Body Scan Mediation

by Scott Crabtree

Read the steps to follow along, or skip to the bottom to watch the video.

How to do a Body Scan Meditation:

Put your feet on the floor, hands on your legs or in your lap. Most of us find this easier to do with our eyes closed, so I’m going to close my eyes and I encourage you to close yours, but as always, it’s your choice. You can just look at the floor or the table in front of you if you prefer.

Now find the feeling of your breath in your body, whether that’s nose, throat, chest, belly, and just focus on the feeling of your breath. Now a very quick body scan. First, find your eyebrows. Focus your attention on the space between your eyebrows. See if you can widen it. Relax your eyes. Now feel your jaw in particular and your face in general. Lots of us hold tension there. Relax your jaw. Just feel your face and relax your face if you can.

Now your shoulders. Many of us carry tension in our shoulders. We hold them up high near our ears. Just see if you can gently invite your shoulders to lower. Let go. Release some of that tension in your shoulders. It might help you to think about breathing into that part of your body and breathing out the tension on the exhale.

Finally, let’s focus attention on your hands. Lots of us keep tension in our hands. Just breathe into your hands, if you will, and see what’s there. If you find tension, see if you can relax your hands. Open them up. Let that stress and tension go. Finally, come back to your breath. One good full breath.

If you want to keep going on your own, you can scan your whole body this way. Very relaxing way to do mindfulness and meditation. If you’d like to wrap up now, take your time and open your eyes, wiggle your fingers and toes, and I hope you can get back to work feeling more relaxed, more able to focus and do your best work because you experienced some of the benefits of mindfulness.

Scott Crabtree

As the Founder and Chief Happiness Officer at Happy Brain Science, Scott Crabtree empowers individuals and organizations to apply findings from cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology to boost productivity and happiness at work.


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