Love & Kindness Meditation

Learn how to first love yourself deeply. Then connect and love those close to you. Then learn to open your heart to those who are more distant. Finally, learn to forgive and show kindness to those who you may find it hard to love.
Rich Maule will guide you step by step to learn how to keep your heart open more of the time. This will create better relationships, more self-love, and an abundant life.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to today's love and kindness meditation. Love and kindness meditation is all about sending good vibes to yourself and the people around you. Think of it like a mental hug you give yourself and then share with others. Some of the benefits of the love and kindness meditation that we'll be doing today helps to reduce self-criticism, Will enhance your well-being and life satisfaction, Create better mental health and clarity, Improve your relationships and even benefit you physically. Healthy emotions, Healthy physiology. So over time you'll notice the heightened sense of compassion and connection, Not just towards others but also towards yourself. This way you can contribute to a culture of kindness and compassion around you. So take a moment just to get comfortable. Find a seated position, Preferably with your back straight. Maybe legs crossed, Maybe not, Maybe feet on the ground. When you're ready, Just closing your eyes, Inhaling, Exhaling. Just noticing your breath, Becoming aware of your body, Inhalation, Exhalation. Bringing your awareness to the top of your head, Your face, The sides of your head. Just slowly scanning your body all the way down to the tips of your toes, Neck, Shoulders, Chest, Back, Hips, Thighs, Legs, All the way to the tips of your toes. Really being seated in your body, Existing in your body and your breath. The first step is to cultivate a sense of love and kindness within yourself. And so, Just bringing your attention inwards and placing your hand on your heart. With your hand on your heart, Start to breathe, Imagine you're breathing into this space in your heart. Breathing into that space in your heart, Filling it with love. Maybe you even notice just the corners of your mouth, Just allowing a little smile to come as you breathe love into your heart. Feeling perhaps some form of light entering your heart as you breathe, Maybe you're breathing in all the love in the world, The light coming in through your nose, Down through your throat, Into your heart and filling it up with love. Just feeling so much love and kindness for yourself, A smile across your face. Maybe you even smile, Maybe even make a sound, Feels good. Just allowing yourself, Almost pretending, Imagining, Having fun with it, Allowing love to fill your heart, That light to fill your heart and then maybe it moves from your heart and that light, Whatever colour that light of love is, It starts to move through your body, Through your veins, Through your blood, Just filling your body up with love. Every cell, Every muscle fibre, Your blood, Your bones, Everything just filling up with love, That light just moving through you, Feeling good, Feeling loved, Feeling kindness for yourself. That's it. And then let someone come to mind or a moment come to mind, Someone who really loves you or loved you, A moment maybe where you felt so completely and absolutely loved by someone. Maybe a specific time or if it's just a person that comes to mind. Someone that makes you feel so loved and appreciated and was always and is so kind to you or maybe it was a moment specifically that comes up. And allow that love to be imbued upon you now, The love of that person and how they feel about you or that moment and how it made you feel and that love just filling you up inside now. Again, Maybe that light, Light love just filling you up now all the way into your heart space and being pumped around your body and there's that smile again maybe, Corners of your mouth just lifting up and your cheeks just feeling amazing, Feeling so much love, So much joy. Do you even hear yourself saying certain things? I love myself, I wish myself a happy, Loving life, I have infinite compassion for myself. So whatever you want to hear inside that makes you feel the most love you can right now, Just hear that mantra, Those words, Speaking those words to yourself and with each repetition of those words that light grows brighter and brighter inside, That loving light that is in you grows brighter and brighter and the love from that person that you thought of grows brighter and brighter and stronger and stronger and bigger and bigger, More vibrant, More real and that smile grows more and more and more, That's right. And now with this love that you feel, I want you to imagine someone that you're very close to, That you really do love, Just think of one person for now, Maybe it's your wife, Your husband, One of your children, Maybe your mother or father, Someone very close to you, Maybe just a very good friend, Could even be a pet, Imagine that person in front of you now and as you're filled with love and light, I want you to expand that light and those words of kindness and loving towards that person, Send all that love and kindness towards that person now, Those loving words, Those affirmations and you decide how you see it and how you feel it, Maybe the light from you starts to expand like a bubble, Like a sphere, Expanding out and enveloping, Embracing, Holding that person in that loving light or maybe you just