Body Scan Meditation

Description
A mindfulness body scan is a wonderful practice to guide your students to let go of thoughts and to
bring their awareness into their body and back into the present moment.

When a student brings their awareness into the present moment it can help your student to re-
lease from the constant stream of thinking, this allows the body and mind to enter into a relaxed
state.

From this state the body can heal and nourish itself as it enters into a state of rest and digest.

Often a student will gain clarity, solve a problem, have a great idea or have an insight through a
body scan practice as their brain enters a calm and peaceful state.

The body scan is wonderful because as the mind scans through the body it is anchored in the
present moment and it is not focused on thinking, this makes the body scan an excellent prac-
tice for beginners and for young ones as they don’t need to battle their thoughts or spend large
amounts of time in silence, trying to train the mind, a task that feels impossible for many, instead,
the student lets go of thought easily because the awareness is placed elsewhere, it is anchored.

This practice can be done on it’s own or you can add it to other practices, for example, before
doing a guided chakra meditation, you might do a short body scan to help your student to let go of
thinking and to bring their awareness into the present moment.
Body Scan Meditation
Mindfulness Meditation
Sit or lay comfortably.

Bring your awareness to the feeling of your breath, feel the rise and fall of your chest and belly as
you breathe in and breathe out.

Notice the temperature of the air, notice if it is cooler as you breathe in and warmer as you breathe
out.

Now bring your attention to the feelings and sensations in your body, notice how your body is feel-
ing right now.

Next, I will guide you through a body scan, all you need to do is to take your full awareness into
the body part that I name.

Starting with your right foot, bring all of your attention into your right foot, now take that attention
to your right ankle, your right calf, your right knee, your right thigh, your right hip, your right side
waist, your right shoulder, your right arm, your right wrist, the palm of your right hand, the back of
your right hand, the fingers and thumb of your right hand.

Take your awareness now to your left foot, left ankle, left calf, left knee, left thigh, left hip, left side
waist, left shoulder, left arm, the palm of the left hand, the back of the left hand, the fingers and
thumb of the left hand.

Become aware of your lower belly, your torso, your neck, your face, the top of your head, the back
of your head, your upper back, middle back, lower back.

Become aware of your whole body, all at once, have full awareness within your body.

Slowly start to bring your awareness back into the room you are in, you can wriggle your fingers
and toes a little and slowly open your eyes.

Spend a moment reflecting on how you feel.

When you are ready, you can finish the practice with a big stretch.

Namaste.
Kaya Sthairyam
Description
Kaya Sthairyam, pronounced like Kaya Stiram, is a yogic meditation.

Kaya means physical body.

Sthairyam means still or steady.

Kaya Sthairyam means stilling the physical body, the yogic tradition believes that the foundation of
concentration is stillness, this tradition believes that the mind can only become and stay one point-
ed if the physical body is still.

The yogic tradition would say that before beginning any concentration practice that a student
would need to master Kaya Sthairyam, this would mean the student would be able to sit for about
thirty minutes without moving their body.

It is good to keep an open mind when learning about different traditions and beliefs, as a medita-
tion teacher you can listen to what the different traditions had to say and see what makes sense to
you, as many of the traditions say different things this can be an interesting journey in itself.
Kaya Sthairyam
Find a comfortable sitting posture for this practice, be sure that your spine is straight, hands can
rest on the knees or thighs.

Affirm to yourself, I will stay as still as possible for this practice.

1. Body Visualization

Become aware of the feeling of your body as it sits in a meditation posture.

Now visualize what your body looks like as you sit in your meditation posture, visualize your body
in your minds eye as if you are looking at your body in a mirror, visualize your feet, your legs, your
hips, your belly, your chest, your shoulders, your arms, your hands and fingers.

Visualize your neck, your head and your face.

Visualize your body from the front, from the right side, from the left side and from the back.

2. Sensations

Become very aware of any sensations within the body, both subtle and strong.

Is your body warm or cold?

Is there any pain or discomfort?

Do you feel lightness and heaviness in your body?

Become aware of any sensations in the body

*Silence*

3. Stillness Body Scan

Next we will scan through the body, affirming stillness in each part of the body.

First, bring all of your awareness to your feet, focus your attention only on your feet, affirm that
your feet are still and steady, visualize your feet and sense and sensations in your feet, is there
any heat or coolness? Can you feel energy flowing through your feet? *Silence*

Next, bring your awareness to your legs as you sit in your meditation posture, affirm that your legs
are still and steady, become aware of any sensations in your legs, is there any feelings of lightness
or heaviness in your legs? Get in touch with how your legs are feeling.

