Restful Compassion | Breathing & Metta Meditation | 18 Mins

Rest into a compassionate state of being through guided belly breathing and loving-kindness (metta) meditation to expand inner joy and peace. Find a comfortable yet intentional posture for practice and we shall begin...

Transcript

And as this meditation experience starts to meet you,

Are you able to start to meet this meditation practice with an openness,

With a warmth from the onset?

Notice what that would mean to draw openness and warmth into your physical body now.

What part of your body would open and where would you feel a warmth growing?

Just let that soften in for the next few breaths as the body starts to land and arrive,

Releasing whatever has been up until this point in the day and committing to your practice.

Starting to drop into the felt sense of your body,

Here being held by what's beneath you.

You might even notice the atmosphere around your body on the surface of your skin.

And over the next course of breaths,

Starting to smooth out any edginess to the breath,

Creating a roundness,

Fluidity to the breathing experience now.

Allowing the breath to travel a little deeper into the body and allowing the breath to take up residence and more space in the body.

A lot of us tend to breathe up in the clavicular area,

In the chest.

So over the coming moments,

Can you draw the breath down into the ribcage?

And as you breathe in,

Can you draw the ribcage out into space?

And as you breathe out,

You just simply witness the change in the body.

That's the practice for the next few moments,

Just witnessing the breath living here in your body.

When we connect to the breath,

We can't be in the future,

We can't be in the past.

We get the opportunity to be here,

Truly here,

Letting everything else go,

Sipping in presence with every breath.

Beautifully done.

And in this space between guidance,

Just notice how long you stay with the breath before the mind wants to take you away.

Are you able to journey back to the breath when you catch yourself going off somewhere else?

Nicely done.

From here,

I invite you to place one hand to the stomach area,

Just perhaps floating on top of the belly button.

And over the next few breaths that come in and go out,

What we're gonna do is we're gonna start to move into belly breathing,

Abdominal breathing.

And you're gonna start to encourage with the inhale,

The belly button to draw up and out into your hand.

And with the exhale,

You start to witness the gentle hug in of the belly button toward the spine.

It's effortless,

And then there might even be just a little bit of a hug at the very end of the breath before you inhale,

Expand like a balloon into the belly.

And then exhale,

You witness that softening motion toward the spine,

And you might take a little moment to hug the belly button at the very end of the breath.

This is the practice for the next few rounds of breath.

Belly breathing helps us activate the diaphragm,

Which allows full and optimal exchange of oxygen.

So the more that we do this,

The more optimal we can breathe outside of these practices.

And if it helps that visualization of a balloon expanding in the stomach and deflating with the exhale,

If you're finding it useful to have your hand still on your stomach,

Please remain.

Otherwise,

If you wanna give this a go without that tactile touch,

Releasing the hand,

Placing it somewhere intentionally,

And then continuing to belly breathe,

Just with the felt experience from within.

And just a few more rounds of belly breathing,

Allowing the oxygen to travel to the very lower lobes of the lungs,

Supporting a beautiful breath,

Calming the nervous system,

Revitalizing the mind with every breath in and every breath out.

And then allow yourself to slowly transition back to a natural method of breathing.

Notice if anything has altered through that breathing practice.

Is there a felt sense somewhere in the body?

Maybe it's less of the body and more in the mind.

Maybe it's less in the mind and more energetic.

Just noticing how you feel on the back of that short breathing experience.

And then I invite you now to drop your awareness into the heart space,

Center of the chest,

Slightly off to the left where the heart resides.

And I'll give you just a few moments to tune into this area of you.

You may start to feel your heartbeat the closer you get to it.

And then if you could ask your heart this simple question before we go further with this practice,

What's on my heart today?

So anything present when you ask that question,

What's on my heart today?

Sometimes we can find something,

Other times it's a little more obscure.

But the exploration is worthwhile all the same.

So acknowledging what you're working with emotionally here in the heart space.

And we begin by visualizing now a cute puppy.

Whatever breed is the cutest to you,

Visualizing this gorgeous little puppy and the way that they move about the world.

We send metta,

Loving kindness,

To this pup.

From your heart to their being,

Repeating these phrases.

May you be happy,

May you continue to be bold,

And may you spread joy in the world.

May you be happy,

May you be bold,

And may you continue to spread joy in the world.

Imagine that pup,

We're receiving your warmth,

Your message of metta,

And it gives them a little bit of extra spring in the way that they move.

And then releasing the image of the puppy.

Keeping your heart open,

Visualize now yourself.

Here in meditation,

Closed eyed,

Looking peaceful and serene,

Even if that's not your internal state.

And imagine you had the same want and intention to send that message to yourself.

Repeating internally now to yourself,

May I be happy,

May I be bold,

May I continue to spread joy in the world.

You might repeat that once or twice internally until it sinks in a little deeper.

Notice how it feels to send this message from yourself to yourself.

Does it feel easy?

Does it feel strange?

Just notice.

And then letting the image of yourself dissolve and bringing the image of someone that you absolutely adore here in your meditation mind.

Imagine what they're wearing,

How their hair is looking,

If they have hair,

How they're moving,

How they're looking at you,

And wishing that same metta sentiment to them.

May you be happy,

May you be bold,

May you continue to spread joy in the world.

You might choose to repeat that a few more times,

Imagining this person receiving your warmth,

And then letting their image dissolve,

Imagining wherever they are in the world,

They receive that.

And suddenly they feel a little bit bolder and a little bit brighter because of it.

And now I ask you to connect with someone and bring them to mind that is having a bit of a hard time right now.

You're aware that they're struggling or suffering,

And you just open your heart toward them.

With endless love and an open heart,

You send this metta phrase to them.

May you be happy,

May you be bold,

And may you find joy in this life.

May you be happy,

May you be bold,

And may you find joy in this life.

If there's anything else you wish to communicate to this person that feels true for you or their situation,

Maybe feeling into your heart space and clarifying what that message would be.

And imagine this person now were receiving your metta phrases and your personal message,

And they just felt a little bit better.

Even just a fraction.

And gently draw your awareness now back into your breath.

How is your breath behaving through this loving kindness meditation?

Notice if anything is residing in the heart now that wasn't there before.

Notice if it's exactly the same.

Just tuning in and starting to deepen the breath once again here.

Feeling an expanded sense of compassion,

Feeling an expanded warmth from deep within.

Start to bring your awareness back into your room through the sense of sound.

Noticing what you can hear first.

And then noticing your body being held by the support beneath you.

And in your own time,

Finding some subtle movements in the fingers,

Maybe the neck,

Maybe the head,

Toes,

Ankles.

And when you're ready,

You can start to blink the eyes open and come back into the room.

Reviews

I loved including puppies. Still warm from that. Peace

An amazing so relaxing and fulfilling session bringing a smile and joy to myself. Thank you 🦋🌷🤗