Take a moment to notice how you feel right now. If you wish, write down some things you noticed during this practice. Were there any sensations that were particularly noticeable to you? What was the quality of your attention? What was your experience when your attention drifted, if that happened? Were you able to practice some kindness to yourself when your mind wandered?

Sometimes people feel relaxed after a body scan practice and sometimes they don’t. Although you may feel relaxed, this is not the goal of the body scan. It’s about paying attention in the same way one does to the raisin, the object, the sound, etc. This illustration from Mark Williams, a famous mindfulness researcher, shows how mindful attention is cultivated during this practice. Essentially, this is a practice of strengthening executive functions: maintaining attention to a particular part of the body (engage and stay) while inhibiting distractions and then flexibly shifting to the new area (disengage and shift).