Next, bring your awareness to your hips and pelvis, affirm that this area of your body is still and
steady. Feel any of the sensations in this area of your body, feel any warmth, coolness, heaviness,
or lightness.

Next, feel your chest and your torso, affirm that your chest and torso are as still as possible, apart
from the movement of your breath. Feel the sensations of your chest and torso.
Next, bring your awareness to your shoulders and arms, affirm that your shoulders and your arms
are still and steady. Feel any of the sensations that are happening in your shoulders and in your
arms, do your arms feel heavy or light? Do you notice any feelings of warmth in your arms? Are
there any areas of coolness? Become aware of these now.

Next, become aware of your hands and your fingers, affirm that your hands are still and steady.
Feel any sensations in your hands and fingers, can you feel a subtle flow of energy in your hands?

Next, become aware of your neck and your head, affirm that your neck and your head and still and
steady. Feel any of the sensations that arise in your head or neck, does your neck feel tight? What
sensations do you notice in your head or face?

4. Full Body Steadiness

Next, bring your attention to your entire body, feel your full body now, become aware of the weight
of your body.

Affirm that your full body is still and steady, sense your body as a mountain, feel a sense of
strength and steadiness.

5. Breath Awareness

Next, bring your awareness to the feeling of your breath, get in touch with the feeling of your
breath in your body.

Feel each inhale as your body fills with this life breath.

Feel each exhale as the body releases what it no longer needs.

To finish this practice, let’s take three deeper breaths as we begin to bring our awareness back,
you can gently move your body, wriggle your fingers and toes and then slowly and gently, open
your eyes.

The purpose of todays practice was to bring a sense of stillness and steadiness to the physical
body, practice this meditation often to increase your ability to remain still and steady for deeper
meditations.

Namaste.
Loving Kindness Meditation
Description
Loving Kindness Meditation is also known as Metta Meditation, the word Metta means friendliness
or kindness.

This meditation comes from Buddhist tradition.

During this meditation, we recite sentences directing loving kindness toward ourselves and to-
wards others.

First, we direct loving kindness towards ourselves, then to somebody that is easy to love, then to
all of the people we love, then to a neutral person that we don’t know well, then to the whole world.

As you progress, you can also add in sending loving kindness to a person that you dislike or have
difficult feelings towards, it is best not to begin the practice with this element as it can be uncom-
fortable for beginners.

This practice has received lots of attention from the scientific community, studies have shown this
practice to increase feelings of happiness, positivity and compassion in people who practiced this
meditation daily for 8 weeks.
Loving Kindness Meditation
For a loving kindness meditation we will recite the traditional phases to evoke and awaken loving
kindness within the heart.

Close you eyes down gently, take a deep inhale through the nose and the exhale through the
mouth, take two more of these deeper breaths then return to your normal, resting breath.

As you breathe, begin to pay attention to the area of the heart, see if you can feel the heart and
the breath together as you breathe, as if you could breathe in and out of the space around the
heart.

Pause

Feel your breath as if it came in and out right there at the heart center.

Pause

A traditional loving kindness meditation begins by directing loving kindness towards ourselves, so
being by directing these loving kindness phrases towards yourself:

May I be filled with loving kindness

May I be happy
May I be safe
May I be well, in body and in mind
May I be peaceful
May I live with ease

Next, bring somebody to mind that you love, somebody that is easy for you to love, somebody that
your heart easily opens to, say their name quietly in your mind, with this person in your mind, re-
peat the following phrases silently in your mind, directing loving kindness towards the person you
love:

May you be filled with loving kindness

May you be happy
May you be safe
May you be well, in body and in mind
May you be peaceful
May you live with ease

Now begin to invite everybody that you love into your mind and into your heart, all of your friends
and family, picture them as a group, with this group in your mind repeat the following phrases si-
lently in your mind, directing loving kindness towards the group of people you love:

May you be filled with loving kindness

May you be happy
May you be safe
May you be well, in body and in mind
May you be peaceful
May you live with ease
Now think of an acquaintance, someone you don’t know very well somebody you do not have any
particular feeling, this could be somebody who works at the local supermarket or a store, bring this
person into your mind and heart and repeat the following phrases, silently:
:
May you be filled with loving kindness
May you be happy
May you be safe
May you be well, in body and in mind
May you be peaceful
May you live with ease

Now, begin to extend your loving kindness to fill this room, begin to extend it out to your neighbors,
to those that you know and that you don’t know, let the spirit of loving kindness wash over the en-
tire planet, to all of the planets creatures:

May they be filled with loving kindness

May they be happy
May they be safe
May they be well, in body and in mind
May they be peaceful
May they live with ease
Mindful Eating Description
Description
A mindful eating practice puts us back in touch with our day to day behaviors.

