Hello and welcome.
Thank you for joining me for this 15 minute body scan mindfulness practice.
We will go through the entire body one area at a time,
Starting with our feet,
Making our way up to our heads.
And the idea behind this practice is to draw us into presence and to allow us to be a little more in tune with the sensation in our bodies.
So if you like,
You can lie down for this practice.
Otherwise,
Just finding a really nice,
Comfortable way to sit,
Either in a chair or on the earth.
If you'd like to close your eyes or just soften your gaze,
Please feel free to do so.
Just feeling into your body,
Lying or sitting here,
And feeling into all the areas of contact where your feet are touching the ground,
Or the legs and your back,
Your arms and your head are touching down on the earth.
And begin by noticing your breath entering and exiting your body.
The intention of a body scan is to be present with our body without wanting anything at all,
Not even relaxation.
Of course,
It's nice to relax and it's great if that happens,
But that's not the goal of our body scan.
We will be checking in with each area of the body in a non-judgmental way.
And we simply feel what is there to feel.
There's no need to stir up sensation by moving the body.
So just be here,
Just noticing.
And if you notice that there are a number of areas in the body that you are unable to feel anything at all,
Just notice and know that that is normal and okay.
Just check into those areas as if you could feel something.
Just starting with the feet,
Let's feel into both our feet right now.
Feeling into the areas where your feet are touching the ground or the chair.
Feeling your toes,
Tops of your feet,
And the bottoms of your feet.
Maybe you feel a tingling sensation,
Or maybe you notice the temperature.
Your feet are cold or warm.
I'm moving the attention to your ankles and your lower legs.
What is here to feel,
If anything at all?
Do you notice the pressure of your calves against the mat or fabric against the skin?
If you notice that your attention is suddenly somewhere else,
Just gently and without judgment,
Return it right back to your legs.
And this is not a problem at all.
The mind loves to wander.
If you find it helpful,
You can imagine that you are breathing into your lower legs as if your attention could ride on the breath,
Or as if your attention would light up that area like it was a flashlight.
All right,
So now letting go of the lower legs and moving the attention to your knees and your thighs.
What is here to feel?
Again,
Maybe pressure or temperature,
The position of your legs,
Or maybe nothing at all.
And numbness counts as a sensation in this practice.
And just noticing that thinking about an area or picturing it in your mind's eye is different from actually feeling it.
Now letting go of the thighs and moving the attention to the lower trunk,
The pelvis and the belly,
Up to the belly button.
Just notice any sensation in this area.
Maybe feeling the breath in the lower belly or not.
And then letting go and now feeling into the upper trunk,
The stomach area,
The chest.
Feeling the sensations of breath here with each inhalation and each exhalation.
Now feeling the spine against the floor or the back of the chair.
Noticing any sensations that are here or the absence of sensations.
From here,
Now moving the attention into your hands.
Just feeling your hands.
You might notice how well you can feel your hands without even having to see them.
Feeling the individual fingers.
Feeling the position of your hands.
And when you are ready,
Moving the attention to the wrists and the forearms now.
What is here to feel?
Pressure,
Warmth,
Touch,
Temperature.
Now moving the attention to your elbows and your upper arms.
Noticing any sensations here.
And if your mind wanders off,
Just bringing it back to wherever you are.
Just starting again.
From here,
Moving the attention to your shoulders,
The back of your neck,
And then to your head.
What is here to feel?
Feeling into your jaw and into your face.
Just noticing the position of your tongue.
If your tongue is pressing on the roof of your mouth,
See if you can let it go and settle into the lower palate.
What does your face feel like?
Your mouth and your nose and your cheeks,
Your eyes,
Your forehead,
Your entire face.
And just now opening the awareness to include the entire body again.
Lying or sitting here,
Just being alive and breathing.
And if you like,
Imagining to be breathing from the crown of your head all the way down to your toes.
And then up and out again and again.
Noticing all the sensations of the body and allowing them to be just as they are in this moment.
Scanning through the body from head to toe.
One last time just to see what you notice.
See if you can once again notice where the breath is felt in the body.
Perhaps noticing the rise and fall of your belly.
And then when you're ready,
Maybe taking some deeper breaths.
Allowing some gentle movement back into the body,
Like wiggling your fingers and toes.
Stretching the body in any way that it wants,
If it feels good.
You'd like to take your arms up and over your head for a big full stretch from tips of fingers to tips of toes.
And then when you're ready in your own time,
Just opening your eyes and coming up to a seated position if you're lying down.
And just taking a moment to reflect on your experience in this new moment.
Let's take a few moments to notice what sensations are present in your body right now.
Just observing the thoughts going through your mind and checking in with the emotions of this moment.
If it's helpful to grab a journal,
Some paper,
And jot how you're feeling,
That can be really skillful.
Or just again,
Taking a couple of rounds of breath to bring yourself back into presence so that you can get on with your day or your evening.
Alright,
Thank you again so much for joining me for this guided meditation.
Namaste.
