Body Scan

Guided Body Scan Practice suitable for beginners and more experienced practitioners. Recorded for Patients & Carers at the Albury Wodonga Regional Cancer Centre as part of the 4-week Introduction to Mindfulness Course.

Transcript

Starting off by sitting or lying down in a comfortable position and gently closing your eyes if that feels comfortable to you.

And noticing the different sounds that you can hear.

It might be sounds inside the room,

Sounds from other rooms,

Sounds outside.

Seeing how sounds come and go.

Some sounds we like,

Some we are quite neutral towards,

Others we dislike.

As best as we can we just let them be as they are.

Bringing attention to breathing.

So perhaps noticing the breath in the abdomen,

Perhaps in the rib cage or the chest,

Lower part of the rib cage or the chest.

Or at the nostrils or the upper lip,

Even inside the nose.

And then bringing attention down the body,

Down the left leg to the left big toe.

And what we are interested in is noticing the experience of the left big toe.

So we are interested in what sensations there might be in this part of the body.

You might feel the contact of a sock or stocking against skin.

You might notice the coolness or the warmth.

There might be a tingling or some other sensation.

Or there might be no apparent sensations at all.

So we are not trying to force anything.

And an absence of sensations is certainly not a problem.

So we bring attention to a body part.

What we have is this receptive listening,

So to speak.

Just wait and see what emerges.

Then bringing attention to the toes on the left foot,

To the other toes.

Then ball of the foot down through the arch into the heel.

The sides,

The top of the left foot,

Into the left ankle.

So we notice where sensations are clear and distinct.

And we notice where they are faint or seemingly absent.

What we are interested in is this process of observation.

And whether we feel or don't feel a particular sensation isn't our concern.

We're just receptive to whatever is there.

And shifting attention into the left lower leg.

The shin,

The calf.

Just a gentle curiosity.

And when distractions inevitably come,

Our only job is to kindly bring attention back to noticing sensations.

So into the back of the left knee,

The sides,

The kneecap.

And then bringing attention into the left upper leg.

Back of the thigh,

The sides,

The top.

And into the left hip.

And then bringing attention across to the right side and down the right leg to the right foot and the right big toe.

We gently place attention on this part of the body and get curious about what's happening.

What sensations do we notice?

Into the other toes on the right foot.

In the underside of the right foot.

The ball of the foot down through the arch into the heel.

The sides,

The top of the right foot.

And the right ankle.

So we're giving ourselves the gift of our own attention.

Sometimes we like what we find,

Sometimes we don't.

And we look to meet whatever it is as kindly as we can.

And the right ankle and then coming into the right lower leg.

The back of the knee and the kneecap.

And the sides of that right knee.

And sometimes in this guided practice I might be describing or asking you to bring attention to a part of the body that's no longer there for whatever reason.

So if that's the case for you,

You can always just rest attention in that general area.

And coming into the right upper leg.

So the underside,

The sides and the top of the thigh.

And into the right hip.

Into the buttocks.

And coming into the lower back.

And sometimes when we're doing the body scan,

Attention will come to parts where there is pain or discomfort.

Sometimes along with that pain and discomfort there's a whole stream of thoughts.

So while we're not trying to stop thoughts,

We are making that choice to direct attention from the thoughts and back into the direct experiencing.

And sometimes it can be helpful to name what it is that we find.

That beyond just saying pain,

To be a bit more specific.

Are they noticing if it's constant or is it throbbing?

Does it feel sharp or dull?

Is it localized to a specific area or is it a bit more diffuse?

This is how we can bring this curiosity into our experience.

And we can breathe with the discomfort.

Noticing the discomfort but also noticing the breath at the same time.

And so regardless of whichever part we're at in the practice,

You can always do that where you shift attention to a part which is calling for attention in its own way.

And bringing attention further up the back.

Coming up into the midsection including the sides.

And to the upper back,

The shoulder blades and between the shoulder blades.

Right up to the shoulders and the collar bones.

And bringing attention down the torso to the base of the torso.

Sensing into the pelvic bowl and the organs of reproduction and elimination.

And coming into the abdomen.

Carefully noticing how the breath is experienced in the abdomen.

It might be an expansion on an in-breath or contraction on an out-breath.

Coming up slightly to the base of the ribs and noticing the breath there.

And coming up into the chest.

And up to the collar bones.

And just as with strong sensations that can come and go and sometimes be quite persistent.

You can also have strong emotions that arise.

They might be triggered by a thought.

They might seem to just spontaneously come to us.

So one way of working with them is to name them.

Might be an anxiety or a fear or a sadness or perhaps a sense of ease and joy.

And when those more stronger uncomfortable emotions arise,

Then one way of working with them is to bring that attention to them.

Just notice how they're experienced in the body.

Quite often there's a pattern of thought associated with them and that's often what captures our attention.

But during this practice we're more interested in how it's experienced in the body.

It might be a constriction in some part or a feeling of pressure.

Might be a heat or a cold.

And if we like we can silently name these things.

Sometimes it's helpful to stay with them a bit.

At other times it's just as helpful to just touch on them briefly before proceeding to another part.

We just work within our own limits.

Sometimes it can also be helpful to just briefly open your eyes very softly.

Let some light in.

Notice a few different things that you can see in the room that you're in one by one.

And gently closing your eyes again if you choose to.

Then bring your attention down the left arm to the left hand and into the left thumb.

Getting curious about this part of the body.

Into the left palm,

The other fingers on the left hand,

Back of the left hand and into the wrist.

Then bringing attention into the left forearm,

The left elbow,

The upper part of the left arm,

Up to the armpit and the shoulder.

And then across to the right side,

Down the right arm,

Right hand to right thumb.

Into the other fingers on the right hand.

The palm of the hand through to the back of the hand.

The right wrist.

Into the right forearm.

This gentle part by part attention on different parts of the body.

Just being receptive to whatever happens to arise.

Even if what arises is seemingly nothing.

The right elbow,

The right upper arm,

The right armpit and the shoulder.

Into the back of the neck,

The sides of the neck and the throat.

The ears down the jaw to the chin.

To the mouth,

The inside of the mouth,

The tongue,

The teeth,

The lips.

The upper lip,

The cheeks.

The nostrils and the nose.

The bridge of the nose.

The eyes and the eye sockets.

The temples.

The eyebrows.

The forehead.

And the scalp.

And from this part by part exploration to now bringing attention to the body as a whole.

So it's like we're going from a spotlight to a floodlight with our attention.

Might notice attention wanders from part to part.

Might go from our right hip down to our left foot to our nose.

Might be a whole area like the back or the legs.

Might just watch where attention goes.

And as we come to the end of the practice,

Starting to take a few intentionally deeper breaths.

Having a bit of a stretch and a yawn.

Very gently starting to open your eyes and taking what's in the visual field.

Noticing colors and shapes.

Things that you can hear.

Breathing.

And then coming to the end of the practice.

Reviews

Very relaxing