Appreciative Body Scan

This is an appreciative body scan to support you in bringing kindness and compassion to the experience of living in your body.

It also supports restfulness and relaxation and can be beneficial when practiced when you've set aside time to rest or just before bedtime.

So go ahead and get yourself settled into a comfortable lying down position.

You can practice this on your back or on your side with a bolster under your knees or even tucked into your bed,

However you're most comfortable.

So I invite you to begin by just allowing your body to rest into the surface that you're lying on and taking a few fuller deeper breaths and becoming aware of the sensations of gravity in the body.

Noticing support from the surface that you're lying on and seeing if you can allow yourself to be supported just a little bit more and starting to just tune in to what's happening in the body right now in the present moment and noticing the weight of any blankets or clothing on your skin,

Feeling sensations of pressure where the body presses into the floor or the bed,

Noticing temperature,

Lightness or heaviness,

Maybe sensations of tingling or numbness and allowing the arms and legs to be soft and heavy,

Giving yourself permission to breathe all the way in and all the way out and now bringing the focus of attention up to the top of your head including the sides of your head,

Noticing any sensations that are making themselves known here,

Perhaps becoming aware of the weight of your head,

Feeling the sensations of pressure where your head presses down into the pillow or the floor,

Feeling gravity in your head.

And now sliding attention across the muscles of your forehead,

Smoothing your forehead with your awareness,

Softening,

Including the muscles of the eyes,

Noticing gravity in the eyes,

Maybe even becoming aware of the weight of the eyelids,

Noticing your cheeks and your cheekbones,

Allowing your cheekbones to be soft,

Including the muscles of your jaw,

Your lips and just spending a moment here,

Gently acknowledging how hard these face muscles work,

Sending them some appreciation and giving them permission to rest.

And now gently releasing the head and the face as the objects of your attention and sliding awareness down into the neck and the throat,

Including the sides of the neck,

The back of the neck,

Perhaps aware of air moving through the throat,

Maybe thanking the neck muscles for the hard work they do holding up your heavy head and giving the neck permission to rest.

And now including the shoulders,

The collarbones,

The fronts of the shoulders and the backs of the shoulders,

Sides of your shoulders,

Your shoulder blades.

You might even imagine that you've just taken off a heavy backpack,

Letting your shoulders know they don't need to carry anything right now,

Noticing gravity in your shoulders.

And now sliding your attention down both arms to the fingers of both of your hands,

Noticing the weight of your hands,

The shape of your hands,

Perhaps aware of the texture of whatever your hands are resting upon or the sensation of air moving across your hands,

Maybe even noticing the space between your fingertips,

Aware of your knuckles,

The palms of your hands and the backs of your hands,

And taking a moment here to acknowledge the hard work of the hands,

Sending some kindness and some gratitude to the hands,

Appreciating them for all they help us to create.

And now releasing attention from the hands and sliding up into the wrists and the back of the hands,

Noticing sensations at the level of the skin and sensations deep within the layers of muscle and bone,

Including the joint of the elbow and the upper arms,

Maybe becoming aware of the space between the body and the arms and letting your arms and your hands be heavy and soft,

No need to accomplish anything right now,

Just appreciating the hands and the arms and giving them permission to rest.

And now bringing attention back across the shoulders to include the chest and the upper back,

The entire upper torso,

Noticing the movement of the ribs as they expand and contract with each breath,

Aware of the lungs filling and emptying,

Maybe even aware of the heart nestled between the lungs and sending some kindness and appreciation to this area of the heart and lungs,

Acknowledging that without us having to do anything,

The heart and lungs keep us alive,

Continuously beating,

Filling and emptying,

Providing the rhythm that is a baseline for our life,

Bringing oxygen to every cell of the body and letting go of what's no longer useful.

And now sliding attention down to include the abdomen and the middle and lower back,

Wrapping the attention around your torso and sending some kindness and gratitude to the organs of digestion and elimination,

Appreciating this never-ending process of nourishment and expelling what is no longer useful,

Maybe taking a moment to thank the organs,

Sending some kindness and some care here,

Perhaps even feeling gravity in this part of the body,

Letting the muscles of the stomach and the belly be soft and heavy,

Letting the large muscles of the middle back and the lower back rest.

And now sliding attention down into the hips and the pelvis,

Including the sacrum,

That upside down triangle at the base of your spine,

The large muscles of the buttocks,

The hip flexors,

And the pelvic bowl,

And gently resting attention here.

This can be an area of challenging sensation for some,

And so if at any point you need to shift your attention away from this part of the body,

You can return your focus to an anchor such as the breath,

And then when you're ready,

Gently returning attention to the part of the body that we're focused on and sending some care and some gratitude to the hips and pelvis,

Letting this area be soft and heavy.

And now sliding the attention down into the thighs and the hamstrings,

These large muscles of the upper legs,

Maybe noticing sensations on the surface of the skin of the thighs,

Or sensations deep within the muscles and the bones,

Tracing attention all the way from the hip socket down into the knee joint,

Bringing attention and care and some gratitude to the upper legs,

Thanking these muscles that carry us around all day.

And now including the knees,

Circling attention around the knees,

Noticing the fronts of the knees and the backs of the knees,

The spaces beneath the kneecaps,

And acknowledging the hard work that our knees do all day,

Bending and standing,

Lifting,

And taking a few moments here to send some care and appreciation to the knees.

Now releasing the knees as the focus of attention and sliding down into the lower legs,

Including the shins and the calves,

The bones of the lower legs,

Letting your attention seep deep into the muscle tissues,

Bringing care and kindness to the lower legs,

And letting the legs be heavy and soft,

Feeling gravity in the lower legs.

And now sliding attention down into the ankles and the heels,

Many bones and small muscles here,

Doing the hard work of keeping us moving,

Balancing,

And just circling the ankles with kind attention,

Noticing gravity in the ankles,

Including the feet,

The tops of your feet,

The bottoms of your feet,

The arches,

The balls of your feet,

And letting attention expand all the way into the toes,

Noticing the spaces in between the toes,

The shins and the calves,

And letting shape of the feet,

The weight of the feet,

And letting your feet be soft and heavy,

Sending some kindness and appreciation to your feet.

And now sweeping attention back up the body through the feet and ankles,

The calves and the knees,

The thighs and hamstrings,

The hips and the pelvis,

Belly,

The back,

Your chest and the ribs,

Including your shoulders and arms and hands,

Neck,

The muscles of your face,

Your ears,

The top of your head,

And just resting in this whole body awareness,

Allowing yourself to be welcome here in this body,

To be human,

Living in the skin that you're in,

And giving the body permission to rest,

Just as you are,

Welcoming all your humanness,

Welcoming you.

Thank you for taking the time to be with the body in this way.

And feel free to continue resting and to drift off to sleep,

Or to bring this moment to moment awareness into the next moments of your day.