, and when we notice we have drifted – back into the past or forward into the future – the intention is to kindly guide our awareness back to the body, as a way of coming home to ourselves.

Transcript

Welcome to the body scan.

The body scan offers us an opportunity to wake up from autopilot habits of thinking and doing,

Encouraging us to rest our awareness in the direct experience of sensations in the body as we move from body part to body part.

The attention we'll be noticing when the mind has wandered away and as best we can with kindness and acceptance,

Ushering our awareness back to the present moment in the body scan as a way of coming home to ourselves.

The attitudes in the body scan are those of non-judging,

Curiosity,

And friendliness toward whatever arises,

Remembering that there's no perfect body scan to be experienced,

Cultivating an openness to whatever arises moment by moment.

So as we begin the body scan,

Coming into a comfortable position,

Choosing whether we would prefer to sit in a chair,

To sit on the earth,

Or to lie down.

And as we settle into our posture,

Taking a few moments to scan through the body,

Perhaps noticing areas of tension,

And noticing how they change as we rest our kind awareness in these areas,

Perhaps they soften or the breath opens up.

So noticing how our awareness changes the sensations that we notice without us having to do anything.

It's important as we begin our body scan to set a refuge or safe place in case the body scan becomes uncomfortable or thoughts take us away and we find it difficult to come back into the body scan.

So knowing that if that happens,

It's okay,

Nothing's gone wrong.

So simply setting a refuge now,

A safe place to land that feels welcoming and available.

For some of us,

It's a soft gaze on the earth,

Eyes cast downward,

Opening to our sense of sight.

For others,

It's the sounds within us and around us that become our safe place to land.

The sounds in the room,

Outside the room,

The sound of my voice,

Sounds within our body.

For others,

It is easiest to land in the felt sensations of the body breathing,

The feeling of the breath flowing in and swimming out.

And for many,

It's the grounded foundation,

The feeling of the earth,

The groundedness of the feet,

The pelvis in our alert,

Awake,

Mindful posture.

So knowing it's okay to always go back to our refuge at any time during the meditation and coming back into the body scan whenever we feel comfortable or whenever the body scan feels available.

So beginning our body scan by bringing our awareness to our hands.

We may choose to turn the palms up for a moment of awareness.

The hands are a very nerve-rich and energy-rich area of the body.

So just feeling into the hands and noticing sensations of tingliness,

Sweatiness,

Vitality,

Maybe noticing how we can feel into the shape of the hands.

Those sensations are already present as we allow awareness to rest in our hands.

Palms of the hands,

Back of the hands,

Noticing sensations in the thumbs,

The index fingers,

The ring fingers,

The entire hand,

Right and left.

And if our awareness has wandered back to the past or forward to the future,

Remembering that nothing's gone wrong,

The thinking is what minds do.

But in the body scan,

We're flexing our muscle of attention and encouraging awareness back to the body,

Back to the feeling of the hands as a present moment focus or reference in the now,

Allowing the coming and going to be part of our meditation,

Letting go of judgment and opening up with a kind and generous heart to however our body scan is unfolding.

As we release the hands,

Making a choice perhaps to turn the palms downward or keep the palms facing upward as we move our awareness into the lower arms,

The forearms.

Noticing sensations here,

Perhaps the feeling of our clothes or the air.

Let's hear from me now as my awareness rests in the forearms.

And we're moving awareness up through the elbows and into the upper arms,

Right up to the shoulders.

Perhaps noticing a tightness or softness in the shoulders.

Just feeling into the shoulders,

Arms and hands as we broaden our awareness,

Cultivating a willingness to feel into the body just as it is and remembering that our refuge is always there for us,

A safe place to land for a while before we venture out into the body scan again.

And then releasing the arms and hands and bringing awareness to the chest,

The rib cage,

The shoulder blades.

Seeing sensations in this part of the body that are already present,

Feeling into this area with curiosity and fresh eyes,

Beginner's mind.

Perhaps we notice the gentle rhythm of the breath filling and emptying the lungs,

The beating of our heart,

A softness,

A brightness,

A lightness or heaviness,

Exploring sensations already present in the chest,

The rib cage,

The heart center.

If we find ourselves lost in a daydream,

Thinking,

Planning,

Nothing's gone wrong.

It's the noticing and the willingness to return,

To come back to our refuge or back to the body,

Feeling into the present moment without giving ourselves a hard time.

