Body Scan MBSR - 37 minutes

This body scan was recorded by MBSR teacher Adele Stewart at Mount Keira Scout Camp February 2020.

Finding yourself a comfortable position for the body scan practice.

Perhaps lying flat on your back with the arms a little away from the body,

The head in a comfortable position.

Eyes closed or downcast or otherwise taking your preferred position.

Noticing the whole body lying or sitting.

Noticing the points of contact with the mat or chair or stool.

From top to toe,

Points of contact of the body.

Noticing any other sense of touch.

Perhaps the hair,

Jewellery,

Clothes,

The air.

Body parts touching other body parts.

Noticing the state of body-mind that you're bringing to the practice.

As best you can,

Allowing that non-judgmentally.

Perhaps there's a sense of anticipation,

Peace,

Calm.

Perhaps tiredness,

Drowsiness.

Perhaps restlessness,

Agitation,

Subtle or otherwise fear.

As best you can,

Opening to whatever state your body-mind is in right now.

And throughout this body scan,

Perhaps maintaining an attitude of gentle,

Open and kind curiosity.

If we can be open to what is from moment to moment,

Then no matter what we find,

No matter what we notice,

We're doing the practice correctly.

Bringing the attention to the breath.

Not imagining the breath or visualising it or thinking about it.

Really feeling the breath.

Noticing the in-breath,

The little break,

The out-breath and the little break.

Noticing the breath wherever that feels most comfortable for you.

Perhaps in the nostrils,

Perhaps in the rise and the fall of the chest or abdomen.

Remembering in any meditation practice,

It's very likely that our mind will go to thoughts,

Many times,

Or notice other distractions,

Pleasant or unpleasant sounds,

Pleasant or unpleasant body sensations.

No need to block these out.

As best you can,

Gently acknowledging them and bringing your attention back to the instructions.

Noticing the breath.

Noticing the breath.

Those distractions might take the form of a desire for things to be different than they are right now.

No need to add a layer of judgement to that,

Just noticing that desire.

Gently accepting it,

Letting it be,

And returning the attention to the instructions.

In this case the breath.

Noticing the breath.

Notice the reaction now when I say we're moving now to paying attention to body parts.

Again,

No need to think about body parts or imagine them or visualise them.

Really noticing the actual sensory experience,

What you can feel.

So bringing the attention to the very top of the head.

What can you feel there?

Perhaps you can feel your hair or some tingling or vibration,

Itching,

Head covering,

Or perhaps nothing.

Perhaps you can't feel anything there and that's absolutely fine.

Just being there and feeling what there is to feel or not is enough.

Moving the attention further down the scalp to the sides and the back of the scalp.

Part of the scalp that goes down to the top of the neck.

Paying special attention to the area where the head meets the neck at the back.

Noticing any tightness or softness there.

Noticing the ears,

The outside of the ears,

The inside of the ears,

The ear canals.

Maybe noticing that point inside the ears where the sound reaches the eardrums.

Not going out searching for sounds but just allowing them to be received.

Again noticing pleasant and unpleasant sounds and perhaps the desire for a particular sound to continue or a desire for it to stop.

These sounds and thoughts don't need to be seen as a barrier to meditation.

They're part of the meditation.

Every time we gently shift our attention from sounds and thoughts back to the body.

We're doing that lovely rewiring the brain.

So it just gets better and better at shifting attention.

Such a useful skill in our life.

Moving the attention now to the face.

So noticing the forehead,

The temples,

Tightness,

Softness,

Hair,

Dampness,

Dryness.

The eyebrows,

The area between the eyebrows,

The eyes,

The eyeballs sitting in the eye sockets,

The eyelids covering the eyeballs.

Dampness,

Dryness,

Any other sensations,

Any subtle movements in the eyelids.

Sensing the eye sockets.

Moving to the nose,

Noticing sensations on the outside of the nose,

Inside the nostrils.

As the air goes in and out.

The cheeks.

The area between the nose and the mouth.

Noticing the mouth now.

Sensation in the lips.

Perhaps the sense of the lips touching.

Dampness,

Dryness.

And inside the mouth.

Gums inside the lips and cheeks.

The teeth.

The tongue.

All the way from the tip of the tongue right down to the root of the tongue.

Noticing the position of the tongue in the mouth.

Moving to the jaws,

Any tightness or softness there.

And the chin.

Moving to the area under the chin.

The neck.

The skin of the front,

The sides,

The back of the neck.

And any sensations within the neck,

In the throat.

Sensations of dampness or dryness,

Scratchiness,

Urges to swallow.

And then being aware of the whole head and neck.

Perhaps on a breath in,

Filling the whole of the head and neck with awareness.

And on the breath out,

Letting that go.

Or otherwise just having the sense of the whole of the head and neck.

The volume,

The weight,

The three dimensional nature of the head and neck.

And moving now to the shoulders.

The fronts,

Backs,

Sides,

Tops of the shoulders.

The angle of the shoulders in relation to the trunk.

How do you know without looking at them or moving them,

What angle they're in.

Noticing anything to be noticed within the shoulders,

The joints.

And as you go through the body there may be small areas or huge areas where there's no sensation at all.

Know that you're doing all that wonderful work just by noticing what's there or not there.

