Hello,
This is Andrea and welcome to the 45-minute body scan.
In this body scan practice,
We will be intentionally directing our awareness to the different parts of the body while relating to what we find in the body with interest and curiosity.
So taking a few moments here to find a posture,
Lying down either on your bed,
On the sofa,
Or on the floor.
And if you're lying down on the floor,
Sometimes it can be nice to lay down a mat or some blankets,
Maybe propping yourself up with pillows or cushions.
And you can even be seated in a chair if that feels more comfortable for you.
And so if you're lying down,
Letting the hands rest at the side of your body,
The palms facing up or down,
The feet can fall away from each other.
And so making sure you're comfortable here,
But at the same time can remain alert throughout the practice.
And if you like,
You can lower your gaze or close your eyes.
The purpose of the body scan is to cultivate an awake,
Aware attention.
And so if you feel relaxed during the body scan,
That's wonderful.
But it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong if you don't feel relaxed.
So the body scan is an awareness practice,
Not a relaxation practice.
So we're doing the work of staying awake,
Remaining alert,
And also using the skill of resting into whatever we find in the body,
Pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral.
And if at any time throughout the practice you feel sleepy or drowsy,
See if changing up your position is helpful,
Or maybe opening the eyes and then coming back to the body scan when you feel more awake.
So to begin feeling the body lying here,
Noticing the areas of contact that your body is making with the floor or a cushion,
Or maybe even the feeling of clothing on the skin.
And if it feels comfortable,
Bringing your awareness to your breath and feeling the rising and falling of your breath in your body.
Breathing in,
Following the in breath into the nose,
Down the throat,
In the chest,
Maybe the belly.
And then breathing out,
Letting go of the breath,
Feeling the chest and the belly contract with the exhale.
And just following the rhythm of breathing.
Breathing in to the body and breathing out of the body.
In and out.
And you might even direct your attention down into the abdomen to really feel the sensations of breathing.
The abdomen rising with the inhale and falling with the exhale.
The breath rising and falling.
In and out.
And I'm going to share a quote here by author Bob Sharples to set the stage for our practice.
And he says,
Don't meditate to fix yourself,
To heal yourself,
To improve yourself,
To redeem yourself.
Rather do it as an act of love,
Of deep warm friendship to yourself.
In this way,
There is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement,
For the endless guilt of not doing enough.
It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.
Instead there is now meditation as an act of love.
How endlessly delightful and encouraging.
And so with the body scan,
We're not trying to make anything happen and we're not trying to make anything go away.
We're turning our attention towards whatever is arising here.
So if it's a pain or tension in the body or a feeling of relaxation or even a wandering mind,
We're practicing being with whatever is happening in the present moment with a gentle and curious attention,
An act of love and deep warm friendship to yourself.
So coming back to feeling the breath in the body and bringing your awareness now down into your left leg.
So feeling into the left leg and directing your attention and maybe your breath into the left leg and down into the toes of the left foot.
Noticing the big toe,
The little toe,
And the toes in between.
Any sensations you can feel in the toes of the left foot.
You might notice contact with a sock.
And then bringing the attention to the top of the left foot.
And then the bottom of the left foot.
Maybe feeling into the ball of the left foot.
Noticing any sensations that you can be aware of.
The heel of the left foot.
Maybe noticing if the heels making contact with the floor.
And the whole left foot in this moment.
Noticing the placement and position and any other sensations you can be aware of.
And if the mind is wandering off,
Just noticing and then gently bringing it back to this moment where we are right now.
And then moving the awareness to the left ankle,
Maybe here noticing contact with a sock or pant leg.
The temperature of the left ankle or any other sensations that you might be aware of in the left ankle.
And then bringing the awareness to the lower left leg,
So the calf and the shin bone.
And maybe sending your breath to this area,
Feeling into the area of the left lower leg,
Noticing contact,
Pressure.
And then bringing the awareness to the left knee.
Maybe first noticing the placement of the knee,
If it's slightly bent or straight.
The back of the knee,
The sides of the knee and the knee joint.
Feeling into the left knee and seeing for yourself what is here to be known in this moment.
Just gently bringing the attention back if it's wandered away.
And then bringing your awareness up the left leg to the upper left leg,
The hamstrings,
The quad muscles.
So feeling into the upper left leg.
And again,
If the mind has wandered,
No big deal,
We just simply notice mind wandering.
