Welcome to a 20-minute loving kindness meditation.
Finding a posture that feels just right for your body now.
Maybe taking less movements,
Fingers or toes.
Allowing the eyes to gently close or unfocus your gaze.
Noticing the breath,
Wherever you feel the breath the most in your body now.
Maybe a coolness or warmth in the nostrils or the throat.
Maybe the gentle rise and fall of the chest or belly.
Placing your attention here.
Noticing where you feel the breath the most in your body.
And coming to the awareness that the body is breathing itself without any effort.
Exploring where in the body you may feel any sensations.
With the words loving kindness.
For some of us,
This is in the middle of the chest area where the heart is.
For others,
This may be in the palms of the hands,
Stomach,
Face.
Or if you are not receiving sensations when you bring to mind thoughts of loving kindness,
That's okay.
Just being with what is.
Now as you stay with this felt sense of loving kindness,
Bring to mind a loved other.
This could be someone who is alive or past.
Could be an animal.
So being for which loving kindness comes easily.
That you're able to connect the sensation of loving kindness with this loved other naturally.
And as you bring to mind this loved other,
The sensations in the body might include a felt sense of what it feels like to be with this loved other.
Maybe a smell or an image comes forward.
Allowing whatever comes forward of this loved other to be as if they were in the room with you now.
Feeling and sensing this loved other present.
And wishing these wishes for them as if saying this to them in the moment.
And if the words don't fit,
Change them to the way in which you would speak these wishes to your loved other.
Imagining yourself saying,
May you be safe and secure.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be loved and loved.
And cherished.
May you be loved and cherished.
Sensing now into the body the felt sense of sharing these wishes with your loved other.
Now imagine providing these wishes to yourself.
And if you find this challenging in this moment,
Perhaps imagining your loved other saying these words to you.
Or imagining yourself as a younger version of you.
At times saying these wishes to ourselves provides difficulty.
And imagining ourselves as younger eases receiving these wishes.
Saying as if to yourself,
May I feel safe and secure.
May I feel safe and secure.
May I feel healthy and well.
May I feel healthy and well.
May I feel loved and cherished.
May I feel loved and cherished.
Sensing now into the body the felt sense of receiving these wishes.
Now bringing to your mind's eye,
Someone for which you have a neutral outlook.
Maybe you don't know them very well,
But you see them daily.
Or you frequently run across them.
Maybe it's someone who prepared a meal for you at a restaurant.
Or provided your coffee in the morning.
Or that you walk by on your walk during your day.
Bringing to mind this neutral other.
Recognizing that for them too,
If these wishes were true,
They would experience loving kindness.
Imagine saying to them,
May you be safe and secure.
May you be safe and secure.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be loved and cherished.
May you be loved and cherished.
Sensing now the body in this moment.
Bringing to mind now a difficult other.
This could be someone for which loving kindness is difficult to feel.
Selecting here,
Not your most difficult other,
But someone for which you struggle to feel loved and cherished.
Struggle to find loving kindness at times.
Bringing to mind this difficult other with a sense that if they too had these wishes,
The difficulty may not be so great.
Bringing to mind this difficult other as if they are in the room and sharing with them,
May you feel safe and secure.
May you feel safe and secure.
May you be healthy and well.
May you be loved and cherished.
May you be loved and cherished.
Feeling now into the felt sense of the body.
May you be loved and cherished.
Releasing the image of this difficult other and bringing to mind a community of which you may be part.
Maybe this is your family or a group that you're part of.
Maybe your neighborhood.
Maybe a friendship group.
Whatever group you'd like to bring to mind now,
Bringing to mind the members of this group as vividly as possible.
Knowing that these well wishes for them include you.
Wishing for this group,
May we feel safe and secure.
May we feel safe and secure.
May we be healthy and well.
May we be healthy and well.
May we be loved and cherished.
May we be loved and cherished.
Sensing into the felt sense of the body here.
No need to create anything.
Just noticing what's here now.
Releasing your community and moving now to the world.
Increasing that lens of attention to incorporate all that is.
Maybe this view comes with a sensation in the body.
Maybe it's paired with a scent or a sound or an image of the world itself.
Whatever's true for you,
Staying with that as you provide these wishes.
May we all be safe and secure.
May we all be safe and secure.
May we all be healthy and well.
May we all be healthy and well.
May we all be loved and cherished.
May we all be loved and cherished.
Sensing now into the body.
What is here now?
Now moving from this felt sense of the body to the breath in the body.
Doing this either by focusing where you feel the breath the most in the body or by following the breath through the body from the nostrils to the throat,
Down into the chest,
Lungs,
Belly.
Slight pause from the belly to the lungs,
Throat,
And nostrils out again.
Meditator's choice here,
Anchoring in your felt sense of the breath wherever you feel it the most or following the breath through the body.
As you breathe in this way,
Noticing any shifts or changes.
No need to create anything here,
Just noticing.
And if for you this meditation was particularly difficult,
Allowing the body to be soothed as you're with this difficulty.
And as we come to our last few breaths here in meditation,
Taking some time to see if you can sense gratitude,
A grateful sense for spending your time in this way,
Building and cultivating loving kindness.
If gratitude isn't true for you now,
Knowing that that too is just as it is.
And now deciding for yourself if you'd like to move the body and then open your eyes or focus your gaze,
Or if you prefer to open your eyes or focus your gaze and then move the body and doing so at the sound of the bell.
