Speaker 1 · 0:00Have you ever felt like body scan meditations are always the same? Even when guided by a different teacher. As if you were limited to one or two sequences, often anticipating what's coming next, instead of focusing on the present moment. Welcome to the Mindfulness Exercises podcast. May this be a source of inspiration and motivation in your mindfulness practice and teachings. Just as with mindfulness of the breath, the mindful body scan is a foundational practice with unlimited potential. But for practitioners and teachers alike, it's not always clear how we can work with the body scan in a way that feels fresh, creative, and expansive. For Mindfulness Exercises founder Sean Fargo, the mindful body scan meditation came alive only after he allowed himself more agency over the practice. In this episode, he describes how we might transform the body scan from a predictable sequence with expected outcomes into a profound opportunity for greater awareness and open-heartedness. If we're willing to remain open and curious, we can expand the limits of what we can sense, build our capacity over time, and more easily apply the wisdom of the body scan to daily life. For Sean, there's no one way to do a mindful body scan. And it's the fullness of this potential that keeps the practice relevant.
Speaker 2 · 1:56For a long time, the body scan was my least favorite practice. I dreaded it because it just seemed so formulaic, so dry, like you could just know what the teacher was going to say next. I couldn't stand it. And then just on my own, I started playing around with it and just kind of being creative. And then I loved it. And then it became my favorite practice because I felt the sense of agency and creativity that I could just play with it, you know, without watering it down. Like as long as you're sensing into the body with this sense of openness or curiosity and really allowing the sensations to be there. But as long as you're sensing the body without judgment, that's fine. And if you're kind of moving around, exploring different parts of the body, that's the name of the game.
Speaker 1 · 2:50At the foundation of the mindful body scan is an invitation to notice sensations in the body without judgment or self-criticism. Apart from this, there's no one way to do the body scan. Exploring with a sense of play and creativity ensures the possibilities are endless.
Speaker 2 · 3:16Body scans, you know, there's no one way to do it. And the essence of a body scan is really just to see if we can notice how different parts of our body feel without judging it. And so we can bounce around to different parts of the body. We don't necessarily need to scan linearly. So we can start with our big right toe and then maybe move to our left ankle and then our right hand, and our left ear, and then our heart, and then our belly. So you can simply bring awareness to different parts of the body, playing around with even just seeing if we can notice certain aspects of physical sensations. Some very, very, very senior teachers will teach body scans by sensing into different parts of the body and only noticing temperature, warmth, coolness, a lack of temperature. And then maybe doing another body scan where you only sense into heaviness versus lightness or tension versus a sense of expansion. A little bit more advanced. I don't know if that's the right word, but some teachers will do body scans inviting students to only sense into the earth element of solidity, sensing into bone, flesh, skin. And then doing another scan of the body, only sensing into the liquid element, saliva, tears, urine, moisture of the flesh, and then doing another body scan where you only sense into a sense of air or even space. And technically, according to quantum physics, the element that we're mostly predominant of or composed of is space. Technically, which is a little harder to sense into because there's a lack of something. But my point is to scan the body, not necessarily going in a linear format, but rather seeing what we can notice without judgment, being with whatever's here, even if it's uncomfortable. And that can include like pleasant sensations too, and being with it, allowing the sensations to be here without judgment, and really being curious about these sensations, including the geography, and this often gets overlooked. Like sometimes we'll just notice the ankles or the belly or my shoulders are tense. Well, where exactly? Like, so if we're working with our shoulders, like is there tension or predominant sensations equally on the left and right? How far up does it go, the neck? How far down does it go? How far forward? How far back? And really getting into the nitty-gritty, like is it two inches below the skin? Is it one inch? Is it a millimeter? How thick is it? And really trying not to get into visualizations of it, but rather sensing it from the body. You know, is the thickness the same thickness throughout where you can feel it? Or does it thin out in some places? Are the outside edges the same as the middle? Can you feel into the area around the sensations to get a sense of really where the sensations start and stop?
Speaker 1 · 7:29By sensing versus visualizing or labeling, we use the body itself as the means to awareness. While there's a role for the typical head-to-toe body scan, sensation doesn't always arise in this logical linear manner. Instead, we might ask the open-ended question: which part of the body is calling my attention in this very moment? One way to play with this technique is what Sean calls the random body scan.
