BODYSCAN MEDITATION

This is side 1 of the first tape of de-stressful action in relaxation program that you’ve joined at
the University of Massachussets Medical Center.
By playing this tape regularly and by doing what it has to do, you are investing an active and
powerful role in improving your health. Doing this process, it is best if you can manage to
stay awake throughout the duration of the tape. This side is a guided bodyscan meditation
designed to help you to enter into a state of very deep physical and mental relaxation. It’s best
to arrange to do it in a warm and protected place in which you feel comfortable and secure,
and at a time when you aren’t be interrupted by anyone or by the telephone. Arrange to dress
in loosen comfortable clothing and particularly clothing that does not constrict your waist and
your breathing. It’s helpful to see this time as a time dayly, totally satisfied for you, as an
opportunity to be by yourself and to be with yourself, fully. It’s as if you can allow it to be a
nursing time, a time you deserve to give yourself some positive energy and attention, a time in
which to open to the sources of strenght and healing within yourself. In doing it this kind, it’s
important to remember no to try to hard to relax, this will just create tension. What we will be
doing is becoming aware in each piercing moment and just accepting what is happening in
yourself, looking at it clearly and seing at as it is because it’s already a part of your experience
in the moment for better or for worse. Not go off the tendency which we all have to want
things to be different from what they are right now and the low things to be exactly as it finds
them, allow yourself to be exactly as you are. Use the instructions for guide as best you can,
watching your body and the activity of your mind as we go along. Letting go off judgemental
and critical forces in particular and just doing what it has to do, as best you can in being aware
of how you feel, of what is happening. Remember that there is no right way to feel while you
are doing this. The way you are feeling is the way you are feeling right now, just excepting it,
in giving yourself permission to feel what you are feeling and seing that it is OK. Do this in
whatever posture positions comfortable if lying on your back is not comfortable, it’s really
your sensitivity and level of attention and not the way you are lying which is important. So
now, let’s arrange to lie down and on the back if possible on a mat or a thick rug or on your
bed and allowing your eyes to close gently if you feel comfortable with it, letting the arms lie
alongside your body, palms open towards the ceiling if that feels comfortable and allowing
the feet to follow way from each other and slowly bringing your attention to the fact that you
are breathing, not manipulating your breathing anyway but simply experiencing it as the air
moves in your body and directing your attention in particular to your belly, to your abdomen
and feeling the sensations in that region as the breath comes into your body and the abdomen
expends gently and as the breath moves out of your body and the belly defleats and just
following with your mind’s eye the rythmic movement of your belly with each breath, the
rising of your belly on the inbreath and the falling on the airbreath, and on each airbreath just
letting go, letting your body become heavy as it sinks a little bit deeper into the floor or into
your mat. Just for attention, in each moment to your breathing, the inbreath and the airbreath
following rythmically one on the other, as the body sinks with every airbreath into the floor,
into your mat as you let go. Now, when you feel ready to, let’s shift the focus of our attention
to the toes of the left foot, just taking your mind and moving it away from your belly, down
the left leg goes away to the foot and of the way out to your toes and just becoming aware of.
