Welcome to this 10 minute body scan meditation practice.
Taking just a few minutes out of your day to connect intentionally with your body.
Beginning by finding a supported posture that allows you to stay awake,
Either sitting or lying down or even standing.
Taking a couple of deep intentional breaths,
Fully inhaling,
Expanding the belly,
Dropping the shoulders and softening the belly as you exhale.
Full breath in and full breath out.
Sensing the body as a whole.
Breathing,
Expanding and contracting.
Just breathing.
From time to time,
You may notice your attention strays away from the sense of the body.
Remembering that this is what the mind does.
Attention jumps,
Looking for something to think about.
And without judgment or analyzing,
Simply gently and kindly bringing attention back to the body,
Feeling whatever sensations may be present.
Now bringing attention down the body and noticing the feet.
Sensing the toes,
The soles of the feet,
The ankles,
The tops of the feet.
Not judging or analyzing,
But just simply noticing what sensations may be present in the feet.
You may notice lack of sensation in the feet,
And that's okay.
Sometimes that is what there is to be noticed.
Bringing a kind and curious attention to whatever physical sensations may be found in the body as we move through,
Part by part,
Noticing what is here.
Moving attention now up into the legs,
Scanning the backs of the legs,
The fronts of the legs,
The knees,
Noticing what sensations may be present in the legs.
Bringing attention now to the hips,
The connection of the legs to the torso,
Scanning between the hips and the pelvic girdle region.
Scanning the back of the buttocks to the lower back.
Continuing,
Scanning up the entire back,
Following the spine,
Noticing the muscles,
The mid-back to the upper back.
Bringing this kind,
Curious attention to what sensations are present in the back.
Now moving attention around to the front of the torso,
Sensing into the belly,
Maybe noticing surface sensations,
Pressure of clothing,
Sensations on the skin,
Or internal sensations in the belly.
Continuing with the breath at the belly,
Noticing as it moves with each inhale and exhale.
Continuing up the torso to the chest,
Sensing the rib cage and the lungs within,
Feeling the movement of the breath as the lungs fill and empty,
Perhaps even sensing the beating of your heart deep within your chest.
Now bringing attention down the arms and into the hands,
Sensing through the fingers,
The palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands,
Noticing what sensations may be present here.
Perhaps a sense of temperature,
Moisture,
Dryness,
Achiness,
Tingling,
Or again,
Maybe no sensation at all.
Scanning into the wrist joints and into the arms,
Scanning the forearms,
The elbows,
And into the upper arms,
Attending to whatever may be found physically in this moment.
Sensing into the shoulders and the armpits at the connections of the arms to the body,
Scanning the tops of the shoulders,
And scanning into the neck,
The front,
The back,
The sides of the neck.
And moving attention now into the head,
Beginning at the jaw,
Noticing whether the jaw is tight and tense or soft and relaxed.
Noticing the face as a whole,
Scanning through the parts of the face just to identify sensations that may be present here in this region of so much of our expression.
Scanning to the ears,
Pausing momentarily just to notice sound,
And scanning to the back of the head and to the very top of the head,
Noticing the head as a whole.
And widening perspective once again to include the body as a whole,
Just breathing.
Offering yourself a moment of gratitude for taking this time to connect with your body in this intentional way and maintaining this connection through the rest of your day.
