Body Awareness Meditations for Cultivating Calm and Insight.

Mindfulness of Body is a foundational meditation practice in modern, evidence-based mindfulness programs like MBSR and MBCT, with a history rooted in ancient systems of mental and spiritual development.

Mindfulness of Body helps to disrupt and weaken painful mind states like anger, anxiety, fear, and depression. And within the mental clarity cultivated by Mindfulness of Body, we can begin to see how these painful mental states obtain the momentum to overtake us. With this awareness we can begin to dismantle these states and work with them more skillfully.

Physical restlessness and mental resistance—frustration, for example, and boredom—are common, unpleasant reactions to Mindfulness of Body training. These reactions will weaken over time, but they can be difficult to tolerate in the beginning. This is natural, so please be patient with yourself and with the process, the best you can. Best wishes in your practice. Take heart. You can do it.

Mindfulness of Body Intro: Sensations

Body Scan: Part by Part and Whole Body

Survey: Top to Bottom

Body Awareness: Center Moving Outward

Playing w/ Body Awareness: Water Imagery

Mindfulness of Body: Periphery to Center

Whole-Body Sponge Breathing

Heart Breathing

Web of Awareness

Broad but Centered Breath Awareness: Candle in the Room

Midline Shining Outward

10-Minute Body Scan

Home Base Meditation

Allowing Experience to Come to You

Drop In

3-Anchor Meditation

3-Anchor Meditation: Extended Practice

3-Anchor Meditation: 10-Minute Practice

Feeling the Face

Sleep Series: Deepening Presence

Sleep Series: Fully Held

Sleep Series: Blanket of Awareness

Relationships: Being Right Vs Being Curious

Sleep Series: Space for Listening

The Listening Space

Finding Ground and Space in Difficult Times

Deanna Burkett

Meditation Coach

This meditation may be more appropriate for experienced meditators. Less instruction is given in terms of "what to observe" in the meditation. Instead, the emphasis is on the "quality of the observation." HOW are you observing the body, the breath, thought, etc.? Is the attention tight or forced, with the quality of "hunting" for the present moment? And if so, can there be a loosening, so that there is a feeling of "settling back" and allowing the present moment--sound, body sensation, thought, emotion--to come to you? I hope you find it beneficial. Let me know if you have questions! Always happy to engage.

Experienced meditators can benefit from a meditation that focuses on the quality of observation rather than what to observe, allowing for a loosening of attention.