Practice a compassionate body scan to embrace your scars and honor the stories your body carries.

Recovery & Healing

Body Scan

Body Image

Concentration

Buddhism

Traditions

English

Your body is a temple. A sanctuary capable of ushering you into the presence of God. This meditation is to help you come to acceptance with your body as it is now, embracing all your marks and scars and what you view as meditation.

Self-Compassionate Body Scan

 Your body is the temple. This phrase from 1 Corinthians in the Bible caused me to feel shame and separation from my body and several of my meditations have been an exploration of a reclamation of this phrase. activist and author Sonia Renee Taylor says the body is not an apology. Do you feel that you have to make excuses for the size or shape of your body, the appearance of your skin, or the presence of your scars? Do you find yourself trying to hide your body or change it to conform to an external standard? Do you nitpick the appearance of your body because of the things that it has carried you through, whether that's chronic illness, stress, pregnancy and childbirth, injury, surgery, or so many other factors? The story of Jesus post-resurrection comes to my mind. In a few stories, Jesus appears to his followers after his death and resurrection. Jesus tells them to look at his hands and his feet, where nails were driven into his body during the crucifixion. He directs them to look at the marks on his body, to even touch them, to feel the wound in his side where he was punctured with a sword. In this post-resurrection moment, Jesus is not cured. His scars haven't been erased. His body is disfigured and marked from his human experiences and yet he still is whole. He's not ashamed of his scars. He openly shares them with his trusted community. The proof of his injuries remain on his body. They are not seen as something that needs to be healed. To be human is to experience brokenness in our bodies and to bear the marks of what we have endured. This meditation is to help you start to come to acceptance with your body as it is now, embracing all your marks and scars and areas of imperfection. This is a long journey, so return to the meditation anytime you want to and I encourage you to seek professional help if you need more support. For this meditation, we will combine a traditional body scan with a focus on compassion and gratitude for all your body has carried you through. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that the traditional body scan stems from the vipassana tradition. We are only able to practice mindfulness now thanks to the generations of people from East to Southeast Asia who cultivated the knowledge and practices that have now become much more mainstream and available for us to incorporate into our spiritual practice. As we come into this meditation, feel free to adjust your seated posture or if you would like to lay down. If you are comfortable and I encourage this, as we do the body scan, I encourage you to gently touch or even massage the areas where you have marks and scars on your body. It's just a really powerful way to bring acknowledgement and acceptance for your body. As we begin the body scan, place your hands over your heart and take a few deep breaths, breathing in compassion, resilience, and confidence. With your hands on your heart, feel your connection to yourself, to your body, your connection with others, and with resources to support your healing. From this place of compassion, resilience, and confidence, we will begin a compassionate body scan. As you scan, pay attention to the areas on your body that hold marks and scars from your human journey. These scars hold stories. Your body holds those stories. And if you're able and willing, putting a hand on those places can be very powerful. Start by bringing your attention to your toes on your left foot. How do your toes feel? Now check your left ankle. Maybe roll it around. Moving up to check in with your whole left leg. Do you feel stress or tension there? Breathe into your calves, your hamstrings, your thighs, your knees, your shins. Imagine that you are releasing any tension that you find, and pay close attention to the areas that bear marks and scars, the areas that you maybe view as imperfect. These are the places that hold your stories. Moving on to the toes of your right foot. Give them a wiggle. How do they feel? Focusing on your right ankle. Moving up the right leg. Breathing into your calves, your hamstrings, your thighs, your knees, your shins. Releasing tension. Noticing any critical thoughts that may arise and letting them float by. Breathing in those feelings of compassion, resilience, and confidence. Moving up the body, checking in with your lower back. Notice how your back is supported by the surface beneath you. Bringing your bum, your hips, your pelvic floor, your lower abdomen. This area can hold stories of deep trauma. Stay with your body, bringing in that sense of compassion. Placing a gentle hand. Moving up to your stomach, your torso. Taking a deep inhale and let your belly go fully. Take up as much space as you need in this area, acknowledging all of the organs within that serve you tirelessly. If you have chronic illness or issues with any of those organs, offer compassion. Moving up the body, noticing your sides, your mid-back, your upper back, your shoulders, around to your chest. Again, spending time acknowledging those organs within, placing a gentle hand over any marks and scars. Wiggle your left fingers, circle your left wrist. Moving up the arm, acknowledging the stories that your arms carry. Moving on to your right fingers, circling your right wrist and moving up the right arm. Moving up to your neck, the back of your head, around to your ears, your forehead, cheeks. Feel free to place a loving, gentle hand on your face, like you would for someone that you love. Feel your teeth, your tongue inside of your mouth. Feel the top of your head, bringing in love, compassion, resilience, confidence into your whole body. You can place your hands back on your heart or you can even cross your arms across your body in a hug type of motion. Feeling your entire body noticing the ways in which it functions for you, often without any need for your attention or direction. Your body with its marks and scars, with its pains, with its dysfunction is good and has carried you so far to this very moment. Take a few more deep breaths, bringing in gratitude for your body as it is right now, today. I will end the meditation here, so when you're ready you can blink your eyes open, bring in gentle movement to your body and you can move on with your day. I encourage you though, if you want to spend more time in this place, take as much time as you need.