The Body Scan Meditation
Systematically befriend your body through sustained attentive presence
The body scan is a 45-minute lying-down meditation practice in which you systematically move attention through every region of the body, from toes to head, breathing into and out from each region while observing all sensations without judgment. It is the first formal practice introduced in MBSR because it is the most physically accessible (lying down) and provides the foundation for all subsequent practices.
The practice can be understood as a 'zone purification' process, analogous to the industrial technique of moving a ring furnace along a metal bar to concentrate and remove impurities. As attention moves through the body, it harvests tension and pain, which are metaphorically discharged through the top of the head. However, this purification metaphor is held lightly: the real purpose is not to get rid of anything but to 'fall awake' within the body, to reconnect conscious awareness with the felt experience of being embodied.
The body scan is particularly powerful for chronic pain because it teaches practitioners to distinguish between the sensory, emotional, and cognitive dimensions of pain, and to 'uncouple' these dimensions from one another. When you see that your thoughts about pain sensations are not the sensations themselves, the overall experience of suffering can change dramatically, even when the underlying sensory input does not change.
- The best way to get results from meditation is not to try to get anything from it but to do it for its own sake
- Whatever arises during the scan becomes 'the curriculum of the moment' if held in awareness with kindness
- You cannot fail at the body scan if you are willing to be with things as they are
- Feeling 'nothing' in a body region is a valid observation, not a failure
- Healing occurs through acceptance of present-moment reality, not through forcing things to be different
- Prepare and Settle InLie on your back in a comfortable place. The intention is to 'fall awake' rather than to fall asleep. Cover yourself if cold. Allow eyes to close gently. Let attention settle on the abdomen, riding the waves of breathing for a few moments. Feel the body as a whole, the envelope of skin, the contact points with the surface beneath you.Pro tipIf drowsiness creeps in, open your eyes and continue. Splash cold water on your face before starting if you are groggy. Mindfulness is about being fully awake, not relaxing into unawareness.WarningDo not practice late at night when tired, as you will simply fall asleep rather than cultivating awareness.
- Direct Attention and Breath to Each Body RegionBegin with the toes of the left foot. Channel your breathing to them so it feels as if you are breathing in to your toes and out from your toes. Feel any and all sensations, or feel 'not feeling anything.' When ready, take a deeper breath down to the toes and on the outbreath let them dissolve from awareness. Move systematically: sole, heel, top of foot, ankle, then up through the entire left leg, right leg, pelvis, abdomen, chest, back, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, face, and head.Pro tipWhen approaching a painful region, treat it like any other part of the body. Breathe in to and out from it, observe sensations, allow the whole body to soften on each outbreath. The invitation is to 'put out the welcome mat' for whatever is there.WarningDo not wiggle toes or move body parts to generate sensations. The practice is about receiving what is already present, not manufacturing experience.
- Work with Mind WanderingEach time you notice that attention has wandered, note what carried you away, then gently escort attention back to the region you were focusing on. If using a guided recording, return to wherever the voice is currently directing attention. This process of noticing and returning is not a failure but is the core of the practice itself.Pro tipIf your mind wanders a thousand times, your job is simply to notice what is on your mind at the moment you realize it has wandered, and then bring attention back. Each return is a repetition that strengthens the muscle of mindfulness.
- Approach Pain Regions with CuriosityWhen pain dominates attention so much that you cannot focus on other regions, let go of the systematic scan and bring attention directly into the pain. Breathe into the tissue and imagine the outbreath as a channel for discharging tension. Notice that even in the most problematic regions, the sensations change quality from moment to moment: sharp to dull, throbbing to tingling, stronger to weaker.Pro tipAsk yourself: 'How bad is it right now, in this very moment?' Most of the time, even when you feel terrible, the present-moment sensation is tolerable. Suffering comes from projecting the pain forward through all future moments.WarningThe body scan should complement, not replace, appropriate medical treatment. All MBSR patients have a complete medical work-up before beginning the program.
- Practice Daily for at Least Two WeeksCommit to the body scan for 45 minutes per day, at least six days per week, for the first two weeks. Use guided audio to maintain proper pacing. Your body will be different each time, and you may hear different elements of the guidance on different days. After two weeks, begin alternating with yoga and sitting meditation according to the eight-week schedule.Pro tipYou don't have to like the body scan. You just have to do it. Whether you find it relaxing, boring, or exasperating is irrelevant to whether it will serve you well. These reactions are themselves objects of mindful attention.WarningDo not be quick to give up the body scan as you add other practices. Many long-term practitioners find it remains their most powerful practice.
Mary practiced the body scan religiously for four weeks but felt blocked at her neck. While scanning the pelvic region, she heard the word 'genitals' on the recording for the first time. This triggered a flashback of childhood sexual abuse repressed for over fifty years, along with the connection between the beating she received to her head and neck and the feeling of blockage during the scan.
Over thirty years, thousands of chronic pain patients completed the MBSR body scan program. Seventy-two percent achieved at least 33 percent pain reduction on standardized measures, with an average 36 percent improvement. These improvements were maintained at four-year follow-up.
Kabat-Zinn developed the MBSR body scan drawing on traditional Buddhist body-awareness practices and influenced by an aerospace engineer turned meditation teacher who described body scanning using the 'zone purification' metaphor from industrial metallurgy. The practice was refined through decades of clinical use with medical patients, many of whom had chronic pain conditions. The body scan became the cornerstone of MBSR when Kabat-Zinn observed that it consistently provided patients' first positive experience of their bodies in many years, and that the simple act of reconnecting conscious attention with bodily sensation catalyzed profound healing processes.