Speaker 2 · 8:10Personally, I prefer random body scans, random body part body scans. I don't know that there's an official term for that. Like if you make it random to the point where you don't decide the next body part until like the last second, then it can aid that sense of curiosity a little bit, which is a lot of what we're going for, really. But it's interesting, you know, that classic standard version is what you find 99.9% of the time. I think there is some sense of logic behind a sequence from toes to head or head to toes. Those are the two classic versions. And I think that it can be useful, especially as a teacher, to guide a sort of a sequential body scan from one direction towards the other. Meaning either go random in the sense of, you know, right pinky finger, left ear, right kneecap, left inner thigh, belly button, part, three inches behind my belly button, middle of my right calf, like in the flesh area, you know, hair follicles, that type of thing. So really being random. So you can be random in sense of direction and body part depth versus superficiality. But also, you know, you can, and I guess it kind of takes the scanning part of the body scan in terms of the term or the vernacular or the etymology. Is that the right word I'm looking for? So it's not necessarily scanning, but you are kind of like scanning around each part. You're not necessarily scanning the whole body in one direction, but you are kind of surveying different parts of the body randomly. But you can do like a sequential logical direction-based body scan and only sense into bone or liquid, like blood, urine, tears, or temperature. So kind of the fire element or lack of fire element, so you know, warmth versus coolness, or space, or like air in different cultural traditions. You can think of like space as an element or wind as an element, you know, breath being part of the wind element, but some people count it as space, you know, flesh. So I know for some of you, you might be a little grossed out or think this is like too into the weeds, and I totally get that. Like you don't have to do this, but it does present another set of options for you to sense into different aspects of the body, different elements of the body. Some people will do either head down or toes up or both, where you're kind of bouncing back and forth, and in one direction, you might do flesh, and then you go back down the body and only sense temperature, and then go back up the body, only sense bone, or just sense into skin. So that is an option for us.
Speaker 1 · 12:07At first, sensing beyond the general structure of the body and into the elements, inner organs, or minute details may seem quite challenging. But with practice, the limits of our awareness expand. So too does our capacity to minimize reactivity and remain present with sensation, allowing it to move and change. Research suggests body awareness is positively correlated with subjective well-being.
Speaker 2 · 12:59You know, and sometimes the heart just doesn't necessarily feel moist or dry. But the more we sense into the body, the more we sense into the chest and the lungs and the shoulders and the back and the heart and all parts of the body, the more we're actually strengthening a part of our brain that's able to do such things. So the more we try, the better we get. But the more we practice, the more we'll be able to sense into the heart, as well as other parts of the body. I think it's useful to practice sensing into whether there's like moisture or dryness, coolness, or warmth, heaviness or lightness, movement, or stillness, pleasantness or unpleasantness, or neither, you know, whether the outside feels different from the center. How do the sensations differ as you move front to back, left to right, up to down? How are they changing over time as we allow them to change? Can we allow the sensations to be there? Can we allow the sensations to increase in intensity if they want? Can we allow them to change? Can we allow them to go without uncertainty, that beginner's mind, that fresh awareness of however this moment is manifesting. But the more we practice with these types of sensations in the body, the better we'll get at being able to notice them. The longer we stay with these sensations, and the more we come back to the sensations, that builds our ability to stay with them for longer and longer periods of time without getting distracted. And the more we practice noticing reactivity to the sensations and noticing judgments of them being good or bad, right or wrong, and just kind of softening into the experience itself with this gentle caring curiosity, the better we get at that, too.
Speaker 1 · 15:35Practice makes presence all the more possible. It also makes it easier for us to scan beyond the superficial layers of the body and into energy and emotion. It can be challenging, however, to begin there. Other practices that also make use of the body might help deepen our body awareness in more accessible ways.
Speaker 2 · 16:28You know, there tends not to be that much emotion here, but we can sense into the physical characteristics. You know, our jaws can carry tension and like hold anger or sadness or whatever, but like, you know, sensing into the mouth, sensing into food in the mouth, dryness, wetness, temperature, etc. The belly can be a spot, you know, like even like pressing on the hand and just feeling into the hand that's being pressed upon, and just practicing sensing into the hand, and the pressure, the temperature, the density of the bone, and the softness of the flesh, and the liquid in the veins, and you know, just practicing sensing into these different physical characteristics, forearms, you know, mindfulness of walking as helpful too, sensing into the bottoms of the feet that can build our interoception. So we can practice with different parts of the body and then kind of navigate towards the heart and just kind of seeing if we can notice things, and or if there's a strong emotion present, like sadness or anger or joy, like, oh, I wonder if I can notice things in my heart now. Probably, but if we're sort of in a still mindfulness meditation on a Wednesday afternoon, maybe not. You know, so checking in from time to time, but we can practice with different parts of the body to build that ability, like with more practice. I have a high degree of confidence that you'll be able to sense into those different physical characteristics more and more, and then you'll kind of get a sense for what it feels like.
