Therapy Skills Ep 6: Body Scan Meditation 🧘‍♀️

Have you ever heard of a body scan?

No, it's not like a PET scan or an MRI. It's a meditative technique, and I'm going to teach it to you today.

Feel free to close your eyes if that feels good for you, or you can find a spot in the room to gaze at. I'm just going to walk you through a basic body scan, so we'll just do a short one today. So we're going to start with bringing your awareness to the very top of your head. You're just going to feel into your skull and into your facial muscles and notice any tension that you might be holding in the jaw area or in the back of the head. And bringing the awareness down into the neck and the shoulders. Just feeling any tightness or tension that might be there. And feeling the breath, you might notice movement, a subtle expansion and maybe upward movement on the inhale, and a subtle collapsing or downward movement on each exhale. If your mind goes into thinking, just bringing your awareness back to the breath. It's totally normal. And then bringing your awareness down into the gut and the belly. See if there's any commotion going on there. You could be hearing gurgling or feeling your digestive system working if you just ate a snack or a meal. Just observing without judgment. Bring your— bringing your awareness into the pelvic floor region, seeing if there's any tensing or tightening there, or any sensation. And bringing the awareness down into the glutes, feeling your your body as it's supported by the surfaces below you. You might feel a cushion pressing into your glutes. You might feel your back pressing against a supportive chair or cushion behind you. Just feeling the input there without judgment. And feeling into the arms and legs. You might be holding your hands are holding tension that's not needed there. Just feeling your arms pressing against anywhere that they're pressing onto. Feeling your legs. Maybe there's a way you want to move your body to get more comfortable. Feel free to do that. Feeling any tension or tingling or maybe even a temperature on your skin. Just checking into what's here. And then lastly, feeling all the way down into your ankles and your feet, noticing each toe, just seeing if there's any sensory input there that you want to listen to. And then feeling your whole body at once and coming on back. So that's a body scan.

You can do this at any time, anywhere really. You can do a shorter version where your eyes are open. If you're, you know, at work or talking to someone, you could just check in with your body. Nobody has to know that you're doing it. Or you can do a much longer version of this. There are a lot of great body scans. I'll probably do another video or a recording of a much longer body scan that you can do if you're wanting to go to bed and wanting to get out of your head, out of the hamster wheel, and just into the body and feeling more calm and relaxed. So really it can be used as like a split-second intervention in the moment that just helps you get connected with yourself, or you can use it as a much longer tool for times that you might want to get relaxed, or anywhere in between. I've done 5-minute body scans in the car while I'm waiting to go into an appointment or come out of an appointment, and it's just a nice way to reset and just get really present for the rest of your day. If you really enjoyed it, please like, subscribe, share on social or with your friends. I appreciate you helping me get the message out. Lastly, I am a licensed therapist in California, and I provide telehealth therapy to the entire state of California. So if you are a Californian and you want therapy, you can request a free 15-minute phone consultation at my website, which you will see on the screen, and I'll provide a link below as well. I hope to hear from you. Until next time, be well.

Bye!