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Welcome to the first episode in our three-part Embodied Meditation Series. 

For more than a year now, I’ve been practicing somatic meditation as taught by Reginald Ray, and now I’d like to share some of the practices with you.

This series is inspired by Reginald Ray’s book The Awakening Body in which he teaches six somatic meditation practices. I’ve been practicing all of them and I highly recommend the book to you. Somatic meditation is also called embodied meditation. It uses the body or parts of the body as the object of meditation. 

We’ll kick off the series today with deep body scan meditation. We’ve done body scans before. Episode 89, for example, is all about body scans (check that out at mindful15.com/stuff), and I’ve included a few body scans in the Meditation Library. Typically, these meditations involve moving from head to toe or toe to head, focusing on and exploring sensations in one body part at a time. You might start, for example, by focusing on sensations in your toes. Sometimes, we just notice each part of the body. Sometimes, we actively try to relax each body part.

The deep body scan also focuses on one body part at a time, but we’ll spend more time and go into deeper detail on each body part. Instead of just focusing on all the toes together, for example, we’ll start with the big toe alone, noticing first the bottom of the toe, then the top of the toe, the tip of the toe, the sides of the toes, etc., before moving on to the second toe, and so on.

Many people use body scans to relax or to fall asleep and you can use the deep body scan this way, too. It’s meant, however, to be practiced in the same way we practice breath meditation, as a tool to teach us to focus deeply on the present moment. In other words, you can use it in place of breath meditation. 

We don’t often think of it this way, but breath meditation is embodied, that is, the breath emanates from the body. The deep body scan simply brings us in touch with other parts of the body.

The reason embodied meditation is so effective is that the body always dwells in the present moment. It’s experiences always occur right now. It’s only the mind that wanders off into ruminations about the future and the past. Focusing on the body naturally brings the mind into the present, which is what we’re aiming to do during meditation.

The body scan also teaches us how to get deeply in touch with our bodies, which can be helpful for the management of disturbing body sensations such as pain or tension.

It’s time to practice now. Because the Mindful15 Podcast is meant to be no more than about 15 minutes, we can’t do a full body scan. Instead, I’ll guide you through a 12-minute scan of the feet. Once the recording is finished, you can continue to scan the rest of your body, or you can stop. Mindful15 Members will find a full guided deep body scan in the Meditation Library.
It's time to meditate 
For a 12-minute guided body scan of the feet, forward podcast or video above to 3:20.
Next week:
Next week brings Episode 2 in the Embodied Meditation series where I’ll teach you the relaxing practice of Whole Body Breathing. For a reminder, sign up for our newsletter at mindful15.com/subscribe. When you sign up I’ll send you a copy of Your Meditation Action Plan, our step-by-step guide to building a healthy meditation habit that lasts a lifetime.

And, if you’re enjoying the Mindful15 Podcast, you might also be interested in becoming a member of Mindful15. Click here to learn about the many benefits of membership.