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Body scan meditation: how to do it, and what to do when your mind wanders

You're lying in bed at 11 p.m., and your attention keeps bouncing between tomorrow's meeting and a knot in your shoulders. A body scan gives that attention a slow route from your toes to the top of your head, noticing what each part feels like without trying to change it. It comes from mindfulness-based stress reduction and a short version takes about three minutes, though on its own its research support is modest.

Reviewed by our editors~8 min read

What a body scan is, and where it comes from

In a body scan, you move your attention through your body one region at a time, usually from the feet up. At each stop you notice what's there, warm or cool, tight or loose, and you don't try to fix it. A 2017 study describes the practice as moment-to-moment attention to body parts and to sensations such as pain or muscle tension, without judgment or criticism.

The body scan is a central part of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), the program Jon Kabat-Zinn developed in 1979, alongside sitting meditation and mindful yoga. His 1982 paper describes an early version: a 10-week program built on mindfulness meditation for 51 people with chronic pain who hadn't improved with standard medical care. MBSR now usually runs for eight weeks, and that time commitment leads many people to drop out, which is one reason researchers began testing the body scan by itself.

You may feel calmer afterward, but calm isn't the instruction. If your jaw stays tight the whole time and you noticed the tightness, you've done the scan.

What the studies found, and where they're thin

Most of the stronger evidence is for whole programs. A 2015 meta-analysis of 29 studies with 2,668 healthy adults found MBSR moderately effective, with the largest effects on stress, though results varied a lot between studies. A 2014 review of 47 trials in JAMA Internal Medicine found that mindfulness meditation programs brought small to moderate improvements in anxiety, depression and pain, with no evidence that they beat other active treatments.

The body scan alone has thinner support. A 2022 meta-analysis pooled 14 articles on randomized trials and found only a small effect on mindfulness compared with doing nothing. The authors concluded that a body scan on its own isn't effective enough to improve health outcomes, and they rated the studies as low in quality.

Short scans have helped in narrow moments. In a 2007 study, 30 smokers who'd skipped cigarettes overnight listened to a 10-minute body scan or a natural history reading, and the scan group's desire to smoke was lower right afterward and five minutes later. A 2009 follow-up found a 10-minute isometric exercise routine worked about as well, and in people's everyday surroundings the edge lasted only up to five minutes. In a 2014 study of 55 people with chronic pain, a 10-minute scan in the clinic eased distress about pain compared with a control recording, while at home the groups didn't differ.

What the scan seems to train is the noticing itself. In a 2017 German study, people who did a 20-minute scan every day for eight weeks got better at sensing their own heartbeat than an inactive comparison group. A fair summary is that the body scan may sharpen attention to your body and take the edge off a craving or distress for a few minutes, while the firmer evidence belongs to full eight-week programs.

How a body scan differs from progressive muscle relaxation

Both move through the body section by section, so they're easy to mix up. In progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), you tense each muscle group on purpose and then release it, so changing the body is the whole idea. In a body scan you leave everything as it is. You notice a tight shoulder and stay curious about it instead of working on it.

That difference makes them useful at different times. PMR gives a busy mind something to do with the body, which can help when you're too keyed up to sit with faint sensations. A body scan practices staying with sensations you can't change, like a stiff back or a nervous stomach. If one feels like a chore after a week, switch to the other. When you only have a minute, slow breathing techniques are quicker than either.

A body scan script: three minutes or twenty

Read it through once, then follow it from memory or record yourself reading it slowly. The three-minute version gives each region a few breaths. The longer one, closer to the 20-minute recordings used in studies, moves more slowly and splits each region into smaller parts.

