Hi!
Thanks for joining me today in this practice.
We're going to do a short loving-kindness meditation and this is good for cultivating compassion not only for yourself but for others and ultimately for all living things.
So let's begin by finding a comfortable position.
You can either sit or lie down as long as you are remaining alert and just take a moment to kind of settle in and arrive in your body and let go of any tension or distractions.
Now just bring your attention to your breath.
Take a few deep gentle breaths inhaling slowly and exhaling fully allowing yourself to relax deeply and just be present in this moment.
As we begin this loving-kindness meditation we're going to cultivate feelings of love and kindness and compassion.
We're going to repeat these phrases silently or out loud whatever you're more comfortable with and just allow the intention behind these words to resonate within you and you can adjust these words.
These are ones that I use and that are widely used but if you want to change the phrases around a little bit to suit yourself that is okay.
So let's start by directing these phrases towards yourself and if you can just sort of in your mind's eye see a picture of yourself maybe as a child maybe as an adult or where you're at now and as you visualize this version of yourself you're just going to repeat these words and you can say them again out loud or to yourself.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I live life with ease and just sit with that for a moment and feel the warmth and sincerity behind these words as you wish yourself well and embrace the feelings of love and kindness filling your heart.
Let's just take a couple more breaths and we're gonna extend this loving-kindness to someone that you care about,
Someone who has supported you,
Maybe someone that you look up to.
So bring that person into your mind's eye and let's say the phrases again.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live life with ease.
And again just picture this person in your mind and genuinely send them these well wishes.
Allow your love and gratitude to flow to them freely.
Now we're gonna extend this loving-kindness to a neutral person,
Someone that you may not even know.
Maybe you've just passed on a street or someone that works in a store that you were recently in.
Just sort of bring a vision of this person into your mind and we're gonna repeat repeat the same phrases.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live life with ease and just see this person standing before you with an open heart and send them these wishes of goodwill and kindness.
Now we move on to somebody that might be a difficult person in your life or maybe someone that you're experiencing conflict with.
Maybe it's a family member or a co-worker.
Bring that person into your mind's eye and let's repeat the phrases again.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live life with ease.
Despite any challenges or differences over these these compassionate wishes towards them we still want to allow forgiveness and understanding to just blossom within you.
And if you find that it's too hard to send these well wishes to somebody that you have conflict with simply repeat them to yourself again.
Then lastly let's extend these loving-kindness wishes to all beings without any exceptions.
Sometimes I like to envision the planet Earth or a really large group of people and we'll say may all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be safe and may all beings live with ease.
And if you can just visualize the interconnectedness of all living beings extending your love and your compassion and well wishes to everyone everywhere.
Let's take a moment to sit with the feelings of love kindness and compassion that you've cultivated during this meditation.
Allow them to permeate your being knowing that these qualities are always within you.
And as we conclude this loving-kindness meditation bring your attention back to your breath.
Let's take a few deep breaths in and as you exhale gently open your eyes.
May you carry the spirit of loving-kindness with you throughout your day spreading love and compassion wherever you go.
Thank you again for joining me in this practice and I hope to talk to you soon.