Eating is something that we do several times each day, this practice will put your students back in
touch with the beautiful experience that eating can be, it will put them back in touch with how their
body feels about food, it will put them back in touch with how nourishing our food is and how grate-
ful we can feel when we remember everything that has gone into this food that has been created
for us.

Bringing mindfulness into our everyday lives can help us to connect with ourselves beyond the
meditation cushion.

It can help us to be in touch with how we are feeling throughout our day, as we go about our daily
activities and it can help us to heal unconscious behaviors that may cause us suffering.

It can often happen when we practice mindful eating that we notice we have an unhealthy relation-
ship with food or with eating, once we make this conscious we can begin to heal.

This practice can bring to your students deep feelings of gratitude and an awareness of the life
giving nourishment that food provides.
Mindful Eating Practice
Contemplation and Gratitude Practice
Begin by holding your chosen food, look at it, really look at it, notice the color or colors, notice the
shape and texture.

Next, consider how this food came to be in existence, consider what it took for this food to be, did
it grow from a seed that was planted in the ground? Who planted the seed?

Consider the elements that needed to be just right for the food to grow, the soil, the air, the water
or rain and the sunshine.

Consider how your food needed to be nurture by a farmer maybe, cared for and protected.

Consider any bugs and insects that were needed to help your food grow, bees, ants and Earth
worms.

Did somebody have to harvest your food?

Was it processed into something delicious?

How did the food get to be in your possession? Did a truck deliver it to a supermarket? Did a work-
er place it on a shelf?

Did you use money to buy this food?

Express gratitude for the amount of elements that needed to come together just for this food to be
in your hands right now.

Next, get in touch with any sensations that you feel within when you look at your food, are you
hungry or excited to eat? Do you maybe dislike the food in your hands?

Get in touch with how you feel.

Next, you are going to put the food into your mouth, but don’t chew it straight away, let the food sit
on your tongue, notice what sensations you experience, what are the tastes and the texture like?

Now, slowly, slowly begin to chew your food, notice the flavor.

Notice if there is an impulse to quickly swallow so that you can eat more food, let the impulse go
and keep slowly chewing.

Does the taste change over time.

When you are ready, swallow your food.

Spend a moment in gratitude for the life giving food that is now nourishing your body.

Reflect and notice how you feel.

Repeat this practice as often as you like.

Relaxing Body Scan Meditation
Description
The purpose of the relaxing body scan meditation is to bring your students body and mind into a
state of complete relaxation.

This mindfulness meditation will help your student to let go of their thoughts and to bring their
awareness into their body and into the present moment.

This will help your student to get in touch with how they are feeling, on both an emotional and
physical level.

This practice will allow students to let go of tension and tightness they have been unconsciously
holding in their body and it will allow their body to enter a state of relaxation, bringing peace to the
mind.

This practice will often get students in touch with how they are feeling, it can open their heart and
sometimes tears will flow, allow this process, it is a wonderful release of emotions.

If you would like to make this practice shorter for certain students, for example younger students
with shorter attention spans or if you are running short on time, combine body parts or sections
together.

If you would like to make this practice longer, for example for students who are advanced medita-
tors and you know they would enjoy a longer practice or if you are running a meditation workshop
or retreat and your students are very committed, you can lengthen this practice by singling out
the body parts even further, for example, instead of saying relax the fingers you can say, relax the
index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger, pinky finger and thumb, do this in as many areas as
you like to lengthen then practice.

You can also leave longer pauses between guidance, students who are experienced at meditation
often enjoy being with the stillness and silence.

Attune to your students and follow your inner guidance.

Relaxing Body Scan Meditation
Mindfulness Meditation
Lay comfortably on your back or stomach for this practice.

Bring your awareness to the feeling of your breath, feel the rise and fall of your chest and belly as
you breathe in and breathe out.

Notice the temperature of the air, notice if it is cooler as you breathe in and warmer as you breathe
out.

Now bring your attention to the feelings and sensations in your body, notice how your body is feel-
ing right now.

Next, I will guide you through a body scan, as I name each part of your body, take your awareness
to that area of the body and consciously relax that part of the body..

