BODY SCAN

Lie down. Move attention slowly through the body, region by region — feet to head or head to feet, doesn't matter — noticing whatever is there. Tension, warmth, ache, nothing. The practice isn't to fix anything; it's to attend.

Most people discover, after a few minutes, that they've been holding their jaw, shoulders, or stomach all day without noticing. The body knows things the mind has been ignoring. The scan is a way of asking, gently, what the body wants to tell you.

1. 1.Lie on your back. Hands at your sides. Eyes closed.
2. 2.Three slow breaths. Settle.
3. 3.Start at the toes. Notice the left big toe. Then each toe. Notice without changing.
4. 4.Move up the left foot to the ankle. Calf. Knee. Thigh. Hip.
5. 5.Repeat the right leg.
6. 6.Continue up: pelvis, lower back, abdomen, chest, upper back, shoulders.
7. 7.Down each arm to the fingertips.
8. 8.Back up to neck, jaw, face (one region at a time: jaw, cheeks, eyes, forehead, scalp).
9. 9.End with attention on the whole body at once. Three slow breaths.