Body Scan Breathing Exercise - Transcript

Beginning with your next breath bringing awareness to the experience of breathing and sensing the breath as it moves into your body and as the breath exits with the exhale. Blowing a few breaths here to simply center, to tune into the body, to come into the present moment. Beginning with your next breath, drawing your awareness to your feet and simply sensing your feet, noticing any and all sensations available in this moment in the feet. Sensations at the superficial layer of the feet; contact points with clothing; shoes, if you are wearing shoes; or resting points, grounded points where the feet are perhaps touching the earth or resting upon the bed or what ever is supporting your body. In experiencing this as sensation drawing awareness to the experience within the feet and noticing any and all sensation within the feet, sensations of muscle and of bone and any and all other sensations, not needing to classify the sensation or categorize it, simply sensing the feet.

Drawing one more breath with awareness to the feet and on the completion of this exhaled breath simply releasing the feet as the focus of your awareness as you draw the awareness to your pelvis and sensing the pelvis, any and all sensations of the bones of the pelvis and contact points with the pelvic bowl. In standing noticing the sensations of the pelvis in a standing posture. With awareness on the pelvis as well noticing the sensations at the superficial layer, the level of the skin and contact points with clothing, bringing awareness inwardly any and all sensations within the pelvic bowl and in areas where you notice an absence of sensation acknowledging this as part of your present moment experience without judgment or concern, just simply noticing.

Drawing one more breath with awareness to the pelvis, perhaps even experiencing a subtle movement of the breath here, and on the completion of the exhaled breath simply releasing the pelvis as the object of your focused attention and drawing the awareness now to the sensation of your chest and the full circumference of the chest, the embrace of your ribcage. As you breath perhaps noticing the sensations of the breath within the chest and just noticing where these sensations are present and where they are not. As you hold the chest as the focus of your awareness noticing the sensations of the superficial level of the body, the skin, contact points with clothing or objects that are supporting you, and letting the awareness come within to sensations within the body. If the sensation of your heartbeat is available, noticing this, and as you notice sensations, if preference should appear, judgment or story line should appear this can be quite normal, just allowing all of that to pass through the awareness without latching onto it. Instead continuing to bring awareness to sensations themselves.

Drawing one more breath with awareness to the chest and as you exhale completely releasing the chest as your focus as you bring your awareness now to the sensation of your hands, noticing any and all sensation of the hands, the palms of the hands and the back of the hands, and in your own way scanning the awareness through each of your fingers, sensing your figures, noticing any and all sensations of contact of your hands with what ever they are touching as well as the experience of the space around your hands.

Drawing one more breath with awareness to the hands and with the completion of this exhale simply releasing the hands as the focus of your awareness and drawing your awareness to the sensations of your face and sensing the whole of your face, in your own way scanning from the forehead down the face, eyelids, any and all sensation of the cheeks compared to the nose, the nose, and sensing the jaw and the mouth. Bringing awareness to the sensations of the muscles of the face and sensations beneath the external face, the skin and the muscles, sensing the bones of the face, and perhaps even sensing your eyes resting into your skull, the movement of the breath in the nose and the mouth. Sensing the interior of your mouth, sensing your tongue and the roof of your mouth, and any and all sensations of the cheeks and the throat.

Drawing one more breath with awareness to the face and as you exhale softly releasing the face as the focus of your awareness let your awareness come to your whole body, your body as a whole, simply sensing your body and letting your next breath be a whole body breath, inhaling as if every cell of the body can breath in with you and exhaling as if every cell released the breath.