see a beam of light shooting out from your heart, Emanating out love and kindness and those words towards that person and connecting the two of you. So however you wish to see it, Just sending that love, That kindness out towards that other person now and as you do, You notice that they are being imbued with that light, That loving, That kindness from you and it's filling them up too and maybe you can see their face and they're starting to smile too, Maybe the corners of their mouth or they start to just grin and their cheeks are like two little apples raised up, Grinning, Maybe they're laughing from the love that you're giving them and maybe you're laughing too, You're laughing together with the love and the light and the kindness, Just both feeling amazing and so just noticing how that feels in your body right now too, Are you smiling, Are you grinning, Are you laughing, Are you feeling the love now? And just notice the connected feeling you have with that person and how good it feels, Just enjoy that fully now, Completely, Utterly, In every way you can, Feeling that love and that connection with that other person and then you can choose to keep that person there if you wish or you can just let them drift off, You decide in a moment. I want you to think of another person now that you really do love, Someone also very close to you, Maybe another child, A partner, Just someone you really care for, A mother, A father, Cousin, An uncle and then do the same thing, Take that love that's inside of you, That light, That kindness and start to imbue it upon them, Send it out to them. Now whether it's that other person is still there from before or maybe it's just this new person, You decide, You're the architect, You're the creator of this world inside of you and so send that loving light out to them now, This new person. Feel the love, Those words of loving, Those loving affirmations, Sending them out now, Withholding nothing, Only love. Maybe it's that sphere that expands out, Maybe it's a beam of light that shoots from your heart to theirs and what you start to notice is they start to be enveloped by that sphere or the light shines upon them from you. Something amazing starts to happen, Even more amazing than what's happening now. You notice that as you send light to them and love to them and those powerful words of love and kindness to them, You start to notice that they're, Without even thinking, Sending love and kindness and light back to you and it's this reciprocal, Cyclical exchange where you're giving love and light and kindness and what's coming back is love and light and kindness to you and you're both laughing and smiling maybe, Feeding each other love and light and kindness, Feeling better, Feeling more loving, More kind. The words being magnified, I wish you a happy, Loving, Long life, I wish you all the success in the world, I love you, I love you, Whatever words come up for you, Moving between the two of you, Maybe even the three of you now, Maybe if that other person is still there, The love is moving between you and them and the other person, You and them and then maybe even between the two of them, Just creating more and more love and now you can either get remove those two from your mind's eye or keep them if you wish and think of another person that you love and do the same thing, Send that love, Send that light and it happens more quickly now, More easily, Without you even having to think, Your mind knows what to do, You're full of love, You're full of light, You're full of kindness and you send it out now to that other person, The new person that you love dearly and you notice and you see the reciprocity, The cyclical nature of as you give out more love, It returns back to you and the more that you have returned back to you, The more loving you feel, The more you send out and it's just as it's supposed to be, As life is supposed to work, Creation of love inside, Sending it out and receiving it back but you don't love to receive, It doesn't matter, You're just loving, You are love and so noticing with that third person now, The same thing, The building of love and connection, Just feeling great, Maybe you're all laughing and smiling now and now I want you to think of someone that you're not quite as close with, You still love them, Maybe a family member but a more distant family member now, Maybe an uncle, Maybe a cousin or a grandparent, Maybe just not as connected with or maybe even a friend, A close friend but someone who's not as close as family and just notice that person and as we start to do this, You might even start to notice as we go to people that are further and further away from our inner circle, It may feel a little resistance to loving them quite so much as you did the first people and that's fine, That's normal, All I want you to do is notice any resistance and then just let it go or even love that resistance and it will dissipate, It will transmute, It will transform all on its own but we don't resist the resistance and so just bringing that person to mind and doing the same thing, Sending that light, That love, That kindness out to them, Feeling that love and sending it to them in the same way, Maybe they send it back too, Maybe they send it back in the same way, Maybe it's slightly less love, It doesn't matter, You're just receiving, You're not asking, You're not requiring, You're just noticing, Smiling, Hand on your heart, Breathing in the love and then I want you to think of another person