Speaker 1 · 18:30While moving towards a deeper body scan is possible with practice, it's important to remember that no one style of body scan is better than another. In whatever way we choose to explore, doing so with an open curiosity and gentle kindness is key. Consider with care the body parts you may want to include, as well as how wide or narrow you want your lens to be. Often during a body scan, we group parts into aggregates, such as right arm or left ankle, but there's no limit to the detail we might notice if we're capable of going deeper.
Speaker 2 · 19:20You can bring awareness to your biceps, hamstrings, muscles that move the toes, cheeks. Anything is fair game. And you can experiment focusing in on one part of a muscle or a whole set of muscles, kind of opening and closing perspective a little bit, like the aperture of a camera, playing around with level of detail.
Speaker 1 · 19:51As Sean says, anything is fair game. But mindfulness teachers and those who guide body scans do have a responsibility to their students. When considering what's appropriate for a mindfulness body scan, perhaps the most important question to ask is: who is the audience? And what is the intention of the practice? What would be most helpful? Those who lead others in meditation should keep these questions in mind.
Speaker 2 · 20:38I mean, by default, I will kind of skip over genitalia, you know, sensitive places like the anus and the butt, just different parts. I will skip over those. You know, some people have trauma, sexual trauma. It can just be weird or uncomfortable or awkward to mention those. And it can also be just very inappropriate to ask people to bring awareness to those areas in certain contexts. So I tend to bypass those areas or say like the pelvic area or sense into the seat, keep it very general, vague. There are some meditations in which it's very appropriate to or not very appropriate, but I guess okay to mention those areas, because for example, in Buddhism, there's a classic meditation called the 32 parts of the body, in which you go through 32 parts of the body, including some sensitive areas. Or for certain maybe highly advanced practitioners in a very safe setting, maybe it's where I've built a strong rapport with certain people, and there's less room for any uncertain messages. I might say certain body parts, which if there's a context where I feel like it can be appropriate, but especially if it can be helpful. Because we can hold on to a lot of like stress and tension and energy in those areas. So it's not like we talk about those areas just for the fun of it, like it's for a purpose. I think chest is kind of an interesting area. If there's a better word for it, let me know. But I tend to use chest broadly speaking, like, and I'll even talk about the lungs, the heart, the rib cage. When I say chest, that's what I'm meaning. The chest cavity, you know, like the area around the heart, especially the center of the chest, the lungs. So that's what I'm meaning. And that's what the vast majority of mindfulness teachers that's what we mean. What's going on around the heart? Sometimes I won't use the word chest at all, but I'll just use, I'll say, like, what's happening around the heart or the lungs, the ribs, or the back.
Speaker 1 · 23:19As with every meditation we do, understanding the why can help deepen our experience. By noticing and acknowledging sensation, we allow it to remain fluid, to move and change. Mindfulness can help uncomfortable sensations soften and dissipate. Several studies point to body awareness as a beneficial tool for minimizing chronic pain. But that's not all it helps with. The awareness we develop in formal practice also makes mindfulness of the body much easier in daily life. What might change, for example, if we were to be aware of the sensation in our hearts at any given moment.
Speaker 2 · 24:17When we bring this gentle awareness to the sensations themselves, that allows the sensations to move or process or stay fluid, which impacts our physical health and our whole lives. When we allow the energies of the body to do their thing, you know, the practice is powerful because we allow those sensations to do their thing, and we build our ability to be able to notice the arising of different kinds of sensations in daily life, like throughout our daily life, you know, from the time we wake up to the time we fall asleep informally. So this formal practice builds our ability to notice the arising of sensations in real time throughout our day, so that we don't just kind of process everything when we sit down in a meditation, like we can process everything in real time. So the practice itself is powerful because we're doing great work in the practice, the sensations are important to be known and to be felt and to be allowed to be and to do their thing, and can we do this throughout the day as much as possible? Can we feel into our hearts right now and build that ability to listen, to know how to allow it to do its thing, to honor it? Same for our bellies and our heads, the rest of it.
Speaker 1 · 26:07Thank you, Sean Fargo, for sharing with us the depth that's possible within the body scan by consistently exercising this muscle of awareness. With some play and creativity, we can explore beyond general body parts and experience first hand what different elements, energy, and emotions feel like in the body. May we practice often and throughout our days for a greater connection to the truth of our felt experience in any given moment. To hear Sean Fargo guide a body scan meditation, listen to the previous episode.
