Guided Body Scan

Bring mindful attention to your physical sensations in this relaxing body scan. We start from the head and slowly and systematically work down to the feet and toes. This can be done sitting or lying down.

Transcript

Welcome to the body scan.

And in this meditation,

We'll be giving our thinking minds a break for once.

And systematically moving awareness and attention from the crown of the head,

The very top,

All the way down until we get to the bottoms of the feet.

And we're doing this to use the physical sensations of the body,

Often sensations we take for granted,

Infusing them with a new interest and attention.

And being open to whatever comes with the spirit of kindness and openness,

Curiosity.

And we'll start by bringing awareness to our posture and whatever position you're choosing for this practice.

Maybe it's seated and maybe it's lying down.

It's comfortable you can close your eyes.

And we'll start with just a couple of deep and comforting breaths.

So inhale can be rich,

Smooth.

And then just letting go in the out breath.

Nice and easy.

And you can take one or two more deep breaths like this,

Lengthening the inhale.

And then slightly lengthening that exhale and letting everything go.

And with this comfortable and yet alert posture,

We'll start at the very top of the head.

Drawing awareness to anything that can be sensed here.

And then slowly bringing the awareness down into the forehead and the brow.

And noticing what's here.

Often there can be a bit of a scrunching that can accumulate during the day.

And we're inviting the forehead to be nice and smooth.

So just let go of anything that's stored here.

Feel that way into the smooth brow.

And also inviting a smoothing,

A softening in the eyes.

Letting go of any slight tension that can be stored in the small muscles in the eyes.

And just letting the eyes rest very naturally.

Knowing for now that there's nothing to do.

Softening the eyes.

And then noticing if that softening also helps with the softening in other parts of the face.

So maybe the cheeks,

The nose,

The lips,

Soften as well.

Maybe the lips part.

Maybe the tongue rests heavily in the lower part of the mouth.

And you might even experiment with feeling this slight sense of a smile from the inside of the mouth.

Noticing if that also helps contribute to a sense of softening and relaxing in the face.

Just letting all of the muscles of the face fall expressionless.

And then feel awareness drop down from the face into the neck and the tops of the shoulders.

And so the tops of the shoulders,

Feeling the shoulders just drop very slightly away from the ears.

So they're resting down and back.

From here,

Awareness drops down into the arms.

So first feeling the tops of the arms.

So the forearms come later.

Here it's the biceps,

The triceps.

And then working the way down into the elbows.

Feeling them from the inside.

Or if it's helpful,

You could just imagine an area of light traveling down the arm from the elbows down into the forearms.

Into the wrists.

And then resting in sensations within the hands.

Feeling warmth,

Energy,

And vitality from within the hands.

Feeling the fingers full of energy.

Maybe feeling contact between the hands and the thigh,

The body,

The surface beneath of you.

Feeling awareness in these moment to moment,

Constantly shifting sensations in the hands.

Realizing that no two moments are exactly the same.

And from the hands,

We'll draw awareness back up into the arms as a whole,

Including the hands.

And then resting back up in the shoulders.

Aware of the shoulders and becoming aware of the torso.

So awareness falling from the shoulders to include the chest,

Include the upper back,

And the midsection of the body.

The abdomen,

The mid back,

The lower back.

And becoming aware of this entire torso from the tops of the shoulders all the way down to the sitting bones.

And here from the inside out,

Becoming aware of this field of sensation.

And maybe noticing what's here.

It could be a sense of expansiveness.

Could be an area of tightness or constriction.

Maybe there's the sensation of breath and movement,

A rising,

A falling.

And whatever's here,

We're bringing this spirit of care,

Friendliness,

And genuine interest to everything that's here.

And knowing that the chest in particular and the abdomen can be areas where we store our tension,

Emotion.

And noticing if that's here too.

Maybe there's a tightness.

Or maybe there's an openness that points to some joy and ease.

Just whatever's here.

Greeting it with openness and care.

And inviting a very gentle softening.

So again,

Noticing there's nothing we need to do and there's nothing we need to change.

We are simply present and intimate with this embodied experience right now.

And so inviting the zone in the chest to be as soft,

To be as open as it wants to be.

And maybe connecting with sensation of breath within the front of the body.

Noticing the out breath.

And inviting in just a gentle sense of ease,

Open to a settling.

And from here,

We'll draw awareness down from the torso into the sitting bones and the pelvis.

And so feeling the support and the groundedness of what's beneath of this body.

Bed,

Chair,

Sofa,

Ground.

Feeling anchored,

Steady,

And supported by this little piece of earth helping keep us upright.

Feeling the surface beneath of us from the body.

So maybe a sense of hardness,

Pressure.

In the backside,

Maybe the tops of the thighs.

And if you're laying down,

You may also feel this in the back.

So from this zone of support,

Awareness will slowly begin to fall down into the bottom of the body.

So from the sitting bones,

Descending into the backs of the thighs.

Then including the tops of the thighs.

So again,

Feeling them from the inside out.

Maybe it's a felt sense,

Or maybe it's a sense of light.

Descending down the thighs,

Then past the knees,

Down into the lower legs,

The calves in the back,

The shins,

Moving down into the ankles,

And then the feet.

Feeling the feet,

Becoming interested and curious about what's here in the feet right now.

So maybe feeling smoothness,

Softness,

Hardness.

Maybe feeling warmth.

And from the inside of the feet,

Maybe there's some vibration,

Movement,

Energy.

And if you're noticing an absence of sensation,

Knowing that that also counts in this practice.

Aware of the feet.

And sustaining this attention to the feet will also bring some awareness back into the legs.

So starting to feel the legs as a unit,

A field of energy from the bottom of the feet to the tops of the thighs.

And then including the sitting bones,

The pelvis.

Aware of the lower body and becoming aware of the upper body,

The midsection,

The back,

Chest,

Shoulders.

Including this body from the inside out,

Including the arms,

Including the neck,

And maybe even including the head.

Aware of this entire body sitting and knowing that you are sitting.

In these last few moments,

Feeling the sense of the entire body sitting,

Aware of this rich and ever-changing field of sensation,

And maybe aware of the breath within the body.

Thinking before we close of just one thing that you appreciate about this body.

It's probably not a perfect body,

But there's probably one thing that this body is doing well or reliably for you each day.

It could just be breathing without involving any effort on your part.

Maybe it's the ability of hands to manipulate,

To respond,

To help.

Or maybe it's the connection of the heart and all the work the heart does for you.

Just taking a moment of appreciation for what some would say the gift of having this body.

And with that appreciation,

Maybe slowly opening the eyes if they're closed and returning awareness to our external environment.

It's a light color sound.

May you enjoy life in this body and know that these sensations of the body are always here for you throughout the day as a refuge,

As a place,

And a means to return to the present.