A shared practice
Body Scan, 13 Minutes
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Created bySean Fargo
From Sean's body scan collection — recorded in his own voice.
In Sean Fargo’s own voice13 min
Read along — the full script
The body scan. Please find a quiet place where you can sit or lie down for several minutes. If you suffer from trauma or experience severe discomfort that you feel you can't tolerate while doing this exercise, you can always open your eyes and stop.
You are always in control whenever you do this practice. Here are some orienting thoughts before starting. You will be placing your attention on your body. The purpose of this activity is not to relax, but to increase your awareness and notice any body sensations that may be present from moment to moment.
If you feel discomfort at any time, you can remind yourself that this is simply a sensation. The sensation does not define who you are. You are simply observing signals, and you may notice that the awareness of sensation of pain is not the sensation or pain itself, but just awareness.
This may lead to greater understanding about discomfort or pain. If at any time any sensation feels overwhelming, you can open your eyes and stop, or move to another body part where there is no pain or negative feeling. Know, however, that by resting with the discomfort, you are allowing yourself to bear witness to the feeling and sensation that exists, and experiencing the fullness of what is occurring.
If you have pain in a certain area of the body, such as your neck or shoulders, you may find that focusing on that area increases the sensation. Again, you can always move focus to another part of the body and return to the painful area later. Remember that this practice may or may not produce relaxation.
It will be different each time you practice it. You are encouraged to let go of expectations as part of this practice. This is a very proactive process by which you are actually scanning the motor and sensory cortex of your brain.
It's kind of like massaging the brain and body from the inside out. To begin, center your mind on your body's presence. Take three deep breaths and feel your diaphragm move. Feel how marvelous it is that each breath fills your lungs, sends oxygen to your muscles and organs, and sustains you.
You may want to wiggle your toes and feel how effortlessly they follow your command. Take a few moments to feel grateful for this body, this extraordinary gift that you possess. You are going to use your imagination with this practice.
So let's imagine, for example, that your breath could carry your awareness into any part of the body. Let's try it now by taking that first breath. Picture the breath going down to the left side of the body and bringing your awareness with it.
Bring the breath down to the left leg and into the left foot and all the way down to your toes. Let your full awareness settle into your toes. Just notice what sensations are rising and falling. If there's no sensation, that's okay too.
You don't need to create one. As you do this, you can spend a moment to acknowledge how your toes have been masterfully constructed to help you walk and carry your weight. Picture your toes from the inside, filled with muscles, tendons, and bones, all working together.
Feel a sense of gratitude and thankfulness to them. As you breathe, you may even visualize them filling up with the breath, bringing even more awareness to this part of the body. Do this now for a few moments. When you're ready to move on to the next part of the foot, exhale to release your attention on the toes.
And take a moment now to breathe into the soles of your feet, to the balls of the feet, and the heel. Bring full awareness to this part of the feet. Feel any sensations in the soles. Sense the tendons and tissue that are below the skin.
Notice any feelings or signals from inside this part of the body. And again, you can optionally give thanks to the soles of your feet for supporting your body and for allowing you to feel sensations as you walk and move and stay active. Or you can just continue to sense each part of the body.
And now with your next breath, you will carry your awareness down to the ankles, taking time to fully experience any sensations that are present. You can imagine the inside of the part of this body, how it is both flexible and strong enough to help you pivot and change directions. Allow yourself to let go of any sensation so as to contact the next sensation as it appears.
In this way, you can contact new sensations as they appear in this moment, and the next, and the next. If your mind wanders off at any time, that's okay. Just notice where your mind has gone, and you can label it as mind wandering or thinking.
And then bring your attention back to the moment-by-moment focus of the ankles. You can label wherever the mind goes. If it has a picture in the mind's eye, just label that as seeing. If a sound hijacks your mind, just label that as hearing, and then return to the sensing of the body.
Now continue to move up the left side of the body. Take a breath and picture that breath bringing awareness to each part as you sense the shin, the calf, the knee, your left hand, the lower arm, the upper arm, your shoulders, your back, spine, your neck, and then the head, sensing into the front of the face, the hardness of the skull, any tingling sensations in the scalp. Now after reaching the top of the body, you can complete the body scan by moving down the right side of the body from your right fingertips through the palm, the right wrist, the forearm, the upper arm, and down through the right side of the body, your pelvic region, your upper right leg, the right knee, lower leg, your shin, your calves, your right ankle, right foot, and the top of the foot through the heel, the arch, and your toes.
You've completed this practice by addressing all of your body. Let yourself rest for a few moments in the presence of it. Give thanks and ask for your body to guide you in doing what is best for it. And let your body know that you will pay attention to the signals it sends you, and that you will follow up with any warning signals by getting checkups, taking care of it through learning about health and preventative measures like more meditation.
By now, you may really be smiling and ready to face the day or the night as the case may be. This is a wonderful ancient practice that will help you find the strength to do what is right for your body. For more exercises to increase your well-being, visit us online at wellbrain.io.
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