53. Gratitude body scan

What happens when we stop criticising our body and spend a few moments appreciating it instead? 

In this guided gratitude body scan, we move attention through the body with curiosity and awareness, inviting you to notice some of the many ways your body is really quite amazing! 

From your feet carrying you through each day, to your lungs breathing breath after breath, to your nervous system constantly adapting and responding 👀, this gratitude body scan is a gorgeous opportunity to pause and reconnect with the body you live in.

This practice can be done lying down, seated comfortably, standing or even during a gentle walk. There is no perfect way to practise.

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Perfect if you're feeling:

• stressed or overwhelmed
• disconnected from your body
• self-critical
• mentally busy
• exhausted and needing a moment to pause

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Transcript

Welcome to this gratitude body scan. You can practice this body scan while lying down, sitting comfortably, standing, or moving around. As long as you are safe and comfortable, you are perfect.

fully arriving in this moment. Noticing the sounds around you.

Noticing the points of contact between you and the earth beneath you,

and noticing your breath as it is in this moment.

And following the gratitude body scan as [00:01:00] we move around the body. I thank my feet for helping me stand tall, to walk and run to where I need to go.

I thank my ankles for being mobile, for allowing my feet to move in all the ways they need to.

I thank my calf muscles for propelling me along, and for helping to pump blood back to the heart.

I thank my knees for being such a reliable joint, for bending and straightening at my will so I can sit stand, walk, run, dance, and practice yoga.[00:02:00] 

I thank my thighs, whatever shape or size they are, for having some of the strongest, some of the most demanding muscles in my body, and for keeping going whatever I am doing.

I thank my hips, my whole pelvis, for being an anchor. I thank my sacred sacrum for its strength and its connectivity, connecting my spine and pelvis, connecting my upper body with my lower body.

I thank my lower back, even if it's niggly or painful sometimes, for supporting [00:03:00] me each day, for adapting and responding as I move, bend, lift, twist, and rest.

I thank my belly, whether it's soft or strong, tense or relaxed, for all that happens here without me ever needing to think about it: digestion, nourishment, gut feeling, intuition, and insight.

I thank my chest and ribcage for expanding and softening with every breath, protecting my heart and lungs and making space [00:04:00] for life to move through me.

I thank my heart for beating steadily through joy, stress, excitement, grief, and ordinary moments, I thank my lungs for receiving breath after breath, for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide, and for sustaining all of my systems from the very first moment

I thank my shoulders for carrying what I ask of them, which is sometimes the weight of the entire world. I thank my shoulders and allow [00:05:00] them to soften and release what no longer needs to be held.

I thank my arms for reaching, lifting, holding, for carrying, hugging, creating, and expressing. I thank my hands for all the tiny and enormous things they allow me to do every day.

For touch, for connection, for care, for work, for creativity.

I thank my neck for its balance and mobility, for allowing me to turn towards the people and places I love. [00:06:00] I thank my jaw, my mouth, and my face for expression, speech, laughter, nourishment, and communication. I thank my ears for allowing me to listen to music, to hear voices, to enjoy birdsong and silence and the sounds of the world around me.

I thank my eyes for helping me witness color and light, nature, and the faces of people I care about. I thank my brain and nervous system for constantly processing, protecting, adapting, [00:07:00] and learning. And finally, I thank my whole body, not because it is perfect, but because every single day it's doing its best.