Moving the attention down to the upper arms,

The biceps,

The triceps,

The outside of the arms,

The inside of the arms.

Perhaps if they're touching the chest,

Noticing that.

And noticing if you're able to notice both arms at once or whether your attention oscillates or perhaps there's a little bit of a lag.

No need to judge that,

Just noticing.

Moving to the elbows.

Noticing the posture of the elbows,

The points of the elbows,

The sides,

The insides of the elbows.

Moving to the lower arms,

The fronts,

The backs,

The sides,

The wrists,

The position of the wrists,

Fronts,

Backs,

Sides of the wrists.

Sensing if there's any sensation within the wrist joints.

Moving the attention to the hands,

The palms of the hands,

The backs of the hands,

The thumbs.

And each finger,

One at a time,

Noticing from the base of the finger to the tip of the finger.

Perhaps some subtle vibration,

Tingling,

Aliveness,

Perhaps nothing.

You might feel points of contact where fingers are touching other fingers,

Dampness or dryness.

And noticing if the mind has gone off in a train of thought and as soon as you notice that,

That's wonderful because as soon as you notice,

You're present again.

You're back to following the instructions as best you can.

And using your own wisdom to know if at points during the body scan,

Something comes up for you,

Perhaps an emotion that's within the body that needs attention for 30 seconds or so.

If an emotion comes up,

Once again it's not a barrier to meditation,

It's part of why we meditate.

Exploring that on a sensory level,

Really gently,

Accepting it as best we can.

So now bringing awareness to the whole of the arms and hands all at once,

Perhaps on the breath in,

Filling them like a balloon.

Or perhaps just noticing the weight,

The volume,

The length of the arms and hands.

Bringing the attention now to the torso,

So noticing the collar bones,

The breasts,

Anything you can notice within the chest wall,

Muscles,

Ribs.

Perhaps you might even have a sense of your heart or your lungs,

Movement of the breath.

Noticing the waist,

The abdomen,

Clothing around the abdomen,

Perhaps movement within the abdomen.

Perhaps you have a sense of the organs and bowels deep within.

And moving to the pelvis,

Noticing the pelvic bowl containing the organs of reproduction and elimination,

The genitals,

The anus.

Noticing if any thoughts come up in that pelvic area.

Again,

No need to block anything,

Just noticing with that beautiful,

Gentle curiosity.

And moving now to the back,

So starting with where the neck joins the torso,

Noticing any tension or softness in that area,

Noticing the upper back,

Shoulder blades.

And the middle back,

The back of the waist.

And the buttocks,

The muscles there,

Perhaps being squashed a little in a sitting or lying position.

A lot of people have quite strong sensations around the lower back,

So perhaps if you're one of those,

Spending 30 seconds or so exploring those sensations,

Really seeing if you can penetrate right to the centre of the sensation with that curiosity and kindness.

And if you're lucky enough not to have difficult sensations,

Perhaps just noticing what's in the lower back and having some appreciation for that.

And now,

Filling the whole of the torso and pelvis with awareness,

Perhaps on the breath,

Letting go on the breath out,

Or just noticing the whole weight,

Volume,

Three dimensional nature of your torso and pelvis.

And moving down now to where the legs join in to the pelvis,

So noticing the groins,

The sides of the hips,

And the area where the hamstrings insert into the buttocks.

Noticing the weight of those big bones in the upper legs,

And anything you can notice in the skin or muscles of the thighs,

The fronts of the thighs,

The backs of the thighs,

The sides,

And the insides.

And moving to the knees,

Fronts of the knees,

The kneecaps,

The backs of the knees,

The inside and the outside,

And the angle of the knees.

And moving to the lower legs,

The fronts,

The shins,

That area where the skin's very close to the bone.

The sides,

Insides and outsides of the lower legs,

And the calf muscles,

Perhaps the feeling of them squashed against the mat,

Or the feeling of clothing there.

Moving down to the ankles,

Noticing the fronts,

The backs,

Achilles tendon area,

The sides of the ankles,

The ankle joints.

Really focusing on the sensory aspect.

And moving down to the feet,

The tops of the feet,

The sides of the feet,

The heels,

The area between the heels and the balls of the feet.

The balls of the feet,

The area between the balls of the feet and the toes.

And feeling the toes,

Points of contact,

Dampness or dryness,

Perhaps tingling,

Vibration,

Perhaps not much at all.

And bringing attention to the whole of the legs and feet,

Perhaps on the breath in,

Feeling those legs with awareness,

Letting it go on the breath out,

Or perhaps just noticing the length,

The volume,

The weight of the legs and feet.

Just noticing what's going on in the body,

Mind and heart right now,

As best you can,

Opening and allowing whatever's present.

And noticing the whole body,

The whole body sitting or lying.

Noticing the effect of the body scan.

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This is from Martha Elliot.

Your history is here inside your body.

Your body is your storehouse of learnings,

Feelings,

Thoughts and experiences.

Only waiting to be invited to reveal your treasures to yourself.

Help yourself.

As you let the learning emerge and take shape,

You can appreciate the wisdom of the body.

Each cell alive with spirit,

Emotion and intelligence,

Ready to help you at any moment,

Always with you and for you.

Each cell alive with spirit and emotion and intelligence.

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