I now think of it as a kind of mindfulness meditation in which the practitioner imagines breathing INTO a body part, followed by breathing OUT and simultaneously RELAXING that same body part.

An example with 32 parts is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lZplYuzrNKUfC5dHYAQ5NMwE27sirIO41isRjRCmi_k/edit?usp=sharing.

Depending on how fast a person breathes, this set can take as short as 5 minutes. However, it’s usually much much longer, and that’s where the mindfulness happens for two reasons:
1. Just as in a simple seated meditation on the breath, it’s virtually impossible to maintain a single focus of awareness on the sequence of body parts without being periodically distracted by the mind “thinking thoughts.” When that happens, e.g., say at Part 6 (quads) in the example, once the meditator realizes it, they’d return from thinking and begin again with Part 7 (hamstrings). This can happen many many times with different parts as the sequence proceeds from feet to head.
2. The 32 part sequence can be easily expanded into even more body parts, e.g.,on the left and right side. Then “quads” becomes “inhale into left quad, exhale and relax left quad”, “inhale into right quad, exhale and relax right quad”. This is especially useful if one side has an injury, e.g., left ankle sprain, because that part can then receive much more attention and awareness.

Of course let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks again,

Tim