Loving Kindness Meditation - Relationships (30 Mins) 1.23.23

Thank you so much for joining me here today. We are taking 30 minutes to complete a traditional Loving Kindness or Metta meditation as I know it. We repeat phrases to ourselves, sending them to different groups of people. I use the phrases: May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may you live with ease. I believe with these practices we can change the world together.

With Love, Namaste - Abbey

Live Recording: 1.23.23

Transcript

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.

And today I'm back with another round of loving kindness meditation.

So over the next 30 minutes,

I will be completing a loving kindness guided meditation from start to finish.

No prior experience necessary.

I will walk you through everything.

I greatly appreciate you joining me for this week's session,

As I've had so much fun practicing coming back each week to share what's relevant in my life at this particular time.

I hope you find enjoyment in them and start seeing progress soon.

So the first step in our loving kindness meditation is to find your way to a comfortable position as we will be together for the next 30 minutes.

And so I'm here with my meditation cushion here in my yoga office room.

But do feel free to find where is comfortable for you today.

Right for the next 30 minutes.

Once you find your way to that comfortable seat,

Our meditation practice,

Loving kindness meditation practice only consists of two main sections,

Two main sections,

The phrases,

And then the groups we send them to.

So that is the main components of our practice here today.

The phrases I will be using are,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be safe,

May you live with ease,

But please feel free to select whatever phrases feel good to you.

But these are the ones I will be using,

I promise the rhythm comes in time.

So the first set of our practice is the phrases and then we will send our phrases to five different groups of people.

We will spend five minutes on each of these different groups of people sending our phrases.

We kind of hold these phrases in our heart,

Right?

They're meant to cultivate compassion for these particular groups.

And so they're kind of our intention or our mudra or whatever kind of focus type term you'd like to use for your practice today.

Our five different groups of people,

We start with the self.

So we will spend five minutes sending our loving kindness phrases to ourselves as we must fill up our cups before we can go on the rest of our journey for today.

Second,

We will cherish a loving relationship in our life.

Hopefully an easy,

Light,

Very joyful,

Loving relationship,

But whatever one feels good for you today.

Third,

We will send our phrases to a neutral relationship.

I often describe this as a member of the public,

Somebody that you see regularly,

But you don't really know much about,

Right?

Kind of a faceless person,

If you can say,

The person at the grocery store,

Because,

Right,

We must balance all things and hopefully find more compassion for all relationships in our life.

Because what comes next?

Can you guess?

The difficult relationship comes next.

Fourth,

On our list of people,

We are sending our loving kindness phrases to today.

A difficult relationship,

Maybe not the most difficult relationship in your life,

But I understand if that's the only one that comes to mind.

Just know that if a big,

Difficult relationship is calling to you today,

It may take several loving kindness practices to find a new perspective on the scenario.

But I promise new perspectives are common in our loving kindness practice,

At least that's what I found,

And I hope you find that as well.

Fifth,

Last but not least,

We will send our phrases to all beings everywhere.

All beings everywhere cherishing this holistic perspective,

This larger than ourselves type perspective that we will channel with this final group of all beings everywhere.

So you see our five groups,

The self,

A loving relationship,

A neutral relationship,

A difficult relationship,

And finally all beings everywhere.

We will go on quite the journey through this next 30 minutes.

I've really enjoyed each of these.

I've done a dozen of them now and it's been quite unique to see each of the relationships that come up and I hope maybe jot them down at the end of our practice and see how they grow in time.

But that's it.

That's all the instruction I have for you today.

So if you have not found your comfortable seat,

Or maybe you are and do your last final touches as I do before I hit record here,

We will start into our first group,

Ourselves,

Sending our loving kindness phrases.

As I like to think,

Filling up our cup or the visualization that I really enjoy as I'm sitting on my future self's lap,

They are larger,

More stable,

More embodied than I currently am.

But then I'm holding my younger self,

My maybe more lost self in my lap,

Seeing this kind of progression of the self,

Hopefully,

Through my life.

And through this loving kindness practice,

We will cultivate more compassion,

Hopefully enhancing our growth in time.

And so we start into our phrases silently 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.

And continue on your own.

I know that I could be my own worst critic,

And you may be feeling this also,

Where it's hard to think of nice feelings toward the self or maybe trying to be nice to the self is allowing kind of these uncomfortable feelings to arise.

And that's totally normal.

You are not alone.

I,

Myself,

Have felt that many a time because I was not taught to love the self,

First and foremost.

I was definitely not on the priority list growing up as a child,

But I've grown to know that that is much more important,

That I need to channel self-love.

Whatever that means for you,

Whatever journey you go on in your self-love practice,

It is important.

And I,

Myself,

Dive in,

Hopefully more regularly.

