Sitting · 15 minutes

The Body Scan

Fifteen minutes of listening to yourself from the inside out.

The body scan is simple: you move your attention slowly through each part of your body and notice what's there. The practice is what happens when you find something unpleasant and don't run from it.

How to practice

Lie flat on your back, legs uncrossed, arms at your sides or on your belly, whichever is easier. Close your eyes.

Take three deep breaths and let them go without effort.

Start at the soles of your feet. Notice any sensation — warmth, coolness, pressure, tingling, nothing. Whatever's there. Stay for three breaths.

Move up: tops of the feet, ankles, calves, knees, thighs, hips. Pelvis, lower back, belly, mid back, chest, upper back. Shoulders, upper arms, forearms, wrists, hands, fingers. Neck, jaw, face, scalp, crown of the head.

At each region, the question is the same: what's here right now? Not what should be here. Not what you'd like to be here. What is.

If you find tension, don't try to relax it. Breathe into it. Often the tension releases on its own once noticed. If it doesn't, that's also fine.

When you reach the crown, rest in the whole body for two minutes. Then open your eyes.

Why it works

The body scan trains a skill most of us have atrophied: knowing what our body is doing without being told. This matters because your body usually knows things before your mind does. A chronic jaw clench is a sign. A tight right shoulder is information. The scan is how you learn to read yourself.