Hey,
I'm Cyrus.
Welcome to this 10 minute body scan meditation that's proven by science to create significant increases in positive mood,
Decreases in anxiety,
A boost in focus and working memory when done daily for two months.
The link to the study is in the description.
Let's get into it.
Sitting upright in a chair with good back support,
Your lower back scooched,
Your spine straight in a relaxed position,
Your hands in your lap,
Your feet on the floor,
Your eyes closed or if you feel like you'll fall asleep,
Your eyes open on a spot in front of you.
Start off by taking a deep breath all the way into your diaphragm,
Filling up the ribs with the breath and then exhaling powerfully in a controlled way out through the mouth.
One more like that but let's make it a breath hold.
Breathe really deep into the whole body all the way down into your toes.
Hold the breath at the top.
Stay relaxed and pay attention to your body head to toe for a couple moments as you hold your breath.
And super slowly let it go out through the mouth,
Relaxing as you go.
And now take a moment to set a clear intention in your mind to drop and let go of thoughts when they arise and to stay in the rhythm of the body scan consistently throughout,
Moving your attention smoothly and intuitively like a spotlight in order to get the most out of your practice.
Let's begin.
Starting off by bringing your attention to the center of your eyebrows.
Dropping to your nostrils,
Feeling the breath as it goes in through the nostrils and out.
Moving down to your tongue,
Your shoulders,
Your elbows,
Your wrists,
Your fingertips.
Moving up to the front of your neck,
The center of your chest,
Your belly button,
Your right hip,
Your right knee,
Your right ankle,
Your right toes,
Your left toes,
Your left ankle,
Your left knee,
Your left hip.
Dropping thoughts as they arise and bringing more attention to your body as you move to feel your lower back,
Your lower belly,
Your middle back,
Your upper belly,
The right side of your chest,
The left side of your chest,
Your upper back,
The back of your neck,
The back of your head.
Staying in the rhythm as you move to the top of your head,
Your forehead.
Starting to tune into details as you move to your eyebrows,
Your temples,
Your eyes,
The bridge of your nose,
Your ears,
Your cheekbones,
Your lips,
Your jaw,
The sides of your neck,
Your upper arms,
Your forearms,
The palms of your hands,
Your hands.
Dropping down to feel the soles of your feet,
The tops of your feet,
Your calf muscles,
Your shins,
Your hamstrings on the bottom of your thighs,
Your quad muscles on the top of your thighs.
Feeling your entire legs and feet.
And now shifting to feel the entirety of your arms and hands.
Shifting to highlight your torso and all the sensations within the core of your body.
Shifting up to feel your shoulders,
Neck,
And head at the same time.
And now expanding your spotlight to feel the entire right side of your body.
The entire left side of your body,
Just the left side.
And now balancing out to feel the entire body at the same time,
Both sides of your body,
Left,
Right,
From head to toes.
Allow all your attention to dissolve into the body dropping thoughts as you breathe easily and flow with the sensations head to toe.
Leave all concerns behind,
Let the world go and go deeper and deeper into the body in this moment,
Finding your rhythm with the breath.
And now make a decision that for the next few moments you're going to let go of everything that comes up in your mind and only pay attention to the body head to toe with the breath.
Completely immersed in that,
Deciding and challenging yourself with that,
Consistently right now.
And now just for a moment feel all that energy release into the space around you.
Imagine,
Feel and sense the space that surrounds your body connecting with you for one blissful moment of absolute effortless presence and connection.
Finally visualize yourself connected to your body for the rest of the day,
Relaxed and present with the one moment in front of you with ease.
See that and feel that in your body.
And if you want to get the most out of your practice today,
Just take a moment to commit to returning to that present moment awareness that you've begun to cultivate throughout your day.
Once that intention is clear and you feel connected to that,
Slowly return to your body and an awareness of the space around you at your own pace.
