Welcome to this Metta or Loving Kindness practice.
For those of us who are in a caregiving role.
Inviting you.
To find a place and a way of being now that lets your body have some ease.
And as you begin to settle.
See if you might notice your feet in contact with floor.
Your seat in contact with support,
Chair or couch.
And coming to shoulders.
Might you invite the shoulders to soften even a little just now?
Then choosing what to do with your eyes.
We want to listen to ourselves in a way and be kind to ourselves.
So no shitting.
No particular thing we need to do.
But you noticing for you.
What would you like to do now with your eyes just for this time?
Let the eyes close over.
Lower or soften the gaze.
Or would be helpful.
Choosing that.
And now I'm going to advise.
A short body scan.
Which is very simply noticing our body from the top of our head.
All the way down to our feet.
And they'll walk us through that.
And then we're going to offer Metta our loving kindness.
We're going to offer it to four people.
The person that we are caring for.
We're going to offer loving kindness,
Our metta,
Towards that person.
Then those who are in our circle of love,
People who might be supporting us.
Will offer loving kindness to them.
And then to a stranger.
And finally,
To ourselves.
And you know as we go through this measure practice.
It's a great opportunity for you to notice where is it most comfortable.
Which of those four things is easiest for you and which is difficult?
So you might choose just to do the one that is easy.
That feels okay.
That is soft.
And you might feel very free to let the others go.
In this practice,
Our core concern is softness and kindness towards ourselves.
And believe me,
I know that this is deep,
Hard work.
And especially very tricky for those of us who are living our day-to-day life.
Other focused in the business of caring for our person.
So we begin.
Bringing your awareness as best you can now,
Just to the crown of your head.
Noticing your head.
Your forehead.
Your whole face.
Inviting the head.
And the whole face to soften.
Even a little.
Coming to shoulders.
Can you just notice how the shoulders are in this minute?
Maybe Tice.
Are sore.
Are soft.
And again,
Inviting the shoulders now.
To have a little ease.
And a little space.
Bring your awareness now to the very small of your back.
Just that little place where the spine emerges from the sitting bone.
Noticing as best you can just that point on the lower back.
A place where we often carry and hold.
Imagine now.
This small of the back,
Having a little more space,
A little ease.
Some softness.
Moving on up to the middle back.
And then the upper back.
Inviting now the whole back to have a little space.
Some ease.
A little softness coming back to shoulders.
Noticing now the arms coming out from the shoulders.
Just an awareness of arms all the way down to the elbows.
Letting the upper arms soften.
Relax.
Even a little.
Noticing elbows.
And then lower arms.
Lashing the lower arms.
From the elbows all the way down to the wrists.
Soften now.
Noticing hands becoming aware of wherever the hands are resting.
Letting the hands soften.
Sink into the support that is here.
Hands,
Having some ease.
Coming to rest.
Becoming aware now of the chest.
Noticing the heart space and the chest area.
Seeing if you might register the breath coming in.
And the breath going out.
Just here in the chest area.
Slight rise of the chest on the in-breath.
And the gentle falling back of the chest on the out-breath.
Now moving the awareness down a little further to the belly.
And here too,
You might notice the slight rise of the belly on the in-breath.
And the falling back of the belly on the out-breath.
Rise of the belly on the in-breath.
Falling back of the belly on the out breath.
Coming now to the hips.
And to the pelvic girdle.
That big bony structure.
Hip to hip.
And all the organs contained in this part of the lower body.
Inviting now some ease.
Even a little space in this part of the body.
Bringing your awareness now to your legs.
Legs coming out from the hip joints all the way down to the knees.
Noticing the upper legs.
Best you can,
Inviting some softness.
A little ease.
Into the upper legs.
From the hip joint.
To the knee.
Noticing now the knees themselves.
Only structure at the front.
Hollow at the back.
Becoming aware of the lower legs.
All the way from the knees down to the ankles.
Letting the calf muscles soften.
Have some ease.
Becoming aware of feet now.
Feet in contact with support.
Noticing now the feet themselves.
Registering any sensations of warmth or moisture.
Maybe no sensation at all in the feet.
