As we continue to explore more guided meditations on the podcast, today’s show is extra special because I’m walking you through a new kind of body scan practice—different from what we’ve done in previous episodes.
While the typical body scan focuses your attention to a single point in your body (your hands, your shoulders, your feet, etc.) this practice I’m walking you through today will guide your attention to two points, allowing you to explore the space in between and around them.
It’s a fresh perspective that will provide you with awareness of new sensations in your body. So find a safe, comfortable place to sit or lay down as I guide you, step-by-step, through this 15-minute body scan practice to hear what your body is communicating.
If you benefited from the practice that I share in this episode and you would like to have access to a 10 Day R&R Sleep Meditation Reset, all you have to do is click here.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Male Announcer: You’re listening to From Pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.
Welcome and welcome back. With this episode, I walk you through a different sort of body scan, where typical body scans focus on a point and guiding you to a point of your body, whether it’s your hands, your elbows, your shoulders, your breath, your feet. And I will include that in this episode, but I’m also going to be additive to it where we don’t just notice a point, but we notice two points and the space between them.
It’s much like a photographer that can focus in on a point of focus and they can focus on what’s in the space around it. We can zoom in to a certain point. We can also pay attention to what’s around that point. Artists will call this positive space and negative space. And I’m bringing this idea here to the body scan.
The reason why this can be so helpful is at least two reasons that I’ll share now. One is it changes up the way a body scan often goes, which is one point after another point after another point. So it just has the focus be a little bit different. But also because of this difference, we tune into ourselves in a whole different way. Rather than focusing on a point, which will direct our attention initially, we focus in on the space between the points. And that can be ripe and fresh with new sensation and new listening, new awarenesses.
And as we know, we can’t change anything we’re not aware of. So as we become aware, as we can perceive, as we can quiet our systems down, we can tune into more of that juiciness of who we are, what our bodies are communicating to us and what actions that we can take. It’s a refined sense, in a way, of paying attention and of listening, of tuning in.
So I hope you’ll enjoy this. Have a really, really great practice.
Today we’re going to do a different sort of body scan. And typically when I lead a body scan, many body scans simply take you through parts of your body to bring you into your body to feel each part. And the cool thing with doing that is that you can just naturally relax those parts, naturally become aware, tune more into the listening and the sensation of your body, come out of the thinking part of our brain.
And it can be very, very chill, very relaxing, very rejuvenating, recuperative. And this particular body scan takes it to another level, in that what we’re going to play with is not only just paying attention to one part, but another part. And as we pay attention to two parts and allow ourselves to settle into and dwell into and almost immerse or just hang in these two spots, something else emerges.
So this will be a shorter body scan for you to get a feel of it. And I’ll introduce more of these as we go along in the coming episodes. So let’s get going. The first place to begin is your position and find someplace comfy, whether it’s in a chair or lying on your back or on your side or on your front, maybe curled into a fetal position.
Really whatever is the most comfortable. I mean, heck, you could be doing your dinner right now, in the kitchen, washing the dishes, anywhere that you feel safe enough to be steady and explore. Allow yourself to settle into your body and your being, coming into a place of recognizing and listening for sensation.
So we’ll begin with our periphery. So just notice where your feet are right now and your toes. Big toes, second toes, third toes, fourth toes, and fifth. Feel how they come into your feet and down toward the heel, feeling the bottoms of the feet and the tops. And then moving up through your legs to your knees. And your knees up through your thighs to your hips.
Feeling the pelvis, your abdomen, rib cage, neck, back of your head, ears, face, eyes, your nose, mouth. Feel your body from your head down through your torso, your pelvis, your legs, and your feet.
And bring your attention wider now to your hands, thumbs, index fingers, middle finger, fourth finger, fifth finger, palm of your hand, back of your hand, forearms, elbows, and up the arms to your shoulders. Feeling your hands and your arms connected to your torso. Being aware of your whole body now. From the hands and the arms, head, rib cage, abdomen, pelvis, legs, and feet. Feeling the front of your body and the back, below the feet, above your head.
Now bring your attention to your right hand. And bring your attention to your right elbow. Notice the space between your right hand and your right elbow. Bring your attention now to your right elbow and bring your attention to your right shoulder. Notice the space between your right elbow and your right shoulder.
Bring your attention to your left hand and your left elbow. Feel the space between your left hand and your left elbow. Feel your left elbow and feel your left shoulder. Feel the space between your left elbow and your left shoulder. Feel your collarbones and feel the bottom of your rib cage. Feel the space between your collarbones and the bottom of your rib cage.
Feel the bottom of your rib cage and your pelvis. Feel the space between the bottom of your rib cage and your pelvis. Feel your right hip and your right knee. Feel the space between your right hip and your right knee. Feel your right knee and your right foot. Feel the space between your right knee and your right foot. Feel your left hip and feel your left knee. Feel the space between your left hip and your left knee. Feel your left knee and your left foot. Feel the space between your left knee and your left foot.
Feel your neck now and the top of your head. Feel the space between your neck and the top of your head. Feel your breath, how it fills out the space. Inhale and exhale.
In a few moments, my voice will trail away and you can be here in this space with your breath, noticing and perceiving sensation. And as you’re ready to move, bring attention to the sensations that are around you, taking five breaths before moving on. Have a great practice, we’ll see you next time.