Whatever the feelings are in this region of your body, there may be sensations of tingling or
moisture, of hitching or warmth, whatever they are, it’s not important but just feeling your
toes as they are. In a few findouts, you are registering a blank when you tune to in this region
and just experiencing, not feeling, experiencing what is there and just breathing with this
sensations, experiencing the big toe and if you can the little toe, not moving them but just
feeling them individually and perhaps the toes in between and as you breathe in, just

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imagining that the breath is moving right down to the lungs and to the belly and down the left
leg all the way to your toes and as you breathe out, that the breath is just moving back up from
your toes and automatically out your nose, so as if you are breathing in down to your toes, and
breathing out from your toes and when you are ready, just on the airbreath letting go off your
toes completely, allowing this region of your body to just desarve in your mind’s eyes and
move your attention and bring it to focus on the bottom of your left foot and whatever feelings
there are, in this particular region, breathing with it, feeling the bottom of your foot and when
you are ready, breathing down the leg to the bottom of your foot, and on the airbreath
breathing out from the bottom of your foot and just letting it go. And coming to focus now on
the heel, the place where the heel is making contact with the floor or the mat or whatever and
just feeling the sense of touch and pressure and, when you are ready, breathing into the heel
and on the airbreath, just letting go off your heel, becoming aware of the top of your foot and
whatever feelings or lack of feelings there are from that particular region, not so much
thinking about your foot as just being here with it, feeling it, letting it predominante the field
of your awareness at the moment, breathing with your foot and letting that awareness spread
to the ankles as well and feeling your own left ankel, breathing within and, when you are
ready, breathing directing the breath down to the ankle and on the airbreath just letting go off
the ankle and the entirity of your left foot as you relax into a deeper state of stillness and
awareness. And become aware of the left lower leg, the chin in front ..., of any sensations,
feelings, in your lower left leg, not just on a surface but deep as well, right down to the bones
in lower leg, experiencing this region as it is, not trying to make it be any different, just
accepting the feelings that you feel, breathing with them and when you are ready, just letting
go off this part of your body as well as you relax and sink even deeper into the mat, into the
floor as you let go. Letting the focus now move up to your knee, healing your knee, the
kneecap and sides and back of the knee and, deep into a joint, just experiencing your left
knee, breathing within and on an airbreath just letting it desarve as well. And moving now
into the region of the thigh, above the knee on a surface and deep and all the way up to the
groin on the inside and the hip on the outside in just experiencing your left thigh, letting it be
as soft and relax as possible, if there is any tension in this thigh or anywhere else when you
come to it, just allowing it to exit on each airbreath, allowing the thigh to be soft and relax,
breathing with your thigh and, when you are ready, taking a deeper breathing down into the
thigh and as you breathe out, just letting it desarve and relax and soften as you let go. And
let’s move over to the right leg and become aware of the feelings in the right toes, the toes of
the right foot and without ... if you can, just feeling the sensations of the big toe and the little
toe and the others, breathing, directing the inbreath down into the foot and right to the toes
and, on the airbreath, just letting the breath come up from the toes and ride out through your
nose, just registering the sensations that ... this region, not judjing them more, worrying about
what your toes should feel like but just allowing on to be exactly as you’re experiencing them
now. And when you are ready, taking a deeper breathing down into the toes and, on the
airbreath, just letting your toes desarve in the field of your awareness and letting the attention
shift on to the bottom of your right foot, and this time including the heel and the place where
the foot makes contact with the floor, with the mat, just tuning to any ... or sensation,
breathing with them. And when you are ready, just on an airbreath letting go off the bottom of
your foot as you relax, as you let go off this region and let the attention gently move to the top
of the foot and to the ankle, breathing in and breathing on, experiencing this region of your
body, and when you are ready just letting it go, letting it relax and soften and desarve in your
mind’s eye as you become aware of the lower leg, the region of the body ..., now just feeling
this extremely important part of your body as it is, appreciating it perhaps. When you are