And then without any judgment,
We just bring the attention back to feeling into the upper left leg.
Noticing contact with a cushion or the floor,
Pressure,
Feeling into the bigger muscles here and noticing whatever is here to be felt and experienced.
And sometimes you won't feel a particular part of the body and that's okay.
See if you can stay with the noticing.
And then moving the awareness up to the left hip bone.
Noticing any sensations here in the left hip,
Contact,
Pressure,
Any other sensations you can feel here in the left hip bone and muscle.
And then expanding your awareness now to include your whole left leg.
So the entirety of the left leg from the hip bone down to the toes of the left foot.
Maybe feeling here the weight,
Pressure,
Temperature,
And maybe using the breath as a guide down into the left leg,
Breathing into the left leg and foot.
And then letting the left leg go and bringing your awareness from the left hip bone across the pelvis over to the right hip and down into the right leg.
So just feeling into the right leg and maybe here sending the breath down into the toes of the right foot.
And again,
If the attention has wandered away,
No problem,
This is what minds do.
And so this is a great place to begin again.
Feeling now into the toes of the right foot.
Maybe here noticing contact with fabric or the temperature of the right toes and any sensations that are here in the toes of the right foot.
And right here in this moment,
Seeing if you can stay with your direct experience.
And then directing the attention to the top of the right foot.
Feeling into any sensations here.
And then the bottom,
The heel and the ball of the right foot.
Maybe feeling into the arch.
Feeling any sensations that you can feel in the right foot in this moment.
And then bringing the awareness to the right ankle.
Feeling into the ankle joint.
And we don't need to move a body part to feel it.
So see if you can notice any sensations in the ankle in this moment.
And maybe you can't feel anything.
And that's okay.
So our job is just to show up as if there was something there.
And so we're shining our awareness like a flashlight onto the different parts of the body,
Noticing and trying our best to stay with it.
Sending the attention now to the lower right leg,
The shin bone,
The calf muscles.
Maybe noticing contact with a pillow or the bottom lower leg resting on a surface.
And feeling into this area.
See if you can cultivate a curious and gentle awareness of the lower right leg.
And then guiding the attention to the right knee.
And noticing what sensations,
If any,
Are here.
Is there a sense of pressure?
Is the knee bent or straight?
And then moving the awareness now to the right upper leg.
So the space between the right knee and the right hip.
The quadriceps,
The right thigh,
The hamstrings.
Noticing any sensations here in the muscles and bones of the upper part of the right leg.
And maybe noticing if there's any sleepiness here.
If you're finding it hard to stay awake,
See if you can,
With a really friendly attitude,
Notice this feeling of sleepiness.
And then taking some deeper breaths,
Perhaps opening the eyes,
And beginning again.
Feeling an awake,
Aware,
And interested attention.
Bringing your awareness now into the right hip.
Noticing any sensations in the muscles of the right hip.
And then opening the awareness and including the whole right leg.
So feeling into the whole right leg from the right hip joint all the way down into the toes.
Maybe noticing weight,
Pressure,
Any sensations.
Maybe again if it's helpful,
Guiding the breath down the length of the right leg.
And then letting go of the right leg and bringing the attention now to the pelvis.
Noticing if there's contact with the sit bones on the ground or on a cushion.
Then bringing awareness to the genital and anal area.
And then feeling into the area of the entire pelvis.
All the organs inside.
And maybe there's a sensation of the breath moving in the lower belly or not.
And then expanding the awareness to include the entire abdomen,
So your entire belly.
And perhaps noticing the movement of the breath,
The rising and falling of the belly.
And it's not uncommon to have memories or strong emotions attached to a body part.
So if you notice yourself being carried away by any stories,
Memories,
Emotions,
Just seeing if you can notice where your attention is.
Maybe a gentle reminder to yourself that this is normal.
And then with a lot of kindness coming back to your breath or a place in the body that feels neutral or stable.
And so we're sending the breath down into the abdomen,
Feeling into this area.
And then moving the awareness around now to the low back.
So this is an area for some people where there's been pain or tension.
So just with a really gentle and kind awareness,
Exploring this part of the body,
The low back.
Knowing that at any time you can expand your awareness to another part of the body if the sensations become too overwhelming.
So staying here with the low back,
And then guiding the awareness up the spine of the back,
The muscles around the mid-back,
Noticing contact with the floor cushion.