Just noticing fish.
So that the whole body now might have a little ease.
Be a little softer.
Noticing kind awareness of the whole body.
And now coming back to heart space,
Best you can.
Can you notice the heart that is in your body right now?
Maybe you become aware of sensations of warmth around the heart.
You might even notice the heartbeat itself,
In whatever way works for you.
Bringing your awareness into your heart space.
As we move now into our practice of Metta.
So I'm going to use three phrases that you can say out loud.
Softly or you can just say in your heart.
You don't have to feel any feelings for the words.
We're just saying the words and they do their work.
And I'm going to offer these phrases.
For the person you're caring for.
For those who are helping.
For the stranger.
That person we don't really know but we might see very often.
A peripheral person.
And then finally,
For myself.
So you choose carefully and wisely.
Which parts of the meta are comfortable for you right now?
And so,
To begin,
We focus on my person.
The person I am caring for.
Bringing an awareness or maybe an image of that person.
Right into your heart space now.
And looking lovingly at this person,
My person,
The centre of my caregiving.
We send them some loving kindness.
Saying aloud.
Or in our hearts.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be free.
And then letting the image of that person,
My person,
The focus of my caregiving.
Simply dissolve.
And now.
.
.
Bringing to mind those people who are also involved in some way in the caregiving.
I might call them the circle of support.
Others who are somehow involved in the caregiving.
And seeing if you might bring an image,
A gathering of these right into your heart space.
Noticing who belongs there.
And bringing them in.
And we offer these.
The helpers.
The Circle of Support.
Loving-kindness or metta.
May you be well.
May you be free.
May you be safe.
May you be well.
May you be free.
May you be safe.
Our circle of support.
Allowing that circle now to dissolve in awareness.
Just gently floating away.
And see if in your mind's eye you can find what we might call the stranger.
Somebody you might see.
At reception.
Many times you say hello.
But you don't know anything about the person.
Maybe somebody who might serve you in a shop regularly.
You say hello.
Maybe comment on the weather.
But you don't know anything about each other.
Scanning now,
Your every day.
And seeing if you might find this stranger.
This person on the edges of your life.
And when you've found that person.
Bringing him our heart.
Right into your field of awareness.
Into your heart space.
And we wish the stranger well.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be free.
And then,
When you're ready,
Letting the image of the stranger dissolve and just move away again.
And in this final part of the practice.
We invite metta or loving kindness for ourselves.
So coming into your heart space again.
Noticing yourself through image or warmth of compassion for yourself.
Right here,
Right now,
In your own heart space.
Wishing yourself well.
Using the same form of words we say.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be free.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be free.
And finally,
We say,
May we stay connected across traditions.
Across personal differences.
Across time zones.
Across geography.
May we stay connected across traditions.
Across personal differences.
Across time zones.
Across geographies.
And we finish the practice.
Just by bringing the awareness again back to the body.
Nice and gently.
And as slowly as feels right for you.
Maybe noticing again the seat in contact with support.
The feet in contact with floor and earth.
Sounds around you.
Maybe sounds in the room you're in.
Or sounds further afield.
Noticing sounds.
Becoming aware of air in contact with skin.
Sensations of air,
Worn.
Cool.
Neutral.
And when you are ready.
Lifting the gaze.
Or opening the eyes.
And taking a minute to look around.
The space you're in.
Your familiar space.
Just coming back into your own space.
And as you do that.
.
.
See if you might let your eyes rest on something in your space that you haven't noticed for a while.
Just one thing.
Noticing and letting the eyes rest there.
Just for these some seconds.
And finally.
.
.
Letting that body have just whatever little bit of movement it would like.
Maybe your shoulders would like to move.
Or perhaps for you,
It's just a smile arriving on the face.
Or a wiggle of fingers or toes.
Or your body might like a nice long stretch.
Or yawn.
Or a loud sigh.
Slowly,
If you can.
Leshing your body.
Have whatever movement that it would like right now.
Moving into whatever is next for you.
With some ease.
Some kindness towards yourself.
And an awareness of and openness.
To others you meet in your caregiving journey.
