If the practice has been surfacing more than you can hold alone, please reach out before the next sit.
US: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 24/7) · Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 · UK: 116 123 Samaritans · AU: 13 11 14 Lifeline · International: findahelpline.com. The practice below is a complement to clinical care, not a substitute.
Week 2: Quick answer
Week 2 of MBSR is the body scan, meeting the body where it actually is, not where you wish it were. Drawn from the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) and Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living, the practice notices the body crown-to-feet without trying to relax it. Be where you are.
From Aria
Week two moves from the breath into the body. The body scan is the practice Kabat-Zinn adapted from Mahasi-lineage vipassanā for the original MBSR curriculum in 1979; the practice in the Visuddhimagga goes back to the fifth century. Notice that you are not trying to relax the body. You are noticing the body. Those are different practices, and confusing them is one of the most common ways the practice gets diluted. Be where you are, not where you wish you were.
Signature practice this week
Vipassanā Body Scan (Kabat-Zinn / Mahasi adaptation)
Classical source
Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 10), kāyānupassanā, the body-as-body foundation of mindfulness; Mahāsi Sayādaw, Practical Insight Meditation (1971); Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living (1990 ed., ch. 5; 2013 ed., ch. 6)
Duration
30 minutes
The one-line instruction
Lying down, begin at the crown of the head and move attention slowly down through the body, naming what is here without trying to change it, one full pass, crown to feet, 30 minutes.
Full practice instructions
Lie down or sit upright; the practice works in both postures.
Begin at the crown of the head; notice whatever sensation is there (or its absence).
Move attention slowly down through face, neck, shoulders, arms, hands.
Continue through the chest, belly, back, hips, legs, feet.
Soft inward labels are optional, "warmth," "pressure," "tingling", they anchor noticing without analysis.
When you reach the feet, sweep back up to the crown; one full pass is one round.
Full library entry for Vipassanā Body Scan (Mahasi Noting Method) →
The formal daily sit
MBSR is a daily-practice curriculum. This week the formal sit is 45 minutes, six days out of seven, by Kabat-Zinn's original cadence. The seventh day is for the body to integrate.
Daily Sit, Body Scan (45 min, alternating with 15-min Ānāpānasati)
Classical / curriculum source
MBSR week-2 cadence (Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living, 1990 ed., ch. 5; 2013 ed., ch. 6)
The instruction
Six days this week, alternate: body scan one day (45 min), breath practice the next (15 min), Kabat-Zinn's original cadence preserves the breath foundation while introducing the body.
Off the cushion this week
The texts agree that the practice is most useful when it reaches off the cushion. This week, bring these into daily life:
One mindful shower this week, the contact of water on skin, no music, no rehearsal of the day.
Pausing before standing up from a chair, feel the body's weight on the surface, the shift to the feet, the rise.
One mindful meal, eat slowly enough that you can name three sensations from one bite.
Notice posture three times today: at the desk, walking, eating. No correction yet, only noticing.
Inquiry: journal this week
The journaling is half the practice. Spend ten minutes most evenings with one of these prompts. Move through them across the week, not all at once.
1. Which body region was hardest to be with during the scan, and what story did the mind tell about that region?
The body holds what the mind cannot say; where the scan asks for the most effort is often where the most has been stored.
2. When you noticed an unpleasant sensation, what was your first impulse, to change it, to label it, to move away?
The impulse to fix is the second arrow before the first has even landed; notice the impulse without acting on it.
3. What region of the body felt most familiar, most yours, most home?
The body's signal that the practice is working is not relaxation; it is belonging, the slow recognition that the body is the place you live.
4. Did you fall asleep during the scan? How many times? Did you finish anyway?
Sleep during the scan is information, usually about sleep debt, sometimes about the body's avoidance of a region. Note which.
5. How did the scan change between the first day and the sixth?
Track the shift; the curriculum is a longitudinal practice and the data lives across days, not within a single sit.
Reading this week
The readings are the depth above the floor. The classical traditions taught the practice through commentary as much as through silence; the texts agree that reading is part of the path.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living (2013, revised ed.)
Pages
ch. 5, 'The Power of Breathing: Your Secret Ally', and ch. 6, 'Cultivating Mindfulness Through Bodily Sensations'
Why this reading
The original MBSR body-scan instruction in Kabat-Zinn's own words, the practice has not changed since 1979 and Kabat-Zinn's framing is still the clearest English-language source.
David Treleaven, Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness (2018)
Pages
ch. 3, 'The Window of Tolerance' and ch. 6, 'Working With Body Sensations'
Why this reading
Treleaven's modifications to the standard body scan are non-negotiable reading before week two, if the standard scan is unsafe for you, the modifications are.
What might come up, and when to stop
The signature breath
The breath is the only thing that lives in the present. Each week of the curriculum names a breath pattern matched to its practice.
Crystal companion this week
In Crystal Cassandra's work, certain stones are the somatic companion to certain practices. The pairing is not magical; it is a steady weight in the palm that becomes part of the noticing.
Selenite
Selenite is the stone most often placed nearby during long-form body practice in the modern Western tradition, soft, luminous, the quintessential rest stone. Place it within arm's reach during your scan. Never put it in water; selenite dissolves.
Closing the week
The body scan is harder than it sounds and more profound than it looks. Sit with the boredom; sit with the regions that ask for attention. Next week we move, walking meditation, mindful yoga, practice off the cushion. The body is the only thing you have brought with you to every moment of your life. This week we begin to live in it.
In stillness, Aria Stillwater
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