Body Scan Script: all the exact steps for this meditation

Here you will find a script with the exact steps of the body scan. This is a great meditation which is taught in MBSR mindfulness courses (developed by John Kabat-Zinn).

How can this body scan meditation script be used?

This body scan meditation script can take 5, 10, 20 minutes or longer and it can be used in mindfulness groups. It helps – amongst others – for relaxation.

What is the purpose of the body scan?

The purpose of the body scan is to simply feel your body at this specific moment. In this exercise you will notice with slight curiosity how your body feels in all its pleasantness and unpleasantness.

With a body scan you feel that you are alive . Feel the life in you.

We will go through all parts of our body in a moment, to feel them one by one. While we’re doing this, we’re not going to try to change anything and we’re not going to judge. When you get distracted, allow it and bring the focus back to what you feel in your body.

Body Scan – The script of this mindfulness exercise

1. Sit ready, and if necessary, use the instructions from the breathing exercise to prepare.
2. Allow your eyes to close gently.
3. Start by putting your attention, your awareness, your mindfulness on your feet. Just start noticing how your feet feel and how the contact with the floor feels. Observe the pressure, how some of the weight flows from your legs towards your feet and pushes against the floor, or how the floor pushes upwards towards you. When you wear shoes you can observe how the inside of your shoe lies against your feet. Now notice the temperature of your feet. Notice if there is tension or a feeling of discomfort in your feet. You can perceive all those feelings with curiosity, without changing them. Move the scan from one foot to the other and notice if there are any differences between your feet. Now focus your attention on your toes. Your big toe, your narrow toe, the joints of your toes …
4. Now shift your attention to your heels, your heels and then your ankles.
5. Now let your consciousness travel gently to your calves … And your shins … And the muscles of your lower legs. Just notice with due curiosity how this part of your body feels at this particular time.
6. Let your consciousness travel to your knees, the joints of your knees, the soft tissue at the back of your knees… You can scan back and forth from one knee to the other to observe the differences in the feeling. Notice any tension, pain, or discomfort if it is there. Just pay attention to it. You don’t do anything with it. You just allow it to be there, whatever it is.
7. You let your consciousness travel further down your thighs. Feel the muscles of your thighs. If you are sitting in a chair, feel the chair making contact with your thighs. Also feel the feel of your clothes against your skin.
8. Now let your awareness gently move to your hips. Notice the pressure points where the weight of your body passes through you and presses against the chair.
9. Allow your consciousness to move to your lower back, and the muscles of it… Further up, through your spine to your upper back… All the way up to your shoulder plates. Notice how your back makes contact with the chair. Notice all the feelings. Nice or not so nice feelings.
10. Allow your consciousness to go to your stomach, to your abs and your stomach, where all your vital organs are housed. Notice what feelings there are at this particular moment, such as the feeling of your breaths in your stomach.
11. Let your consciousness go to your chest. Notice the getting bigger and smaller of your chest. Notice any tension or cramps, if any. It is neither right nor wrong, nor positive or negative. It’s just there. It could be comfortable or it could be uncomfortable, and both can be there.
12. Now allow your consciousness to travel all the way to your hands. Notice the feel of your hands. Are your hands cool, warm, hot or something in between right now? Scan from one hand to the other to notice any differences in the feelings. Bring your attention to your fingers, the joints of your fingers. Your thumbs, the joints of your thumbs. Your palms, the backs of your hands, your wrists …
13. Let your attention focus on your forearms, and the muscles of your forearms … Your elbows, and the joints of your elbows … Notice any physical feeling in that part of your body at this particular time.
14. Move your attention further to your upper arms and then to your shoulders. Notice the similarities and differences in your left side and your right side.
15. Allow your awareness to move to the area between your shoulders and your neck. It is a place where a lot of feeling is stored. Uncomfortable, painful, pleasant or unpleasant … Notice how it feels right now, and notice it with a certain curiosity.
16. Bring your awareness to your neck, the muscles of your neck, the sides of your neck, those muscles of the sides of your neck, your throat … Notice what pleasant or unpleasant feelings are there.
17. Move your attention further up, to the top of your head, and then to your forehead. Notice every feeling in that part of your body.
18. Let that attention travel to your nose, your eyes, your eyelids, the muscles of your cheeks, your upper lip, your lower lip, your chin, along your jawline, on both sides to both ears … Notice any tension that would be stored in your jawline can lie.
19. Now put your attention on a spot that is 6 inches above your head. As if you are wearing a pointed hat.
20. Now let your consciousness flow from your head again along the same path through your entire body. This time you stay very close to each body part.
21. Bring your consciousness back to your breath, the same way we started.

This is the end of the body scan.

I’ll see you in a future article!