ready, breathing into it and as you breathe out, just letting go off it as well and become aware
of your right knee, in breathing down into the knee and on the airbreath letting go off the knee

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as well. And now the right thigh, the entire region of the upper leg between hip and pelvis and
groin, on the way to the knee, feeling your right thigh, any sensations at all, being as precise
as you can about seing and feeling these sensations, wether they are sensations of warmth or
tingling or havyness or lightness, bloodflow or whatever. Enjoy sensing, feeling your thigh as
it is, and when you are ready, breathing into the thigh and as you breathe out just letting go off
this region too. And becoming aware now of the pelvis, the entire region of your pelvis, from
one hip to the other where the buttocks are in contact with the mat or the floor and the
sensations of contact and of weight perhaps, heavyness or whatever you are feeling, becoming
aware of the region of the genitals and whatever sensations or lack of sensations you are
experiencing in this region, becoming aware of the hips themselves and just breathing with
the entirity of your pelvis. And when you are ready, directing the breath on the inbreath down
into your pelvis and as you breathe out, just letting the pelvis soften and release so that any
tension in it go with the breath as you sink even more deeper into a state of relaxed awareness
and stillness, totally present in each moment, content to just be and to just be right here as you
are right now and let’s direct our attention now to the lower back to that region, the
connection ... with the pelvis that’s come out of the pelvis and just experiencing whatever
sensations are here. This is of course a region that, for many of us sometimes gives us
problems, there may be sensations of some intensity and just for the moment experiencing
your back as it is, letting the breath penetrate, really move into every region of your lower
back on the inbreath and on the airbreath, just letting any tension and tightness, any holding
on or any intensity, just be there and flow out with the airbreath to the extent that it will and as
you breathe out just letting go off the lower back and moving up into the region of your upper
back and just feeling the sensations in this region, breathing with them, you may even feel
your ribcage in back as well as in front expend on the inbreath, the ribs being in back as well
as in front coming all the way around to the spine and any tension or tightness or reservoirs of
fatigue or discomfort, any upper back region or central back region, just letting them desarve
and move out with the outbreath as you let go and sink even deeper into stillness and
relaxation and allowing your attention to shift to the belly again and experiencing the rising
and falling of your belly as you breathe and just allowing the awareness to expand from the
belly in the front of your body to the chest as well, feeling the movement of your ...frame, that
umbrella like muscles that operates your belly from your chest, from your heart new lungs,
and just for a moment experiencing the chest as it expends on the inbreath and retract
somewhat on the airbreath and if you can tuning to the rythmic billing of your heart within
your chest, feeling it if you can, as well as the lungs expending on either side of your heart,
nursing every region, every organ, every tissue of your body ... generating blood, each time
the hearts pumps blood throughout the body and as the blood returns to the heart, giving ...
metabolism and purifying the body in a rytmic cycle of renewed energy and continues
detoxification, purification on the airbreath, just experiencing your chest, your belly as you lie
here and the muscles on chest..., breasts, entirity of your front of your body and when you are
ready on an airbreath, just letting this region desarve into relaxation as well. And allowing
your attention to move to your fingertips and ... two both ends together, just becoming aware
of the sensations now in the tips of your fingers and palms, you may feel some ... from the
bloodflow, you may feel a dampness or a warmth or whatever, just be here in your fingers, the
insides upon and the backs of your fingers, ride out to the tips and letting the field of your
awareness expand to include the palms your hands and the backs of your hands and the wrists
again perhaps feeling ... in wrist as the bloodflows doing from your hands, becoming aware as
well of the forearms and the elbows, any ... sensations, regardless of this comfort of ... with
one region or another, just experiencing your body as it is and in particular now your arms,
allowing the field of your awareness to include now the upper arms, ride up to the armpits and
shoulders. Our shoulders are reservoirs of tension for many of us, accumulated tensions and

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often the cause of some pain and perhaps neck problems during the day stresses often ...
