A “body scan” or “body sweep” is one of the most popular meditation techniques. When doing one, the meditator starts by focusing on one part of the body and then systematically and sequentially moves awareness through other physical areas, feeling each part with detailed, friendly attention. There are some common default ways to enact this technique, and there are also many possible variations. Among these options:
* A person can take five hours for one scan through the body, but they could also finish in two seconds. Obviously, the slower a body scan goes, the more time a meditator devotes to feeling each part of the body, and the smaller the parts into which the body is divided.
* Meditators typically start a body scan at the top of the head and work their way down from there. But it is also possible to start from the toes and work upward, or to begin anywhere in the body and travel in either direction. One can also choose to keep the sequence the same every time, do circuits from one end of the body to the other and then back, or vary the order randomly to keep things novel.
* People typically pay attention to just one side at a time when doing a body scan – first the right ear, then the left, or down the right leg, then down the left. But it is also possible to scan both sides simultaneously.
* Some meditators enact body scans just on the surface of the body – what they can feel on their skin and perhaps the muscles too – while other people explore the inside of the body too, for example the feeling inside the throat, the brain, the heart beating, or the sensations of digestion.
* One thing people sometimes do is to feel the body in cross section, one “slice” at a time, scanning the body like an MRI cross-section or like the water level of a tank which is being filled or drained.
* Some people practice a kind of capstone mindfulness in which, for example, after feeling various parts of the left arm and hand, they pause to feel the entire arm and hand before moving on, or, after finishing a complete circuit of the body, spend some time feeling the body as a whole.
* There are meditators who sync their scanning cadence with their breath, for example by bringing awareness into a new body region with an inhalation and releasing and moving on with an exhalation.
* Generally, the instruction is to spend about the same amount of time with each part of the body. But some meditators intentionally slow down and connect more deeply with areas that feel pain, notable emotional activation, or other forms of strong sensation.
* Some meditators make a point of performing body scans while in different postures – lying, sitting, standing, and walking – so as to widen their exploration of the various ways their bodies might feel.
* Body scans are typically done in stillness, but some meditators move or wiggle each part of the body before feeling it in order to increase sensation there. This is sometimes called an “active body scan.”
* Body scans are typically done by simply accepting however the body feels, but some people intentionally relax and calm each part of the body as they feel it. This is sometimes called “progressive relaxation.”
As you can see, what at first may seem like a simple technique can actually have many variations to consider and explore.