"How Are You?" Body Scan Practice

This guided body scan practice adds the element of compassionate inquiry. It opens a dialogue with the body, asking each part "How are you?" and staying open to the sensations of the body speaking. All you have to do is listen with kind awareness.

Transcript

I want to welcome you today to this guided practice. This practice will be a body scan, But it's a particular type of body scan. We won't just be going from head to toe. We'll actually be asking a question to the body. So it's just like when you're walking down the street and you run into somebody and you say, Hi, How are you today? You open up a dialogue with that person. And that's what we're going to be doing today, Is opening up a dialogue with our bodies. Oftentimes, We relate to our bodies with harsh criticism, Judgment, Wanting to change what we're feeling. And today, For the next few minutes, We're just going to allow the body to speak to us in its own language of sensations. These sensations may come in the form of temperature changes, The sense of our body in space, Pressure, Expansiveness or contraction. And we're just simply allowing the body to tell us what it's feeling right now. And we'll have the simple question of, How are you today? And then we just listen to what the body has to say with an open heart and open mind. And if you notice the judgment or the desire to change what's coming up, If you notice that in your present moment awareness, You can simply allow it to come and go. You can label it as, Oh, This is my mind judging, Or this is my mind wanting to change things. And that's okay. So to start this practice, I invite you to find a comfortable position, Either sitting up or lying down. You can close your eyes if you're comfortable with that. Because you can just simply soften the gaze a little bit. And we're just going to start by bringing the attention to our breath as it flows in and out of the nose and mouth. Understanding where you feel the breath, How the breath feels. And we'll just start by asking the breath today, How are you? And allowing the breath to speak to you. We'll shift our attention up towards the head, The top of the head, The sides, The front and the back of the head. How are you today? Moving the attention to our face, The eyes, The nose, The mouth, The muscles of the face. How are you today? Really feel into this desire to know the true concern. We truly care about our bodies and we are inquiring into how are you today? Moving the attention down to the neck, The front of the neck, The back of the neck. How are you today? What sensations are arising in response to this question? You may notice words come in to awareness and that's okay. Let's continue to keep our focus on the pure sensations coming from the neck. Or there could be a lack of sensation. It may feel numb and that's okay too. Now we'll drop our attention down into our hands and fingers and ask again, How are you today? Drawing the attention to the forearms, How are you? Now asking the elbows, The upper arms and shoulders, How are you feeling today? Bringing this curiosity to the upper back, The middle back, The lower back. Wanting to know how are you today? Now drawing our attention to the front of the chest, To the heart and the lungs. What is the state of the heart today? How are you feeling today? Bringing the attention to the belly, How are you today? Drawing all of the organs and the abdomen and all of the functions that they do day in and day out. Just inquiring into how are they all doing today? Bringing the attention down into the buttocks, The pelvis. Just inquiring into how are you doing? What sensations? You may feel the weight of your body in the chair. How are you today? Bringing this inquiry into the thighs and the hamstrings, The top part of the leg. How are you doing today? Down into the knees, The lower part of the leg. How are you feeling right now in this moment? How are you? Then bringing our attention down to the feet and the toes. Once again asking, How are you doing right now? What sensations are speaking back to you? Now we'll bring our attention to the body as a whole. So it's almost like our awareness broadens to include the entirety of the body. As we ask the body the true intention of care, How are you doing today? Now we'll slowly shift our attention back to the breath. Just allowing the breath to flow in and out in its own time. You can slowly wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes if your eyes were closed. Becoming aware of your surroundings. You may want to set an intention to intermittently just check in with your body and ask, How are you today? This vessel that carries us through life with all of its wisdom and endurance. We can truly care for it and one way of caring for it is to ask with a sincere desire to care. Ask the body, How are you? With an open mind, Receive what it speaks.