And then when we choose to releasing the chest area and bringing our awareness down into the lower part of the torso,

The pelvic bowl,

Low back,

The hips,

The belly,

What sensations are already present in this area of the body?

A tingliness,

A zinginess,

Heat,

Maybe not much sensation at all.

Allowing awareness to rest in this part of the body with curiosity and willingness to be with ourselves exactly as we are.

And if the mind is very distracted today,

Running away to the past and the future,

Cultivating patience for the noticing and the returning,

Perhaps we're flexing our muscle of attention quite a bit today,

And allowing the coming and the going,

The noticing and the returning be part of our meditation.

And then moving awareness down,

Down into the legs,

Releasing the lower part of the torso and feeling into the thighs,

Maybe feeling the heaviness of our femur bones,

The articulations of the knees,

The delicate bones of the shins,

Calves,

The ankles,

And allowing awareness to rest in our feet.

Noticing what sensations are already present in the feet,

A groundedness perhaps,

What does it feel like?

Heaviness,

Tingliness,

Wiggliness,

What's here for me now?

Knowing there's no need to create sensation,

Just noticing what's already here.

Allowing awareness to rest in our big toes,

Our little toes,

The toes in between.

The key in letting go of distraction is friendliness,

Cultivating a friendliness toward the willingness of noticing distraction,

And a friendliness toward coming back to the body or back to our refuge.

Noticing how we feel,

What we're thinking about,

Worrying about,

And as best we can coming back to the now and the felt sensations already present in our feet.

And then when we feel ready,

Releasing the feet and moving awareness back up towards the shoulders.

Feeling the shoulders and moving into the neck and throat.

What happens as we bring awareness to the throat?

What do we notice?

Moving awareness inside the mouth now,

Moistness,

Dryness,

The feeling of the teeth,

The tongue,

The jaw.

Tasting the moment,

Present with whatever is arising and falling away in our awareness,

Setting down judgment,

And allowing it all to be.

And when we feel ready,

Releasing the mouth now and moving awareness to our ears,

Perhaps we notice the weight of glasses or earrings or the softness of our hair,

The air around us,

Or perhaps aware of sounds coming and going,

Our sense of hearing,

The layers of sounds,

Awareness of the ears.

Then I'm releasing the ears and coming to the crown of the head,

Scalp,

Forehead,

Moving our awareness to our eyes,

Perhaps noticing the orbits of the eyes,

A softness,

A presence in the eyes.

And if the eyes are open,

Noticing our soft gaze on the earth,

If the eyes are closed,

Perhaps noticing shapes,

Texture,

Lightness,

Brightness,

Darkness.

How do the eyes feel?

And then expanding awareness to include the delicate skin and bones of the face,

Noticing the wide variety of sensations that are present,

Simply observing,

Cultivating awareness of awareness of noticing thoughts,

Emotions,

Body sensations,

And as best we can,

Coming back to the felt sensations in the face or the feeling of our refuge as our present moment reference in the now.

Using our awareness now to include the entire head,

Growing awareness to include the shoulders,

Arms,

And hands,

The torso,

The legs and feet,

Feeling into the whole body sitting here,

Noticing a body scan,

Noticing the wide variety of sensations coming and going,

Tightness,

Softness,

Movement,

Stillness,

Observing ourselves and being with ourselves exactly as we are,

Feeling into the body,

Feeling into the moment with curiosity,

Acceptance,

And compassion.

And as we draw this body scan toward its close,

Cultivating acceptance for however our body scan unfolded today.

Perhaps we had a lot of magic moments,

Opportunities to notice distraction and return to the present in the body or refuge.

Perhaps our meditation was a little more spacious today.

So as best we can,

Again,

Cultivating the sense of acceptance for however we are today,

Not wishing we were different or things were different,

But noticing how we feel,

What we're thinking about,

And what it's like to be in our body in this moment and the next.

Taking a moment to find our feet on the floor,

The groundedness in the body.

As we begin to release our body scan now,

Expanding our awareness into the room around us,

Broadening awareness,

And beginning to bring movement into the body that feels interesting,

Available,

And supportive.

Our body scan is now complete.

Reviews

A beautiful practice, thank you

I love your explanation between the relationship of distraction, friendliness and acceptance! Thank you :)

🙏 thank you! Lovely 😊

Very compassionate body scan.

Thankyou for the gentle body scan , 🙏🏻

Really great. Enjoyed a lot 🙏🏻💕

Very good guidance! Soft voice pitch! Namaste 🙏🏽