A shared practice
Integrated Body Scan
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Created bySean Fargo
Day 11 of Sean's original 28-day mindfulness series — recorded in his own voice.
In Sean Fargo’s own voice10 min
Read along — the full script
Mindfulnessexercises.com. Your 28-day mindfulness challenge. Day 11, the body scan. As we prepare for the grounding and relaxing practice of scanning our awareness through our body, let's begin by finding a posture that feels relaxed and alert, feeling dignified as we stand, sit, or lie down.
Since this practice is often useful for falling asleep, many of you will be lying in bed, outstretching with your arms and your legs outstretched, feeling comfortable, inviting a sense of ease throughout the body, allowing your breath to find its natural rhythm as you breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Grounding our awareness into the body by feeling the weight of our bones and flesh pressing downward, sensing gravity pull us down onto the ground.
As we soften into our experience, allowing any tension or tightness to come and go. As we relax our muscles, soften the belly, and maintain a natural ease in our breathing. And we'll begin scanning our awareness through the toes, feeling into the 10 toes.
Playfully exploring, perhaps wiggling the toes to see what we can notice. What physical sensations might occur? And scanning awareness up through the feet, through the left foot and the right foot. What can you notice? Can you feel the bone?
Muscle? And playfully exploring up through the ankles. Through the curvatures, the nooks and crannies. The density and the tenderness of the ankles. Scanning upwards into the calves and the knees. What can you feel in your lower legs?
Scanning your awareness up into your upper legs, to your thighs, your femur bones, your hamstrings. All of the subtle sensations of your upper legs waiting to be found with your awareness. And what about your pelvis and your sit bones?
Your lower torso. All of the organs, the liquids, the fat, the bone. Releasing any tension as you explore this area of your body with your awareness. Now moving up the spine, up your body through the stomach, noticing the rise and fall of your stomach as you breathe, the relaxed belly.
Moving up into the chest and the lungs. Noticing any emotions in the heart with a sense of kindness. Scanning your shoulders. Inviting a sense of ease into the shoulders. Moving down through each arm towards the hands. Bearing gifts of kind attention and non-judgment.
Moving up through the neck now and into the head and face. Just exploring the different sensations of your head as if for the first time. Connecting the crown of your head to the spirit of the universe. Wishing yourself the same quality of awareness throughout the rest of your day.
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