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Body Scanning

This is an excerpt from Breathe, Focus, Excel by Harvey Martin.

The objective of body scanning is to create full-body awareness in the present moment and to calm the mind and body. This can be helpful when you feel you have lost control of your emotions. Use this practice before or after training. You can also use this in the morning to start your day with a meditation practice.

Begin from one of these positions: Stand tall with a neutral spine, lie faceup on the ground, sit in a chair with the feet flat on the floor, or sit cross-legged on the ground. Blow all the air out of the lungs through the mouth, then take a normal inhalation through the nose, followed by a brief pause before you exhale normally through the nose. Perform five or six of these breaths to relax the body and create a slow breathing rate.

Once the body feels calm, focus your attention by imagining you’re guiding a spotlight. First focus it between the eyebrows. Move the spotlight from the forehead to the entire front of the face. Then move it to the shoulders, chest, abdomen, hips, knees, ankles, and feet. Once you have scanned the front of the body, scan the back by working from the ankles up. Take as much time as you need to focus on specific parts of the body. Spend two to five seconds shining the spotlight on each body part while breathing slowly through the nose. Scan the body for 5 to 10 minutes.

More Excerpts From Breathe

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