body scan

Read carefully, this is pure gold...
The body scan is a key component of this meditation, providing it is practiced in perfect harmony with the breath, the attention moving from head to toes, or toes to head, with fluidity, ideally in a rotational motion, to encircle each visited body part.

As a reminder, let us again stress the crucial aspect that underlies all this presentation:

even though at first glance, it may seem counter-intuitive, in this atypical meditation, the first step is to keep moving as if you were never going to inhale again, and the second step is to finally let the body breathe, whenever it feels so.

Always move'n breathe, never breathe'n move! 

In this body scan meditation, it is the attention that keeps moving, with audacity and fluidity, and it does so just after you start to exhale, during the remaining of the exhalation, and the pause that precedes the next inhalation. And when the body finally comes to breathe in, the work already accomplished is huge, endowing the practitioner with a rewarding sense of mastery and empowerment. 
Now, as you inhale, you do not move or scan further, but you kind of review the visited body parts, feeling them as a whole, while mentally noting "fee-eel", or "fee-ee-eel", or "fee-ee-ee-eel", to fit the length of your in-breath. By doing so, you may discover that the bodily sensations, previously unveiled while scanning, will increase in intensity as you breathe in, a true sign of progress!

Finally, as you start to breathe out, make the short mental note "fall", to mark the end one cycle. Be careful, here, there is no downtime! You note "fall" ONLY ONCE, and then the body scan must resume right away, as the attention visits a new section of the body.
 

BASIC BODY SCAN

In "body scan rhythm 2", the attention visits two parts of the body with each breath.

It is an easy and practical rhythm, which will be used on many occasions, when the breath is not calm or ample enough, or when one is in a stressful situation, lying on an operating table for example.

For any beginner, it is this "rhythm 2" that should be mastered first.

In the following presentation, the comma indicates the moment when you inhale.

The name of each part visited should be noted mentally and calmly. This notation should stop as soon as you start to breathe in, and resume just after you start to breathe out.

Basic body Scan "rhythm 1": scanning one body part per breath

(for exemple in a very stressful situation, or more generally, in case of a very short breath cycle) 
Head, arms, trunk, legs.

Legs, trunk, arms, head.

Basic body Scan "rhythm 2": scanning two body parts per breath.

(Train yourself not to wait for the breath, start right away on the body scan and let the breath come by itself. As you inhale, stop the body scan, and apply yourself to feel globally the two parts of the body that you have just visited. Then, just after the beginning of the exhale, scan the following two parts.)

Head neck, arms hands, trunk pelvis, legs feet.
Feet legs, pelvis trunk, hands arms, neck head.

Basic body Scan "rhythm 3"

(Train yourself not to wait for the breath, start right away on the body scan and let the breath come by itself. As you inhale, stop the body scan, and apply yourself to feel globally the three parts of the body that you have just visited. Then, just after the beginning of the exhale, scan the following three parts.)

The body scan "rhythm 3" is also performed in 4 breaths, from head to feet, scanning three body parts per breath:  

Crown head neck, arms forearms hands,

chest belly pelvis, thighs legs feet.

And reverse from feet to head:

Feet legs thighs, pelvis belly chest,

hands forearms arms, neck head crown. 

As shown by the hand motion, the attention rotates around each body part.

The hands separate while breathing in, and come closer while starting to breathe out. 

During a formal meditation session, you do not need to move your hands. However, standing in a beautiful landscape, you may feel like doing so, and that's a good idea indeed!

While visiting arms and legs, scan both sides at the same time.

Depending on the length of the breath, we may visit two or three body parts per breath, or six, or even twelve body parts, if the pause is extremely long.

In the video below, the breath being quite long, the meditator visits three body parts twice in one breath.

Once this body scan has been perfectly assimilated, instead of mentally naming the three or six body parts we want to visit, we can simply note "feel-feel-feel", or "feel-feel-feel-feel-feel-feel”, and the attention will automatically move as desired, the important thing being to feel very well each visited body part.

It is important here to note that when choosing  "feel, feel, feel…", one may be able to visit more body parts during a breathing cycle... make sure, however, that it is always a multiple of three, and especially that the quality of the feeling at each visited body part does not suffer.

Golden Rule: when doing the body scan itself, say the body parts, or "feel, feel, feel..." as many times as you can, even if it means delaying the next breath slightly. This moment where you are about to breathe in, and yet you keep on scanning the body is truly empowering… 
When practicing any exercise of this “move’n breathe” presentation, the breath naturally tends to be slightly fuller than usual, which gives an attractive impression of contentment. Up to you to cultivate it! 

