practice · all tools
Body Scan Meditation
A guided practice of moving attention slowly and systematically through the body, noticing sensation without trying to change it. Usually done lying down with audio guidance, 20–45 minutes. The foundational formal practice of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), trainable solo and widely used as the entry point to interoceptive awareness.
- For people with trauma history, sustained interoceptive attention can activate rather than calm; trauma-sensitive adaptations (eyes open, shorter dose, anchoring in outer senses, permission to stop) should be offered
- Sleepiness and restlessness are normal outcomes, not failures — instruction framing matters
Practical
- Time
- 20-45 min
- Group
- 1–∞ · individual, small-group, large-group
- Settings
- self-guided, in-person, online
- Materials
- Guided audio (widely available free); mat or chair; quiet room.
- Mechanisms
- somatic-awareness, attention-training, open-awareness
- Change scope
- state → skill · recurring-practice (daily or near-daily during a practice period (in MBSR: 6 days/week for 8 weeks))
Origin & where it lives
Jon Kabat-Zinn (secular codification) — Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (1979, UMass Medical School); adapted from Buddhist vipassana ("sweeping") practice and yoga nidra.
Secularized from contemplative lineages; naming that origin honestly is part of teaching it well.
Instructions: open online
In this directory via Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) · IDG Phase 2 Research Report & Toolkit (2022)
Depth is rated 2 for the general case, but the trauma caution is the model's point: a self-guided format (holding 0) is legitimate at this depth only because the solitary design lets the practitioner control the dose — the cautions field is where that containment is made explicit.
status: checked · added 2026-08-25