Starting with your feet, bring all of your awareness into your feet, let your feet flop out to the sides
as the fully relax.

Next, bring your awareness into your legs, say to yourself quietly in your mind, my legs are re-
laxed, allow of feeling of total relaxation to wash over your legs.

Next, bring your awareness to the pelvis and the belly, say to yourself quietly in your mind, my
belly is relaxed, allow a feeling of deep relaxation to wash over your belly.

Next, bring your awareness to your chest, allow your chest to relax, say to yourself quietly in your
mind, my chest is relaxed, allow a feeling of complete relaxation to wash over your chest.

Next, bring your attention to your shoulders, allow your shoulders to melt into the ground, say to
yourself quietly in your mind, my shoulders are relaxed.

Next, bring your awareness to your arms, hands and fingers, relax your arms and hands, let your
fingers curl and say to yourself quietly in your mind, my arms and hands are relaxed, allow a feel-
ing of complete relaxation to wash over your hands.

Next, bring your attention to your face, relax your eyebrows and forehead, relax your jaw, relax the
muscles around your eyes, say to yourself quietly in your mind, my face is relaxed, allow a feeling
of complete relaxation to was over your face.

Bring your awareness to your whole head, relax you head, say to yourself quietly in your mind, my
head is relaxed.

Next, bring your awareness to your whole body, feel you body laying down, supported by the
Earth, sense where your body comes into contact with the ground, allow your full body to relax,
say to yourself quietly in your mind, my whole body is relaxed, I feel complete relaxation, allow a
feeling of total relaxation to wash over your body, full body relaxation.

Spend a few moments allowing your awareness to connect deep within your body
Slowly start to bring your awareness back into the room you are in, you can wriggle your fingers
and toes a little and slowly open your eyes.

Spend a moment reflecting on how you feel.

When you are ready, you can finish the practice with a big stretch, slowly roll over onto your side
and slowly begin to sit up.

Namaste.
Walking Meditation
Description
Many major spiritual traditions have a movement practice, tai chi, many forms of martial arts and
yoga asana are all movement practices from spiritual traditions.

Movement practices are a great way of incorporating meditation and awareness into our everyday
life.

A walking meditation is a simple mindfulness practice that will bring awareness to the body and
into the present moment.

The practice that you do today is a very slow walking meditation, you can speed the practice up to
a normal walking pace also.

Many students ask if they can practice walking meditation while on a hike or bush walk, of course,
the answer is yes, you can practice it anytime you like, however, the reason we practice initially
walking back and forth without a destination is because this is a part of the mindfulness teaching,
it is about not having a destination and instead bringing the mind and awareness deeply into the
present moment.
Walking Meditation
Mindful Movenment Practice
To do this practice, find a space where you con comfortable walk at least a few steps back and
forth.

Begin by standing still, bring your awareness to your breath.

Feel the sensations in your body, feel the weight of your body.

Feel yourself standing on the Earth, bring all of your attention into your legs and into your feet.

Feel the soles of your feet on the ground.

To begin walking, lift one leg slowly, feel the every moment as the knee bends and the leg moves
forward.

Slowly place the back of the heel onto the ground, feel each movement as you slowly place the
rest of the sole of your foot onto the ground until your toes touch the ground.

Your may notice your other foot begins to lift off the ground as you do this.

Feeling every sensation.

Lift your other leg, feel the knee as it bends and the leg moves forward, slowly, slowly, begin to
place the soles of the foot onto the ground, mindfully placing the rest of the foot onto the ground
until your toes touch the ground beneath you.

Repeat this practice for the next three minutes.

Keeping your mind on the sensations in the body.

Feeling your feet.

Feeling your legs.

To finish this practice, come to stand still, spend a moment offering gratitude to your feet and your
legs for carrying you to each place you want to go each day, without a though, our legs move us to
where we want to go, for this, we can be grateful.

Through out your day, anytime you remember, bring your awareness for a moment to the soles of
your feet, to the feeling of your legs as you walk.

Namaste.
Chakra Shuddi
Description
Chakra Shuddi or Chakra awareness is a practice that is designed to bring awareness to the ener-
gy centers of the body.

This is a yogic meditation that is said to stimulate and balance the chakras, however, the most
important aspect of this meditation is the focus and awareness.

For this practice we visualize the color of the chakra while chanting the seed sound, if you are not
familiar with the chakras, please watch the video that I have added into this course that describes
the chakras.

This meditation is vocal, the teacher chants the sound out loud, the students then chants the
sound.

