Guided Body Scan Meditation

All right,

So to start today's meditation I'm just going to do a little bit of an introduction.

So this is going to be a body scan to bring our awareness into the present moment and into the physical sensations of our body.

That is going to be the anchor of our practice,

So the point of focus that if you ever do find yourself distracted you can bring yourself back to that.

If you do find yourself distracted it's not a big deal,

It's absolutely normal for all everyday meditators.

Just simply catch yourself and realize,

Oh I'm caught in a thought and bring yourself back to the anchor.

The anchor will be whatever point,

Whatever point in the body we are focusing on at that point in time.

So to begin the practice let's start with four deep breaths.

Put a little bit of intention in elongating the exhale.

This is a little trick to make our body physiology relax a little bit more quickly and to slow down our heart rate into a relaxed and more calm state.

And just returning to a normal breath pattern,

Softly bring your focus just to the sensations in your chest that are occurring as a result of each breath.

That might be the chest moving up and down,

It could be the sensation of your belly moving in and out,

Maybe your shoulders,

Or the further out feelings of breath.

Maybe you feel it in the arms or the legs.

One of my favorite places to focus is on the sensation of the air entering and exiting my nostrils.

And just take a few moments to get attuned to those feelings and really focus in on them.

Focus on the micro sensations within the sensation.

Bring as much of your focus to the feeling of the breath to get started here.

And with each inhale,

On the exhale,

Aim to release a little bit of tension wherever you may be holding some.

Let's just do this for a few more moments before beginning our body scan.

And whenever you are done with your last breath of aiming to release tension,

Let's take one last large inhale and an intentionally long exhale.

And we will begin by focusing on the sensations within our feet.

Starting first with the sensations on the bottom of our feet,

The soles of the foot.

Maybe your feet are on the ground and there's some sensation of contact there.

Perhaps you are tuning into a little bit of soreness.

Whatever it might be,

Just focus on that for a couple moments.

Pay close attention to that.

And shifting to the toes.

And then the top of the foot.

Perhaps feeling the sensation of your footwear or the temperature of the room if you have bare feet.

Once again,

Rolling your point of focus up into the ankles.

Maintaining awareness on whatever you might be feeling here.

If you do catch yourself lost in a thought,

Again,

It's nothing to beat yourself up about.

Simply acknowledge,

Hey,

I'm lost in a thought.

And bring yourself back to the moment.

This act of regaining focus and bringing yourself back to the moment is a little bit like a mental bicep curl for the focus and awareness and attention centers of your brain.

Once again,

Moving on up from the feet,

Focusing on the calves.

Perhaps you want to focus on the shins here.

Wherever you may be holding tension or feeling tension,

Just add in a little bit of intention to release that.

Letting go as we continue upward throughout the body on this body scan.

And rolling our focus up once more into the knees.

Paying attention to any feelings that stand out first.

Perhaps you are feeling relaxation or maybe a little bit of soreness.

Whatever that might be,

Use those feelings as your anchor and take a few moments to really narrow in your attention on what that experience is like.

And moving our focus up once again into the thighs,

The upper section of the legs.

Focusing in on the dominant sensations while releasing tension wherever you catch yourself holding some.

And moving on up once again to the glutes and the sit bone.

Perhaps you are sitting down in a chair.

Perhaps you are laying down.

Often the contact points with your seating is a good thing to focus on.

Narrowing your focus into the feelings of the contact points.

Just paying attention to how those feel.

And moving our attention up once more just into the hips.

Giving that a little bit more of a stretch.

Just into the hips.

Giving them a quick moment of attention before moving up to the lower back and the belly.

Perhaps noticing the way your belly moves with each passing breath.

And releasing any tension you may be holding in your lower back.

And moving up once again back into the chest.

Feeling the sensations of the lungs filling up with air and pushing the chest out.

All while noticing the other sensations that come along with that movement.

The movements in the upper back.

The movements in the shoulders.

Perhaps some internal sensations that you notice are standing out.

If you do catch yourself with any tension in this area you can add an intentional deep breath and an elongated exhale to focus on releasing some of that tension.

The shoulders and the upper back and the chest as well are three places where many of us carry a lot of our tension from the week and the days behind us.

Being aware of where you might be holding that tension enough to let it go can be really helpful for reducing the stress.

And taking an intentional deep breath.

And releasing before we move on into the arms.

Focusing quickly on the bicep and the tricep muscles.

Rolling that focus into the elbows.

And on into the forearms.

Moving further down into the hands where the palms,

The fingers,

And the fingertips are very rich with sensations.

Take a few moments here to focus in on the feelings that lie within your hands and just exercise a focused awareness on those feelings for a couple more moments here.

Once again,

Just I'll mention a little reminder that if you are finding yourself lost in a thought,

No problem.

Just acknowledge that thought.

And let it go.

Bring yourself back to the anchor of the practice.

The sensation on the hands and the fingers at the moment.

And moving on,

Let's focus on the collarbone.

Feeling whatever there is to be felt there.

Perhaps the sensation of our clothing.

And rolling on up into the feelings on the front and the back of the neck.

Once again,

Intentionally releasing any tension that may be held.

Rolling on up into the jaw.

And then slowly releasing the tension that may be held.

Rolling on up into the jaw.

Releasing the jaw if you catch yourself clenching in any way.

Focusing on the sensations of the jaw and the lower face.

Paying attention to the sensation in the lips and the mouth.

The tongue is a place we unknowingly hold a lot of tension in.

If you do notice you are clenching your tongue in any way,

Release that.

Just let that go and allow the tongue to relax.

Along with the jaw and rolling on up throughout the face.

Into the nose,

Releasing all the tension you are holding.

In the eyes as well.

And moving on up into the eyebrows and the forehead.

If you do feel like you need to add a deep breath in here,

Take your time.

That can definitely help you release some tension as I do know the forehead,

The face,

The scalp.

It can take a few breaths to release and relax this area.

And rolling on up into the forehead and the scalp.

Feeling the top of your head.

Feeling the side and the back of your head.

Feeling the sensation in your ears.

And to conclude the scan portion of this meditation,

Just see if you can focus on feeling all the sensations at once.

Just noticing the entire body,

The way that it feels.

The places that may still be holding some tension.

Just giving them a little bit of our awareness.

Once again,

Coming back into the room.

Noticing the temperature perhaps.

The sounds.

Wiggling our toes and our fingers.

Perhaps stretching a little bit.

And opening the eyes whenever you are ready.

Thank you for meditating with me today.

And I wish you a wonderful day.