Also, understand that each time you are about to do a body scan, YOU DO NOT KNOW how many body parts you will be able to observe in one breathing cycle... the more the better!

In other words, cultivate curiosity and daring, and destroy any form of routine at its root... That is the secret of success!

Body scan and yoga

Very interesting applications of this simple body scan will include the execution of a good number of yoga postures.

Be careful, in yoga, any change in the posture, and any effort produced to improve it or to amplify the stretching is done during the exhale and the pause. During the inhale, you prepare yourself to produce the effort by concentrating the energy.

One example, bird dog...

Knees and palms are on the ground, elbow width apart. With right arm  stretched forward and  left leg stretched backward, perform the body scan with four natural breaths:

when noting "crown head neck", stretch the head forward,

noting "arms forearms hands", stretch the arm and the right hand forward,

noting "chest belly pelvis", stretch well the trunk,

and noting "thighs legs feet", stretch the left foot backwards...

You can amplify the stretching by doing a second body scan, preferably with eyes closed.

Feel how each visited and well felt body part, allows the body to naturally correct and improves its posture, its extension and its balance. Enjoy the feeling of elongation of the body...

Reverse arms and legs and start again...

If the complete noting of the body scan feels to tedious, switch to the simplified noting ("feel, feel, feel"), and if your breathing is very ample, note six parts of the body instead of three, or "feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel"... Enjoy!

A second example, the tree pose

The tree pose is a demanding posture since you have to stand on one leg. To keep your balance, it is better to fix a point on a tree or on a wall in front of you.

While placing the sole of one foot on the inner thigh of the other leg, mentally start to scan the body: "crown head neck". Then, as you place the hands above the heads, mentally note "arms forearms hands".

Now, since this posture, well performed, tends to make us taller, it is advisable to scan mainly the back of the trunk. Therefore, instead of saying "chest belly pelvis", we prefer "shoulder blades kidneys sacrum".

If the pause in the breathing cycle is long enough, scan six successive parts of the body instead of three, naming them mentally, or simply noting "feel-feel-feel-feel-feel-feel".

While holding the posture, complete the body scan, then do another one.

See how, as you really FEEL each successive body part, the body naturally corrects and improves its posture and balance. Enjoy the feeling of elongation of the body...

And then quantify your performance: if you had done two body scans during the tree pose in a previous session, today you could progress to three or four body scans...

Detailed descending body scan

Crown back forehead, eyes nose ears, 
cheeks teeth chin, throat neck shoulders.
Arms elbows forearms, wrists palms fingers.
Shoulder blades lungs heart, liver stomach kidneys,
sacrum hips lower ab, genitals anus buttocks.

Detailed ascending body scan

Toes soles ankles, calves knees thighs.

Buttocks anus genitals, lower ab hips sacrum,

kidneys stomach liver, heart lungs shoulder blades.

Fingers palms wrists, forearms elbows arms.

Shoulders neck throat, chin teeth cheeks,

ears nose eyes, forehead back and crown. 
Once this detailed body scan has been perfectly assimilated, the attention should be able to rotate  harmoniously around the head, arms, trunk and legs.

At the level of the arms and legs, make sure that this rotating movement is directed outward  during the descending body scan, and inward during the ascending body scan.

As for the head and the trunk, this rotation movement should be performed simultaneously and symmetrically on both sides. For example, when we mentally note "eyes nose ears", the attention starts symmetrically from the two eyes, goes down to the nose, and then split in two to reach the two ears.
Same with "shoulder blades lungs heart" and "sacrum hips lower ab".

In the video below, the attention visits six parts of the body per breath, which is a very advanced practice... While breathing in, the hands separate with the mental note "fee-eel", inviting the practitioner to feel the six body parts just visited as a whole. Then, while starting to breathe out, the hands come closer with a mental note, “fall”, marking the end one cycle, before visiting the six next body parts. There is no downtime: “fall” is noted ONLY ONCE, and then the body scan must resume right away.

This ascending body scan is preceded by a chikong style body positioning, which allows us to stand perfectly straight, feeling a salutary stretching of the spine. It is necessary to memorize this positioning and the body scan itself.

Positioning: head suspended, chin slightly in, shoulders relaxed, elbows relaxed, hands relaxed. Shoulders relaxed, waist relaxed, knees relaxed, feet pressing the floor, head suspended, feet pressing the floor, head suspended.