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Chapter 1: What is the purpose of a mindful body scan meditation?
Welcome, friends, to the Tara Brach Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Each week, I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing to our world. You can learn more or support this offering by visiting tarabrach.com, where you can also join our email list.
Now, let's explore together the many ways we can live from the love and presence that's our deepest essence.
Chapter 2: How do I begin a body scan meditation practice?
Namaste. Find a comfortable position, either seated or lying down, and close your eyes. Take a few full breaths, releasing any tension with each exhale. Now allow the breath to be natural, relaxing with the inflow and outflow, and invite yourself to be right here at home in your body.
With a relaxed, open awareness, start by feeling the sensations at the top of your head, noticing what's there, perhaps tingling, pulsing, pressure, warmth, or cold. Now let your attention move down, feel the sensations on the back of your head, on either side of your head, through your ears.
Chapter 3: What sensations should I focus on during the body scan?
Notice the sensations through your forehead and eyes, inside the nose, cheeks, through the jaw and mouth. Take your time offering a soft, receptive attention. Not trying to change anything. Be simply curious about experiencing the life of your body just as it is. As you continue the scan, you may notice that in certain parts of your body you feel numbness or no noticeable sensations.
Please remember that this is common. Just let your attention remain in those areas for a few moments in a relaxed and easeful way. You may find that as your attention deepens, when you revisit these places, you become increasingly aware of sensations. Place your attention on the area of your neck and throat, noticing without judgment whatever sensations you feel.
Be aware of each of your shoulders from the inside, receptive to the experience of sensations, aliveness, Sense the length and volume of your arms and then feel the sensations from the inside. Bring your attention to your hands, making sure they're resting in an easy and effortless way.
Chapter 4: How can I deepen my awareness of bodily sensations?
Feel the fingers from the inside The space between the palms and the backs of the hands. Noticing tingling, pulsing, pressure, warmth, or cold. Arrive in the life of your body. Now place your awareness inside your chest, gently receiving the sensations in the heart area. And then more broadly throughout the whole chest. Slowly allow your awareness to sink down into your stomach
With a soft, receptive awareness, take some moments to feel the sensations in your abdomen. Bring your attention to your upper back, feeling the sensations in the area around your shoulder blades. Moving down, be aware of the mid and lower back, and then the entire spinal column.
Continuing to scan down the body, let your awareness fill the pelvic region, receptive to the sensations that arise through the hips, the buttocks, the genitals. Sense the length and volume of the legs. And then bring the awareness inside the legs, feeling them from within. Let your awareness fill your feet and toes, feeling the sensations that are there.
Now open your attention to include your body in a comprehensive way. Be aware of the body as a field of changing sensations. Can you sense the subtle energy field that vitalizes and gives life to every cell, every organ in your body? For these last few moments, simply rest in mindful awareness, witnessing and feeling this changing dance of energy, the aliveness that's living through you.
Thank you.
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