Hello and welcome.
Thank you so much for joining me here today.
My name is Abby and I'm a yogi,
Salesforce engineer and creator of Consider Volunteering,
My personal brand of community empowerment.
Today I'm back with another installment of my loving kindness meditation.
So I've been trying to show up each week to share a loving kindness meditation with myself and everybody else in hopes to make the world a better place.
I've chosen to share a loving kindness meditation because I believe it will take effect no matter what.
So I believe we leverage visualization,
Repeating phrases,
Mantras,
Intentions.
These concepts are used in a lot of other practices and so I find it kind of a good culmination of many practices that no matter how distracted I may feel on a particular day,
I can do this practice and feel good and feel better when I'm finished.
So I hope you enjoy this practice as much as I do and I'm so grateful you've taken the time for with me here today for yourself in order to gladden the mind,
Combat those negative thoughts and hopefully find a new perspective because hopefully in those true artistic terms,
The eyes with the beholder and it may just be a new perspective.
And so for the next 30 minutes,
We will start or complete a loving kindness meditation from start to finish.
Over the next 30 minutes,
No prior experience necessary.
I will walk you through the entire process.
So the first step of our meditation today will be to find a comfortable seat.
So finding your way to a comfortable seat as I am here in my yoga office room as I usually am.
And so you find your way to your comfortable seat right for the next 30 minutes.
I do often enjoy lying down but we want to try not to sleep through our practice but you know a nap is always a good interlude to the day as well.
So the first step of our practice,
Find a way to a comfortable seat for the next 30 minutes of meditation.
And then there's not much else to our practice.
The hardest part is getting here.
Next,
We move into the main functions which are two parts of our practice.
Our loving kindness meditation today will first consist of a set of phrases that we repeat silently to ourselves.
So a set of phrases,
The ones I will be using today are,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be safe,
May you live with ease.
And so these are the phrases I will use but do feel free to select your own.
I promise the rhythm comes in time.
So our first set of these phrases that we repeat to ourselves,
They're like our intentions,
Right?
I hope that word makes sense to you.
Our intentions,
These right positive affirmations that we hope for ourselves and for those in which we send our phrases to.
We're going to use these as kind of the vehicle to gladden the mind,
Right?
Instead of thinking badly,
Right?
May you be happy.
We're going to interject,
Plant the seed for something a bit more positive,
Hopefully to grow in the future.
So the half of our practice is these phrases we repeat to ourselves.
And then we send these phrases to five different groups of people.
So five different groups sending our phrases.
We'll spend five minutes on each group.
The first group will be ourselves.
We will send the phrases to ourself first and foremost,
And then move on from there.
But first focusing on the self,
Filling up our cup.
Then we will cherish a loving relationship.
So an easy,
Loving relationship that you can call on when times are challenging,
Times are tough.
And so we will cherish this relationship during our loving kindness practice today.
Third is a neutral relationship.
I often describe this as a member of the public.
I do really appreciate that,
Right?
We will go on a full journey from start to finish in our loving kindness meditation for today.
And so third,
We send our phrases to a neutral relationship.
Fourth will be a difficult relationship.
So you see how this is progressing through our practice,
A difficult relationship,
We must find balance.
And so we'll send our phrases,
Hopefully,
To find a new perspective on difficult relationships.
And then fifth,
Last but not least,
We will all beings everywhere.
Send our phrases to all beings everywhere,
Cherishing this connection we have to all.
And so that's all the instruction I have for you today.
Our loving kindness meditation after we found our comfortable seat,
Which I hope you have found your way there as it is time to start in to our first group of phrases,
As if you recall,
Is ourselves.
So I do like to imagine my current self sitting on my future self's lap,
Holding my past self,
You know,
Kind of this nesting doll of aging or selves along my timeline.
I hope that visualization may strike a chord with you.
But either way,
We will find kind of holding ourselves and our hearts,
You know,
As this time is for ourselves,
Hopefully right to find more compassion.
Maybe take that step that you've been having some difficulty with.
And so we send our loving kindness phrases to ourselves.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be safe.
May I live with ease.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be safe.
May I live with ease.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I live with ease and continue on your own.
There is no special breath that comes along with this practice.
Whatever is natural for you at this moment today.
I myself have to catch my breath in this first interlude.
What I find important is this softness to our attitude,
This openness to shifting and perspectives.
The more that I've dived into different meditation practices,
The more I found that they all come with this idea of reflecting the self,
Right?
Looking in the mirror,
Not just looking at how other people are flawed,
But looking at how we are flawed.
That can be one of the most painful things that any of us have to ever do.
And so within this five minutes,
It's not about picking things apart.
It's about appreciating the effort that we do put in,
That positivity that we try for,
That we strive for,
That we want more of in our lives.
And I believe this five short minutes brings more of that into our lives.
And so we continue with our phrases.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be safe.
May I live with ease.
And with that,
My dear friends,
It is time for me to transition for the first time today,
Gently moving away from the self and into our loving relationship for this week.
Our loving relationship for this week,
I find that the first relationship that comes to mind is always a good one.
But maybe it's not the first relationship that comes to mind.
I find that the first relationship that comes to mind is always a good one.
But maybe you've been wanting to intentionally think about a particular relationship.
I sure do like to cherish the more obscure friends that I've stumbled across in my life.
How happenstance some of those relationships have been.
But how beautiful to stumble across a wonderful connection with a new friend.
And so we send our loving kindness phrases to our loving relationship this week.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
I'd never given much thought to maybe myself being my loving relationship during this section.
You know,
I definitely often send these to my dog.
And then I have definitely some very dear mentors of mine that receive my loving kindness phrases during this section.
But I got hit with this wave of,
Man,
I should really cherish the loving relationship that I have for the self.
Because if I would have never been open enough to these friendships to these loving relationships,
Right,
Because I need to love myself first.
And for me,
Loving myself first has been one of the hardest things I've had to do.
So maybe next time,
You'll think of your loving relationship with yourself during this section.
How does that change your perspective on your other loving relationships in your life?
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
And with that,
My dear friends,
It is time to transition away from our loving relationship this week and into our neutral relationship.
We cherish this loving relationship because there's always this sense of reflecting in the self.
And yet there is this sense of reflecting in the self with all things,
With all creatures on this planet,
But also those other human beings out there.
So I like to think the light that shines for me shines for all.
And so our neutral relationship this week,
Somebody you see regularly,
But maybe don't know very well,
My member of the public that I pass by on the street,
A member of the community.
And I'm glad I get those five minutes to see my reflection in them.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
I'm at the grocery store today and my neutral relationship and my member of the public because I need to go to the grocery store myself.
The grocery list is just sitting off to the side over there waiting for me to get off the phone and go to the grocery store.
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