If this episode has resonated and you’re looking to deepen this idea of getting your body back on board, of listening deeply to your symptoms, of listening to the whispers so you don’t have to hear the screams, and you’re looking for one to one support or professional training, then reach out to us at [email protected] where we can customize your learning path. That’s [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Welcome and welcome back. With this episode, I walk you through a different sort of body scan, where typical body scans focus on a point and guiding you to a point of your body, whether it’s your hands, your elbows, your shoulders, your breath, your feet. And I will include that in this episode, but I’m also going to be additive to it where we don’t just notice a point, but we notice two points and the space between them.
It’s much like a photographer that can focus in on a point of focus and they can focus on what’s in the space around it. We can zoom in to a certain point. We can also pay attention to what’s around that point. Artists will call this positive space and negative space. And I’m bringing this idea here to the body scan.
The reason why this can be so helpful is at least two reasons that I’ll share now. One is it changes up the way a body scan often goes, which is one point after another point after another point. So it just has the focus be a little bit different. But also because of this difference, we tune into ourselves in a whole different way. Rather than focusing on a point, which will direct our attention initially, we focus in on the space between the points. And that can be ripe and fresh with new sensation and new listening, new awarenesses.
And as we know, we can’t change anything we’re not aware of. So as we become aware, as we can perceive, as we can quiet our systems down, we can tune into more of that juiciness of who we are, what our bodies are communicating to us and what actions that we can take. It’s a refined sense, in a way, of paying attention and of listening, of tuning in.
So I hope you’ll enjoy this. Have a really, really great practice.
Today we’re going to do a different sort of body scan. And typically when I lead a body scan, many body scans simply take you through parts of your body to bring you into your body to feel each part. And the cool thing with doing that is that you can just naturally relax those parts, naturally become aware, tune more into the listening and the sensation of your body, come out of the thinking part of our brain.
And it can be very, very chill, very relaxing, very rejuvenating, recuperative. And this particular body scan takes it to another level, in that what we’re going to play with is not only just paying attention to one part, but another part. And as we pay attention to two parts and allow ourselves to settle into and dwell into and almost immerse or just hang in these two spots, something else emerges.
So this will be a shorter body scan for you to get a feel of it. And I’ll introduce more of these as we go along in the coming episodes. So let’s get going. The first place to begin is your position and find someplace comfy, whether it’s in a chair or lying on your back or on your side or on your front, maybe curled into a fetal position.
Really whatever is the most comfortable. I mean, heck, you could be doing your dinner right now, in the kitchen, washing the dishes, anywhere that you feel safe enough to be steady and explore. Allow yourself to settle into your body and your being, coming into a place of recognizing and listening for sensation.
So we’ll begin with our periphery. So just notice where your feet are right now and your toes. Big toes, second toes, third toes, fourth toes, and fifth. Feel how they come into your feet and down toward the heel, feeling the bottoms of the feet and the tops. And then moving up through your legs to your knees. And your knees up through your thighs to your hips.
Feeling the pelvis, your abdomen, rib cage, neck, back of your head, ears, face, eyes, your nose, mouth. Feel your body from your head down through your torso, your pelvis, your legs, and your feet.
And bring your attention wider now to your hands, thumbs, index fingers, middle finger, fourth finger, fifth finger, palm of your hand, back of your hand, forearms, elbows, and up the arms to your shoulders. Feeling your hands and your arms connected to your torso. Being aware of your whole body now. From the hands and the arms, head, rib cage, abdomen, pelvis, legs, and feet. Feeling the front of your body and the back, below the feet, above your head.
Now bring your attention to your right hand. And bring your attention to your right elbow. Notice the space between your right hand and your right elbow. Bring your attention now to your right elbow and bring your attention to your right shoulder. Notice the space between your right elbow and your right shoulder.
Bring your attention to your left hand and your left elbow. Feel the space between your left hand and your left elbow. Feel your left elbow and feel your left shoulder. Feel the space between your left elbow and your left shoulder. Feel your collarbones and feel the bottom of your rib cage. Feel the space between your collarbones and the bottom of your rib cage.
Feel the bottom of your rib cage and your pelvis. Feel the space between the bottom of your rib cage and your pelvis. Feel your right hip and your right knee. Feel the space between your right hip and your right knee. Feel your right knee and your right foot. Feel the space between your right knee and your right foot. Feel your left hip and feel your left knee. Feel the space between your left hip and your left knee. Feel your left knee and your left foot. Feel the space between your left knee and your left foot.
Feel your neck now and the top of your head. Feel the space between your neck and the top of your head. Feel your breath, how it fills out the space. Inhale and exhale.
In a few moments, my voice will trail away and you can be here in this space with your breath, noticing and perceiving sensation. And as you’re ready to move, bring attention to the sensations that are around you, taking five breaths before moving on. Have a great practice, we’ll see you next time.
If this episode has resonated and you’re looking to deepen this idea of getting your body back on board, of listening deeply to your symptoms, of listening to the whispers so you don’t have to hear the screams, and you’re looking for one to one support or professional training, then reach out to us at [email protected] where we can customize your learning path. That’s [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you.