Body Scan: Meeting the Sensations You Usually Ignore

A body scan is a guided meditation in which you move your attention slowly through the body, part by part, noticing whatever sensations are present. It is deceptively powerful and surprisingly hard. Lie down if you can, or sit in a supported chair. Start at the soles of your feet. Without moving, place your attention there and ask a simple question: what does this actually feel like? Warmth? Cold? Pressure? Tingling? Numbness is also an answer. So is "I cannot tell." Move up slowly — ankles, calves, knees, thighs. Do not try to relax the body. Do not try to change anything. Your only job is to feel, accurately, what is already there. Most of us spend the day living from the neck up, treating the body as a transport system for the brain. A body scan reverses this. It returns you to the living, sensing organism you actually are. Many people find the practice brings up resistance — boredom, restlessness, an urge to move on quickly. This is information. The places we do not want to feel are often the places carrying the most unexamined tension. You do not have to force anything. Simply notice, and let the attention rest there a moment longer than feels comfortable.