Lexicon
Body scan
Moving attention systematically through the body, region by region, at a steady pace.
- Published
- 27 Aug 2026
A body scan is a route, not a technique. The route matters less than the pace: too fast and it becomes a recitation of body parts, too slow and the mind leaves. Twenty to sixty seconds per region is the workable band for most adults.
The scan is often described as relaxation, which sets the wrong expectation. Its purpose is discrimination — learning to tell a raw sensation from the reaction to it — and relaxation is a frequent side effect rather than the goal.
→Practices that use this term
- Tension mapping: left against right 20 minutes
- Three-minute desk scan 3 minutes
- Thirty-minute full body scan 30 minutes
- Hand to shoulder: a half-body scan 12 minutes
↔See also
- Anchor — The one thing attention is asked to return to when it wanders.
- Noting — Giving what has distracted you a one-word label, then returning.
- Restlessness — The agitated quality that makes sitting still feel unacceptable.