creating these tensions in our shoulders, neck and at the moment just experiencing your
shoulders and if there is any tension, just on the inbreath breathing into the shoulders and into
your arms, and in the airbreath just letting that tension desarve as you breathe out, letting go
off the tension and letting go off your arms, all the way from the fingertips up through the
shoulders themselves. As you sink even deeper into the state of relaxed observation and
awareness, just being present in each moment, letting go off whatever part that comes up or
whatever imposes to move or to do something else, in just experincing yourself in this
moment. Now let the focus of our attention move on to the neck, to the back of the neck and
the spine in the neck region and to the throat and feeling the entirity of this region of your
body, experiencing what it feels like perhaps when you swallow and when you breathe as the
air goes from the head to the chest through the neck region, breathing in down into the neck
intentionally and on the airbreath, just letting go off the neck as well, letting it relax and
desarve in your mind’s eye. And becoming aware of your face, an other region there are often
stores, accumulated tensions over the course of the day and let’s focus first time the jaw and
the chin, just experiencing it as it is, any sensations, ... in the in-region of the jaw, breathing
with this region and on the airbreath when you are ready just letting it desarve, becoming
aware of your lips and your mouth, the teeth and the gums, your tong and the roof of your
mouth and back of the mouth and throat and just breathing with this region and the sensations
and feelings of your mouth and lips, chiks and on an airbreath, just letting this region desarve
as well and becoming aware of your nose and now feeling the breath as it moves in the nose at
the nostrils, just being aware of yourself as the breathing goes on and be aware of your eyes
and the eyebrows and the space between the eyebrows and the entire region around your eyes,
the eyelids and often there is tension in this region as well, just if there is any tension on the
airbreath, just letting it leave as the breath leaves, allowing your tempels to relax and desarve
as you experience the sensations on the side of your head and breathing to your ears and
breathing out from your your ears and letting them go as well. And now the forehead, just
breathing with your forehead, letting it soften, the ... stored emotion often tensions, anger, ...,
and if you sense any motion associated with the tension or feeling the muscles of your face,
just being aware of them and breathing in nursing your face asking it to relax and desarve into
relaxation and stillness. Now just coming up on the entirity of your face including the
forehead, breathing with the entirity of your face as if you ... from underneath inside and just
letting the entirity of your face including the forehead desarve into neutral, most of the time it
is buisy, projecting on a view or another, for now just letting it be as it is, not working all the
time, just letting it be still and neutral, your own face, relaxed and in peace. And now,
becoming aware of the back of the head and the top of the head, the entire region of the
cranium and the upper region of the ... and breathing in now to this all region, breathing out
from this region and focusing at this part now at the very top of your head about the size of a
quarter perhaps, and just letting the breath moves from your nose ride up in your mind’s eye
to this part of the top of your head, the very ... of your head and breathing out from this region
right down through your nose again, and then just imagining that part opens up, can open up
like the blowhole of the whale, you can breathe right through the top of your head, breathing
in a ... right trough the top of your head, letting the air and the energy move right out of your
head and right back down into it, so that you are imagining that you are breathing now from
the top of the head right trough the body ... the bottom of the feet and breathing now in
through the bottom of the feet and right up the top of your head and just watching and
allowing your breath to move in this way, of the entire lenght of your body, all of your
muscles in a deep state of relaxation and the mind simply aware of this flow of energy, of this
flow of breath, experiencing your entire body breathing. And when you are ready, just feeling
your body as an whole from the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet, lying here in a

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state of stillness and deep relaxation and sinking deeper and deeper into a state of well-being
as we come in touch with feeling complete, feeling really as we are, in touch with our central
completeness. A realm in which our limitations have not been finding, a realm of ..., a realm
of silence, of stillness, of peace, open to things just as they are in each moment and seing that
this attitude and this stillness itself is healing and now allowing the world to be as it is,
beyond personal fears and concerns, beyond the tendencies of the mind to want everything to
be a certain way and just seing ourselves as complete right now, as we are, looking an
experiencing, deeply will from ourselves of our life and no limit these qualities of life,
experiencing the ... ability to love and to care and experiencing being totally awake right now.
And as the tape ends, bringing your awareness back to your body again and feeling it as a a
whole, now you may want to wriggle your toes and fingers and allowing this centerness to
remain with you as you move now and as you resume the activity of your life. He may wish to
congratulate yourself on having taking the time and the energy to nurse yourself in this way
and to remember that this state of relaxation and clarities is accessible to you by simply
attending to the inbreath and to the airbreath in any moment, no matter what’s happening at
any time of the day and letting it be a source of constant strenght of energy for you and for
others with whom you share your world and letting it providing deep personal reservoirs of
balance and well-being from which you may make conscious decisions and choices about
how to live more integrated and healthy a satisfying life.