  1. Get comfortable. Lie on your back on a bed or mat, or sit in a chair with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes or rest your gaze on a spot on the floor. If lying down makes you drowsy and you'd like to stay awake, sit up.
  2. Feel where you're supported. Take a few ordinary breaths and notice where your body touches the bed, floor or chair.
  3. Start at your feet. Bring your attention to your toes, then the soles and tops of your feet. Is there warmth, pressure or no sensation at all? Finding nothing is a fine answer.
  4. Move up slowly. Go to your lower legs and knees, then your thighs and hips, then your belly and lower back. For three minutes, spend a few breaths on each. In the longer one, take one leg at a time and linger on smaller areas, like the ankle or the back of the knee.
  5. Finish the upper body. Move through your chest and upper back, your hands and arms, your shoulders and neck, and then your face and scalp. Pause at your jaw and the area around your eyes.
  6. When your mind wanders, come back. You'll drift into plans, worries or a song in your head, sometimes within seconds. When you notice, name where you went, like "planning," and return to the last body part you remember. Coming back is part of the exercise, so there's no need to start over.
  7. Meet discomfort without fixing it. If you reach an ache or a tight spot, notice its size and edges and whether it changes as you watch. You don't have to make it go away. If it gets too intense, move on, open your eyes or stop.
  8. Take in the whole body, then return. For a few breaths, feel your body as one piece, from head to feet. Then wiggle your fingers and toes, open your eyes and get up slowly.

Give the three-minute scan a week or two, once a day, before you decide whether it suits you. If you fall asleep partway through, pick up where you left off next time.

Snags, and a made-up example

You fall asleep. If you're scanning in bed to wind down, drifting off is fine. If you want to practice staying aware, sit up, keep your eyes partly open or scan earlier in the day. Don't count on the scan as a sleep treatment, though, because the 2014 JAMA review found too little evidence to say meditation programs improve sleep. Our page on anxiety and sleep has other options for nights when worry keeps you up.

Your mind won't stay put. Some scans are mostly wandering and coming back, and they still count. If you lose your place often, silently name each body part as you arrive, or use a recording so a voice keeps you moving.

The scan makes you more tense. Paying attention to tension can make you more aware of it, and at first that may feel worse. Note it the way you'd note the weather and move on. If the feeling keeps building, read the next section before your next scan.

This example is made up. It shows how a scan might go and isn't evidence of any result. Nadia tries the three-minute version on her lunch break, sitting in her parked car. Her feet feel cold, her calves feel like nothing at all, and by her knees she's rehearsing an email. She notices, thinks "planning," and goes back to her knees. At her shoulders she finds a hard knot and an urge to roll it out, and she watches it for three breaths instead. It doesn't loosen, but by the time she opens her eyes her breathing has slowed. After a week of daily scans, she starts catching the knot as it forms during meetings.

Who should go carefully

A body scan asks you to watch your body closely, and for some people that's the hard part. In a 2022 survey of 434 US adults who had meditated, half reported at least one adverse effect when asked about specific ones, with anxiety and traumatic re-experiencing among the most common. About one in ten reported some impairment in daily life, and 1.2 percent said it lasted a month or more. The survey covered all kinds of meditation, not the body scan alone.

Panic or health anxiety. If you have panic attacks or worry a lot about your health, slow attention to your heartbeat or chest can turn into checking for danger. Keep your eyes open, start with your feet and hands, skip the chest for now and stop at three minutes. If your attention locks onto a symptom, switch to something outside your body, like the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise. Our page on health anxiety covers the checking habit itself.

Trauma. For some trauma survivors, closing your eyes and attending to certain parts of the body can bring back memories or a sense of threat. In the 2022 survey, people with more childhood adversity were more likely to report adverse effects. Keep your eyes open, sit up, keep scans short and skip any area that doesn't feel safe to visit. You can stop at any point, and stopping isn't failing.

Pain. If you live with pain, you'll meet it during a scan. You can notice its edges and texture, rest your attention on a part that feels neutral, or move on. In the 2014 pain study, the changes that reached significance were in distress about pain and in how much people expected it to interfere with their social life. New, severe or unexplained pain needs a doctor first.

Plan your first scan

The chat below runs with Helpy, the site's AI assistant. Tell it when you could fit in a scan and what usually pulls your attention away, and it can help you choose a length and a starting point. It's a self-help tool, not a therapist.

Evidence and sources

When to get help

If scans regularly set off panic, flashbacks or a sense of being cut off from your body, stop and talk to a therapist, ideally one with trauma experience. Bring new, severe or unexplained physical symptoms to a doctor. If you're thinking about hurting yourself or you're in danger right now, use the crisis contacts below.

Important

This is educational self-help content, not a substitute for professional care. If anxiety is intense, sticks around for weeks, or makes daily life hard, reach out to a mental-health professional or doctor. If you’re in crisis or thinking about suicide, get help now: call or text 988 (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line), or call 911 for emergencies. Available 24/7.

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