And then feeling into the back,
The mid-back,
The upper back.
Maybe noticing the movement of the back of the rib cage,
Moving with the breath.
And then bringing the awareness around to the top of the belly here.
And maybe feeling here the diaphragm moving with the in-breath and the out-breath.
Guiding the awareness up into the chest,
The chest wall.
And then noticing the collarbone.
Maybe noticing the feeling of cloth or fabric here on the skin.
Maybe noticing the chest rising and falling with the breath.
And if the mind has wandered away,
Just gently bringing it back.
And bringing the awareness now down into the left hand.
So feeling into the fingers of the left hand,
The fingernails,
The palm of the left hand.
Maybe noting the position of the left hand and any sensations here that you can be aware of.
And then letting go of the hand and guiding the awareness to the left wrist joint and the forearm.
And so here maybe noticing the position of the forearm or the feeling of the forearm and the wrist resting on a blanket or the floor.
Maybe noticing pressure or temperature.
And then moving the awareness to the upper left arm.
So from the elbow to the left shoulder joint.
And maybe noticing here if the elbow is slightly bent or straight.
And feeling into the left upper arm.
Noticing anything here that can be known in this moment.
Position,
Pressure,
Contact,
Temperature.
And then bringing the whole left arm into your awareness.
And maybe if this works for you,
Imagining breathing down the length of the arm into the left fingers and back up again.
And right here in this present moment,
So whatever is happening right now,
If the mind is wandering,
If you're getting sleepy,
No big deal.
We just notice maybe opening the eyes,
Taking a deeper breath,
And then coming back to the body scans.
This is such a foundational aspect of the mindfulness practice to begin again.
So right here in this moment,
Beginning again,
Bringing the awareness over to the right hand into the fingers of the right hand.
Maybe noticing the temperature of the right hand,
The palm of the right hand and the back of the right hand.
Using pressure or any other sensations that can be felt in this moment.
Then bringing the awareness to the right wrist.
Coming into the right wrist and also the forearm.
And maybe here you notice the forearm resting on a cushion or somewhere on the body.
And maybe noticing if it's harder to feel sensation in the wrist and forearm compared to the hand.
Or what's that like for you?
And then guiding the awareness to the right elbow joint.
Maybe noticing if the elbow is slightly bent and feeling into the upper right arm.
The muscles of the upper right arm,
Noticing contact,
Pressure,
And then feeling into the right shoulder joint.
And then expanding the awareness to include the whole right arm and hand.
Maybe again using the breath as a guide to breathe into the arm and noticing anything that is here to be known in this moment.
And then letting go of the right arm and bringing the attention to the shoulders,
Both the left shoulder and the right shoulder,
And the upper back and also the neck.
This is another area where we often hold tension.
So being curious as to what is here today in this area.
And if you ever get to an area where there is tension and it's easy to release,
Then please do so.
And then allowing the tension that doesn't go away to be here as best as you can.
So feeling into the shoulders,
The upper back,
And the neck.
And then moving the attention up the neck and throat area to the jaw,
Noticing if there's any clenching in the teeth or the jaw.
And then bringing the attention to the lips and the mouth.
Maybe noticing if the lips are touching.
Inside the mouth,
The teeth and tongue,
Noticing any sensations here.
And then moving the awareness to the cheeks and the nose.
Maybe feeling the breath moving in and out through the nose.
And moving the attention to the eyes,
The muscles around the eyes,
The corners of the eyes as they're squinting here.
And then the eyelids and the eyeballs.
The eyebrows,
Maybe noticing if you're frowning.
And the forehead.
And then your entire face.
Maybe being aware of an expression on your face.
Any sensations here that you can notice.
The sides of the head and the ears.
The back of the head and the top of the head.
And now opening again to include the entire body.
As we're nearing the end of our body scan,
Feeling into the entire body again.
And if you like,
You can picture yourself breathing from the crown of your head all the way down into your toes and up and out again.
Just like the gentle waves at the beach are rolling in and out without any effort.
And then slowly moving forward.
And when you're ready,
You can start bringing movement back into the body,
Maybe gently wiggling the fingers or the toes.
And if you're lying down,
You're welcome to roll to one side of the body,
Whichever is most comfortable,
And use the top hand as a support to come up to a seated position.
And finishing this body scan in whatever way works for you until you hear the sound of the bell.
It's a message.
.
