This is the Body Scan Meditation for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course.
You can begin this exercise by just finding a nice quiet place where you won't be disturbed,
preferably on your back on the floor or on your bed, but this can also be done on a chair,
just sinking into the chair.
You can do this with your eyes open or your eyes closed, whichever is comfortable to you.
So, begin by settling into your space.
And then getting yourself situated, letting your feet, if you're on the floor,
letting your feet fall out to the sides, your arms at your sides, palms facing upwards.
And just taking a moment just to settle in.
Listening to the sounds around you.
Feeling the sensations of the floor, or the chair that you're in, or the bed.
And simply begin by just noticing your breath, just moving freely in and out of your body.
Just letting your attention rest on the breath coming in and going out.
And just feeling your lungs.
And then to even feel this even a little bit more deeply, just placing your hands on your stomach
and just feeling the rise of your stomach each time the lungs fill.
Feeling the breath come in and then actually feeling that breath with your hands as the stomach rises
and then contracts.
And just keeping your attention right here on your breath for a moment.
And just remembering anytime your mind wanders, simply bring it back to the breath and begin again.
No judgment or no beating yourself up.
Just simply bring that attention back to the breath and the sensations with your breath.
And then as we begin, you can let your hands back down at your sides.
And just begin with a wide, widening this attention now.
Taking in the whole body, the width and the breadth and the length.
Just feeling this whole container of your body here all the way from the top of your head to the tips of your feet.
And then from your left side to your right side.
The back of your body that's touching the floor or the chair and the front of your body.
The back of your body that's facing the ceiling.
Just expanding that awareness to experience this whole body lying here in stillness.
Just lying still and simply breathing.
Just taking a moment to notice any sensations or emotions that may be here.
Just noticing.
Feeling your elbows.
Both elbows.
Noticing if you can tell if they're bent or if they're straight.
And then both lower arms.
Noticing the backs of the arms.
Noticing what parts of the arms are touching the floor and what's felt here.
Or if you're in a chair, if they're touching the chair or they're touching your body.
Now feeling the inside of the lower arms.
And see if you can tell the different quality if there's a bit more of a softness on the inside of the lower arms versus the outer part.
And maybe even more of a softness right around the wrist area.
And pausing to notice if you can feel a sense of circulation or pulsing as you notice.
Bring some curiosity to both wrists.
And then noticing the backs of both hands.
And sensing the air around the hands.
Coming down and feeling the backs of the fingers and the fingernails.
Backs of the thumbs and the thumbnails.
And now onto the palms.
And the fingertips and the fingers.
Maybe you notice some tingling in the fingertips and some tingling in the palms.
If you don't, that's fine too.
Okay.
It's an area that often can be felt when laying still.
And now widening that attention again and just noticing both arms together.
And the tips of the fingers all the way up to the shoulders.
And feeling the weight of them sinking into the floor or the bed or the chair.
And then narrowing that focus, moving back up the arms, up and over the shoulders, and up around the neck.
Just feeling all around the neck.
Trying to feel inside and see if you can feel the curve in the neck.
And now widening out.
One last time.
Just widening out as we start to begin to close this practice.
Just widening out and feeling the whole body again.
The whole container of your body in the stillness.
Noticing from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.
From the left side to the right side.
Front to back.
Just this whole wonderful, amazing body that's ours.
Been with us since day one.
And in this widening, wider attention here, what is felt?
What parts of your attention are drawn into certain areas?
Maybe those are areas of a little tightness or soreness.
Or maybe they're areas of deep relaxation.
But just noticing as you lay here at the end, what is felt and sensed.
And then coming back to rest on our breath.
And just staying with our breath for the next three full breaths.
Noticing that breath from the beginning all the way to the end.
Beginning of the inhalation.
And then all the way to the exhalation.
Doing that three times.
And now just bringing a little bit of movement in.
First, wiggling those toes and bringing some movement and sensation in here.
Still keeping your attention on that movement.
And as you're doing that, now moving your fingers.
Bring your attention to both fingers and toes.
Then you're going to