now and this time it's someone you're just an acquaintance with, Just someone you know, Maybe you're loosely friends, Let that person come to mind and don't worry if they haven't come to mind yet, As they do come to mind, Just again repeating that same process, That love, That light, Your hand on your heart, That smile, That warmth, Just sending that out to that person and if there's any resistance, If there's any thoughts about I don't want to send this much love to that person, That's too much or maybe I should hold back or maybe they wouldn't give me the same love, Just allow those thoughts, That resistance, Accept it, Welcome it, Love that resistance too, Send that love, That light, That kindness, Send that barrier to love, Love and kindness and it will just dissolve on its own and keep sending that love, That light, That joy, That heartfelt wisdom to that person without any fear of not receiving it back, Just loving. And now think of another person and this person is going to be just an acquaintance, Not even someone you see often at all as a friend, Maybe you see them in the office, Maybe you just see them around and you say hi, How you doing, But not someone you have a close relationship with, Not someone you would share personal things with particularly, So maybe someone at work or maybe you see someone day to day but aren't close to and the same thing, Just sending that love, Sending that light, That heartfelt wisdom from your heart, From your body, From your cells to that person now and noticing any resistance that comes up and then just letting it go, It's okay, Loving that resistance, Totally accepting those parts of you and loving them too and then as you do that, You notice as they dissipate and dissolve and transmute, It allows more space inside of you to then love that other person without fear of whether they'll love you back, Just sending that light, That love and you see it enter their heart and it does what it does, It fills them up with love and maybe they resist it but that's not your job, That's okay and then thinking of another person now and this is someone who you are not connected with, Maybe you struggle with and you have some dislike to, So allowing that person to come up, Maybe someone you've had a squabble with and you're struggling to like in any way or love, Let that come to mind now, That person and in the same way, Sending that love, Sending that light to them, That light from your heart to theirs, That sphere expanding out to theirs, Filling them up with love regardless, Any resistance comes up, You just let it go, That's okay and maybe even noticing how you start to feel towards them just slightly differently, Maybe you start to see them in a different way, You maybe notice things about them that you didn't notice before, A certain compassion, A love, The patience for them and what they might be going through, An empathy, An empathy is not agreeing, It's just understanding, Being in their shoes, Seeing things from their perspective and now I want you to start to really expand out fully, See yourself starting to float up higher and higher out of your body, Perhaps higher and higher until you can see out in front of you, Your timeline of your life and then other timelines of other people's or maybe you see even specks and dots of different people around the world and you start to see every single person represented in some way, Their lives, Whether it's timelines or dots or circles or pictures of people but somehow you see everyone who's in the world, All the different people, People you like, People you don't like, People you don't know, People you'll never meet in your life ever physically and I want you to start to send out that light that you have inside of you, Out to them, Every essence of love that exists inside of you now, Sending it out to them, All those different representations of lives in the world, Maybe even beyond those lives on earth and to every single aspect of life, Maybe any aspect of nature that you start to see, Waterfalls, Trees, Insects, Animals, Just sending out your love to all those different beings in existence completely, Utterly and just feeling one with everything, Just feeling that you are love and love is you and everything is love and you're all connected and you're one a rising tide lifts all boats, You're all one and connected and then in a moment all of that love, All of that connectivity together in a minute, When I count from five to one is going to start to contract, Get smaller and smaller until it becomes a small little thing comes back inside of you and so five, Four, Getting smaller, Four, Three, Two, One and it's just small now and it floats that love, That connectivity back into your body now and you realize it's always inside of you, That love, That connectedness, That understanding and in a moment when I count from one up to five, You'll bring with you all that love, All that connectedness and on five you'll open your eyes and you'll just be aware of your body again coming out of meditation so one, Two, Three, Being more aware of your body now, Four and five, Opening your eyes bringing with you all that love and connectedness and compassion and I want to thank you for being an awesome meditator for doing a beautiful job today, Thank you for being with me, Thank you for creating more love within yourself, Thank you for trusting me to guide you through that today and I'm very excited to see you here again in another meditation have a great day