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This is the Body Scan Meditation for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course.

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You can begin this exercise by just finding a nice quiet place where you won't be disturbed,

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preferably on your back on the floor or on your bed, but this can also be done on a chair,

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just sinking into the chair.

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You can do this with your eyes open or your eyes closed, whichever is comfortable to you.

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So, begin by settling into your space.

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And then getting yourself situated, letting your feet, if you're on the floor,

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letting your feet fall out to the sides, your arms at your sides, palms facing upwards.

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And just taking a moment just to settle in.

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Listening to the sounds around you.

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Feeling the sensations of the floor, or the chair that you're in, or the bed.

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And simply begin by just noticing your breath, just moving freely in and out of your body.

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Just letting your attention rest on the breath coming in and going out.

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And just feeling your lungs.

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And then to even feel this even a little bit more deeply, just placing your hands on your stomach

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and just feeling the rise of your stomach each time the lungs fill.

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Feeling the breath come in and then actually feeling that breath with your hands as the stomach rises

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and then contracts.

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And just keeping your attention right here on your breath for a moment.

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And just remembering anytime your mind wanders, simply bring it back to the breath and begin again.

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No judgment or no beating yourself up.

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Just simply bring that attention back to the breath and the sensations with your breath.

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And then as we begin, you can let your hands back down at your sides.

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And just begin with a wide, widening this attention now.

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Taking in the whole body, the width and the breadth and the length.

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Just feeling this whole container of your body here all the way from the top of your head to the tips of your feet.

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And then from your left side to your right side.

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The back of your body that's touching the floor or the chair and the front of your body.

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The back of your body that's facing the ceiling.

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Just expanding that awareness to experience this whole body lying here in stillness.

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Just lying still and simply breathing.

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Just taking a moment to notice any sensations or emotions that may be here.

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Just noticing.

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Feeling your elbows.

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Both elbows.

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Noticing if you can tell if they're bent or if they're straight.

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And then both lower arms.

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Noticing the backs of the arms.

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Noticing what parts of the arms are touching the floor and what's felt here.

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Or if you're in a chair, if they're touching the chair or they're touching your body.

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Now feeling the inside of the lower arms.

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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.

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And maybe even more of a softness right around the wrist area.

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And pausing to notice if you can feel a sense of circulation or pulsing as you notice.

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Bring some curiosity to both wrists.

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And then noticing the backs of both hands.

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And sensing the air around the hands.

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Coming down and feeling the backs of the fingers and the fingernails.

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Backs of the thumbs and the thumbnails.

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And now onto the palms.

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And the fingertips and the fingers.

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Maybe you notice some tingling in the fingertips and some tingling in the palms.

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If you don't, that's fine too.

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Okay.

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It's an area that often can be felt when laying still.

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And now widening that attention again and just noticing both arms together.

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And the tips of the fingers all the way up to the shoulders.

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And feeling the weight of them sinking into the floor or the bed or the chair.

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And then narrowing that focus, moving back up the arms, up and over the shoulders, and up around the neck.

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Just feeling all around the neck.

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Trying to feel inside and see if you can feel the curve in the neck.

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And now widening out.

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One last time.

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Just widening out as we start to begin to close this practice.

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Just widening out and feeling the whole body again.

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The whole container of your body in the stillness.

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Noticing from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet.

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From the left side to the right side.

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Front to back.

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Just this whole wonderful, amazing body that's ours.

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Been with us since day one.

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And in this widening, wider attention here, what is felt?

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What parts of your attention are drawn into certain areas?

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Maybe those are areas of a little tightness or soreness.

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Or maybe they're areas of deep relaxation.

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But just noticing as you lay here at the end, what is felt and sensed.

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And then coming back to rest on our breath.

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And just staying with our breath for the next three full breaths.

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Noticing that breath from the beginning all the way to the end.

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Beginning of the inhalation.

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And then all the way to the exhalation.

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Doing that three times.

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And now just bringing a little bit of movement in.

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First, wiggling those toes and bringing some movement and sensation in here.

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Still keeping your attention on that movement.

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And as you're doing that, now moving your fingers.

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Bring your attention to both fingers and toes.

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Then you're going to