Guided Meditation · Free Resources

Body Scan Meditation

Coming home to the body, one part at a time.

A slow, gentle sweep of attention from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head. You are not trying to relax, or fix, or arrive anywhere — you are simply noticing what is already here. That noticing, it turns out, is what a tired body has been waiting for.

Sit with Aparna

Audio Session

A guided body scan you can lie down with.

Aparna is recording this one. Until it arrives, the written practice below will carry you.

Recording coming soon

What it's for

Most of us spend the day a few inches above our own bodies — living in the head, in the next thing, in the worry. The body keeps holding on quietly: a clenched jaw, a held breath, shoulders up near the ears, and we never quite notice.

The body scan is not a relaxation trick. It is a slow act of attention — meeting each part of yourself exactly as it is, with nothing to change. Strangely, that is often when the holding lets go on its own.

How to practice

Around 15 minutes · lying down or seated

From the feet, all the way up

There is no right way to feel anything here. If a part of the body is numb, or busy, or sore, that is information — not a mistake.

  1. Settle onto your back or into a chair. Let your weight be fully held by the floor or the seat. Eyes closed, or softly lowered.
  2. Take a few unhurried breaths. Nothing to do with them — just feel the body breathing itself.
  3. Bring attention to the soles of your feet. Notice temperature, contact, weight, tingling. Simply notice; don't try to relax it.
  4. Move slowly upward — ankles, calves, knees, thighs — resting a few breaths in each place before moving on.
  5. Continue through hips, belly, back, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, face, all the way to the crown of the head.
  6. When the mind wanders — and it will — gently walk it back to the last part of the body you remember. That returning is the practice.
  7. At the end, rest for a moment as a whole body, sensed all at once. Then open your eyes slowly.

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