Mina

Montreal, Canada

Scan your body from head to toe to release tension and cultivate a sense of affectionate curiosity.

English

This guided practice takes you on a gentle journey through your entire body, inviting awareness and relaxation to each area, from head to toe. By slowing down and tuning into your physical sensations, the body scan helps release tension, calm a busy mind, and foster a deep sense of connection with yourself.

Whole Body Scan

Let's begin by making yourself comfortable. Sitting in a chair, just allowing your back to be straight, but not stiff, with your feet flat on the ground. You might like to do this practice standing, or if you prefer, you can lie down and have your head supported. But wherever you are, let your hands be resting gently in your lap or on your side. And if it feels comfortable for you, allow your eyes to close, or remain half open with a soft gaze. Invite your breath in through some long, slow, deep breaths. Just breathing in fully and exhaling slowly. As you start to breathe in through your nose, or maybe out through your nose or your mouth, you might like to place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach, or both hands on your body somewhere, just to feel your breath expand as you breathe in, and to notice where you relax and let go as you exhale. When we start to slow the body down, making time to be mindful, we can begin to let go of maybe noises around you, and just shifting your attention from outside to inside yourself. So the mind might be active, it's doing its job, but if you notice that you're distracted by sounds outside the room or in the room, just invite your brain to connect on to the characteristics of your breath. Maybe noticing the temperature of your breath arriving on your nostrils, noticing the sound of your breath, feeling its texture, whether it's smooth or rough. And if you notice the mind wandering off again, just bring it back to your body, maybe where your hands are placed on your body. What can you feel? As you slowly bring your attention into the body internally, can you bring your attention down to your feet? And just notice what sensations you might notice when you observe your feet. Maybe you might want to wiggle your toes a little, feeling your toes against your socks or shoes, and just notice without judgment. You could imagine sending your breath down to your feet as if the breath is travelling through the nose, to the lungs, through the abdomen, all the way down to your feet, and then back up again out through your nose and lungs. Perhaps you don't feel anything at all. That's fine too. Just allow yourself to feel the sensation of not feeling anything, just noticing and accepting what might be emerging with a sense of affectionate curiosity. When you're ready, allow your feet to dissolve in your mind's eye and see if you can move or circulate your attention up to your ankles, around to the calves, travelling up and circulating around into the knees, or feeling into the thighs. And as you travel and circulate your awareness up through the legs, just observe the sensations you're experiencing throughout your legs. Can you bring your breath in and expand into your legs? And as you breathe out, can you let go and relax the legs? And again, if your mind begins to wander, just gently notice this without judgment and draw the mind back to noticing the sensations of the breath, of the legs. If you notice any discomfort or pain or stiffness, just simply notice this. Can you observe how sensations may rise or fall and shift and change from moment to moment? Can you notice how no sensation is permanent, just observing and allowing yourself and the sensations to be in the moment just as they are? Breathing in and out from the legs. And as you next breathe out and relax, allow the legs to dissolve in your mind and begin to circulate and bring your awareness up to those sensations in your lower back or around your pelvis. As you breathe in, maybe you can feel the inner slings of muscles inside your pelvis expanding and broadening. And as you exhale, there's this softening and heaviness that comes in through the pelvis. And you're receiving the support from the chair, maybe your legs if you're standing, or the supports beneath you if you're lying. So inviting in that affectionate curiosity here, can you become aware of the sensations in the muscles, the temperature or the points of contact that you have with the furniture or the floor? And with each out breath, can you let go of any tension that you might be carrying? And this may take several breaths. Each time just letting go a little more. And perhaps you notice the feeling of your clothing. You might start to notice the process of digestion happening in your belly, a little bit up above your pelvis now. Maybe you can move your awareness into your abdomen and starting to notice your stomach and organs. You can feel your belly rising and falling with each breath. As you continue to breathe, you're just continuing to circulate your awareness up through the abdomen, slowly to the bottom of the ribs. And when we get here and we start to notice the ribs, we can just observe how the chest rises during the inhale and falls during the exhale. But there's this expansion, almost like our chest is a barrel, 360 degrees, the chest is moving out around the spine, widening as you inhale, softening and letting go as you exhale. On that next out breath, as you relax your chest, can you shift the focus to your hands and your fingertips and just seeing if you can channel your breathing into this space of your body. Imagine the breath moving into and out from your hands as you breathe. And again, if your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the body, to the breath, to the hands. Just breathing, being with the body. Big breath in and then when you next breathe out, can you shift that focus and bring your awareness up into your arms, just observing the sensations or lack of sensation that might be occurring here. Maybe you can notice difference between the left and the right arms and there's no judgement here. We're just observing, being affectionately curious, circulating the awareness up the arms, into the shoulders, softening and releasing as you breathe in and breathe out, letting the mind move its awareness, circulating around. And if it wanders away, gently bringing it back, circulating now around the neck and the throat, maybe taking a really gentle swallow, bringing awareness to the throat. And this can often be where we hold a lot of tension. It might feel nice to open and close the mouth. Maybe stretch the tongue as you do so. And again, as you breathe, you may feel the tension moving, maybe rolling through the shoulders can feel nice to let that tension release and roll off your shoulders. Breathing in and on that next out breath, can you shift your focus and your attention into the head, into the face. Notice what maybe expression you're holding on your face, the movement of the air as you breathe, that temperature of the breath as it flows in and out of your nostrils. Each time that you're exhaling, just noticing the softening of tension that you might be holding in your face, circulating your attention all the way up now to the top of the scalp, the top of the head. And that spiraling sense of awareness might come together on the very top of the head. And imagine now that there's this awareness floating back outside the body, completely enveloping the body as an entire whole. So you're bringing your awareness all the way back from the top of your head down to the bottom of the toes. And you're noticing your whole body, the shape that it might be taking up in the space that you've chosen to be in. And you feel the gentle rhythm of the breath as it moves through the body. We're coming to the end of scanning the body here. But as we come to this end of the practice, just continue to take a full deep breath, breathing in all of this energy, this relaxation of the practice, and slowly exhaling, letting the body relax fully. And you can do this several times, just inviting the breath in, feeling the body expand as one and then condensing and softening and receiving that space of being held, whether you're standing, lying or seated. Depending on where you are, you might like to start to make your way back to a seated position, bringing the hands together, rubbing the palms together, and placing the hands over the eyes, creating a bit of warmth. As you let the spine and the body come back into seated, just noticing where your relationship with gravity is, letting the body organize itself. And as you start to open your eyes behind your fingers, you're becoming a little bit more alert, a little bit more awake, noticing the sounds around you. Maybe consider setting an intention of how you can take this awareness with you into today.