And so in this five minutes,

We can at least contribute to that self-love.

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 with that,

My dear friends,

It is time to transition away from ourselves,

Gently taking one last breath,

And we move into our loving relationship for this week in our loving kindness meditation.

My dogs definitely get these phrases often,

But maybe it's a family member,

A friend.

My mentors mean so much to me.

And so within this five minutes,

We will cherish a loving relationship in our lives so that we may call on it.

When time times are tough and the light is hard to see,

We recall that we are not alone,

And this loving relationship has been so beautiful.

And so we take the short five minutes to cherish it.

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 encourage you to not discount what I'm going to refer to as a shallow relationship.

Maybe it's better to say a new relationship or one in which that hasn't been cultivated for,

Let's say,

20 years of your life.

And so even if this relationship is new,

Even if it's only a glimmer of loving,

You know,

Friendships and acquaintances and things of that nature,

I find that these small interactions can actually be the most impactful.

Even if it's just a friend for a weekend at a yoga retreat,

I still find those interactions just as deep as some of the ones that I've had for a very long time.

Maybe these shorter relationships can be a new horizon,

A new perspective.

And so we continue with our phrases.

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 friend,

It is time to move away from our loving relationship this week,

Knowing that we can call on it anytime we need,

Because that love never goes away and is only transformed.

And into our neutral relationship for this week,

A member of the public,

Of our community,

Neighbor,

Somebody beside you on the train.

I just want to be crazy if we saw all those within our community as equal to ourselves.

Right?

I'm no better than anybody else,

And nobody else is better than me.

Equality is a deep thing to contemplate.

I am a very privileged person,

And I don't take that lightly.

We'll do better in the world when we find more compassion in all relationships.

And so we send our loving kindness phrases to a neutral 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.

My afternoon has been set to the tune of Miley Cyrus's new single,

Flowers.

Maybe just maybe it's been yours as well.

What that does remind me of though is that you never know what the person next to you is going through.

Right?

These members of our community in which we send our loving kindness phrases to,

In hopes to find more compassion,

Are so diverse and so unique,

Each and every one amongst themselves.

And so I cannot assume what their life is like,

As the old adage goes.

I'm so good.

And so within these five minutes,

We break down our unconscious bias.

We cherish our connection to all,

Especially this member of our community,

So that we can live in a better community for all.

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,

Dear friends,

20 minutes is gone.

Our practice is almost over.

And we have started into our journey,

The journey of life,

Where it's not the destination,

But in the journey.

And with that,

We transition to my least favorite part of the practice,

Our difficult relationship with this week.

I'm sorry,

But it is my least favorite part of the practice.

I'm sorry,

But it is my least favorite part,

But we must practice our,

I don't know,

Discipline,

Our discernment.

And so I find a short five minutes in our loving kindness practice to be the least I can do.

And so whatever difficult relationship you pick this week,

I promise in time,

We will find a new perspective by continuing in with our phrases.

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.

As in loving relationships can be shallow,

Right?

And my description of new or not so 20 years old,

I find that difficult relationships can be just as shallow,

Just as brief,

Just as cutting.

Even if it's a brief encounter,

Somebody that's maybe not a regular occurrence in your life,

Doesn't discount its difficultness in which you may need to heal from.

But as I recall last week,

I mentioned healing in one place does not slow us down from healing in others.

And so even though this difficult relationship may feel very difficult,

I still hold hope,

The deepest of hopes that we can turn a new leaf,

Even in the smallest of percentages.

And so trust me here as we continue with our phrases.

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,

Dear friends,

It is time to transition away from our difficult relationship this week.

Sigh it out.

We made it.

We're finished.

Till next time,

Surprise a pay for being uncomfortable.

We get to wash anew and cherish our relationship with all beings everywhere.

Our sacred connection to all on this strangely life inhabiting planet in this ever expanding universe.

Can the light that shines in me shine out in all of us?

I believe it can.

At least in this five minutes,

We're going to lean in and know that that is true.

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.

One perspective you may have on all beings everywhere is that you're only one of so many.

So many.

So how can I be worthy?

Right?

Seven trillion people on the planet,

Something crazy like that.

A number you can't even fathom.

And yet I'm just one fractal of light of the whole.

But isn't it crazy that one person can make such a large ripple in all of those numerous perspectives in the world?

And so don't limit the perspective you can have on this world as it is infinitely possible to continue to change as I myself have over this lifetime.

And I like to think that maybe it will become more positive and more compassionate as I continue with each loving kindness practice each week.

And so we continue with our phrases.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be healthy.

May all beings 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,

We have come to an end of our practice for this week.

Our 30 minutes is done.

I can never believe how fast it goes.

But I like to think that I've made a lot of movement in a short amount of time.

So until next time,

With love,

Namaste.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.