For the first three chakras, it is a call and response, as these are short sounds, for example, the
seed sound of the base chakra is Lam, teacher chants Lam then student chants Lam.

Once we get to the heart chakra, this is the fourth chakra, the sound is longer, teacher will start the
sound and student will join in after a moment.

This is a beautiful practice that can be lots of fun for beginners to try because it allows them to join
in vocally, this can feel a little uncomfortable to begin with but very quickly students are joining and
having fun, I highly recommend trying this practice.
Chakra Shuddi/Purification
Beginner
Find a comfortable position either sitting or laying down.

Bring your awareness to your breath, allow the breath to be easy, natural and effortless.

Cultivate a sense of ease and well-being throughout your body.

1. Muladhara Chakra
Begin your meditation be bringing your awareness to your base chakra, the Muladrhara Chakra.

This chakra point is located at the base of your spine.

Visualize a ball of red light spinning slowly at the base of your spine.

I will now chant the seed mantra for the base chakra nine times, each time I say the word LAM,
you can repeat it after me, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

LAM x9

2. Svadhisthana Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your sacral chakra, Svadhisthana Chakra, this chakra is located in
the lower abdomen or pelvis.

The color of this chakra is orange.

Visualize a ball of orange light spinning slowly in your lower abdomen, towards the spine.

I will now chant the seed mantra for the sacral chakra nine times, each time I say the word VAM,
you can repeat it after me, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

VAM x9

3. Manipura Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your solar plexus chakra, Manipura Chakra, this chakra is located in
the upper abdomen, around a four finger space above the belly button.

The color of this chakra is yellow.

Visualise a ball of yellow light spinning slowly in your upper abdomen, towards the spine.

I will now chant the seed mantra for the sacral chakra nine times, each time I say the word RAM,
you can repeat it after me, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

RAM x9

4. Anahata Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your heart chakra, Anaharta Chakra, this chakra is located in the
center of the chest.
The color of this chakra is green

Visualize a ball of green light spinning slowly in the center of your chest.

I will now chant the seed mantra or sound for the heart chakra nine times, each time say the word
YAM, join me as I chant, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

YAM x9

5. Vishuddha Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your throat chakra, Vishuddha Chakra, this chakra is located in the
throat.

The color of this chakra is blue.

Visualize a ball of blue light spinning slowly in your throat.

I will now chant the seed mantra or sound for the throat chakra nine times, each time I say the
word HAM, join me in chanting the sound, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

HAM x9

6. Anja Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your third eye chakra, Anja Chakra, this chakra is located in be-
tween the eyebrows.

The color of this chakra is indigo blue.

Visualize a ball of indigo blue light spinning slowly in between your eyebrows.

I will now chant the seed mantra or sound for the third eye chakra nine times, each time I say the
word OM, join me in chanting the sound, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

OM x9

7. Sahasrara Chakra
Next, bring your awareness to your crown chakra, Anja Chakra, this chakra is located on top of or
above the head.

The color of this chakra is violet.

Visualize a ball of violet light spinning slowly on top of your head..

I will now chant the seed mantra or sound for the crown chakra nine times, each time I say the
word AUM, join me in chanting the sound, either verbally, out loud or internally, in your mind.

AUM x9

To finish this meditation, spend a few moments observing any sensations or vibrations within the
body. Become aware of the feeling of your breath. When you are ready, you can open your eyes.
Conscious Breathing Meditation
Zen
Find a comfortable position either sitting or laying down.

To do this practice I will say two sentences followed by two key words, as you breathe say these
key words silently in your mind, say the first key word in your mind as you breathe in and the sec-
ond key word in your mind as you breathe out

I will say four sets of sentences, each will have different key words

Close your eyes down gently and we will begin

Begin this practice by becoming aware of the feeling of your breath

Notice your chest and belly as they rise and fall when you breathe

We will begin our sentences now.

*Bell sound x3

*Bell sound x1

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in

Breathing out, I know I am breathing out

The keywords are, in, out

*Bell sound x1

*Bell sound x1

Breathing in, my breath grows deep

Breathing out, my breath grows slow

The keywords are, deep, slow

*Bell sound x1

*Bell sound x1

Breathing in, I calm my body

Breathing out, I relax

The keywords are, calm, relax

*Bell sound x1

* Bell sound x1
Breathing in, I dwell in the present moment
Breathing out, I know it is a wonderful moment

The keywords are: present moment, wonderful moment

*Bell sound x1

* Bell sound x1