Loving Kindness Meditation - Relationships(30 Mins) 10.31.22

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

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.

I greatly appreciate you taking this time today for my weekly installment of a loving kindness meditation.

I've been coming back each Monday to share a loving kindness meditation with the world,

Myself,

Anybody who'd be willing to connect because this is how I find the balance in my life between my technical job and hopefully some work life balance to hopefully try and find my inner peace.

And I found great success leveraging this loving kindness meditation that I learned myself from Sharon Salzberg,

Who learned from the source from India in the 70s and I really cherish this practice.

So I'm very excited to share another installment with you today.

And so over the next 30 minutes,

I will complete a loving kindness meditation from start to finish.

No prior experiences needed as I will walk you through the entire practice.

I'm going to spend our first five minutes here explaining the process and settling into our practice and then we will jump in to the 25 minutes of our practice to follow.

So the first step of our interaction today is to find a comfortable position.

I myself sit on my meditation cushion here in my office yoga room.

But you can also take this meditation lying down or any comfortable position,

You know,

Let your body inspire you today.

Once you find your comfortable position,

We will stay here for the next 30 minutes.

So you know,

Maybe an extra blanket is always helpful.

But our meditation consists of two main parts.

So two parts to our meditation practice today after we found our comfortable seat.

The first is we are going to repeat a set of phrases silently to ourselves.

You definitely can say these phrases out loud.

But people might look at you funny.

So we often say them silently to ourselves.

And the phrases that 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 particular phrases that I will use today but do please feel free to select your own phrases.

I promise the rhythm comes in time.

But whatever phrases feel best for you,

You can see where I'm going short,

Sweet,

Loving,

Compassionate.

So that is the first part of our loving kindness practice for today,

Repeating of the phrases to ourselves.

The second part of our practice is we send these phrases right you've heard me mention that several times now to different groups of people.

So we will spend five minutes on five different groups of people or you can do this location based.

But today we're going to send to five different relationships in our life.

We will send our loving kindness phrases you know,

Hoping to find balance,

More compassion.

Even just saying the phrases helps us flatten the mind,

Create new neuro pathways.

Hopefully blocking out those negative thoughts and allowing us to be more peaceful throughout our days even when they're tumultuous.

And so the five groups of people we will send our loving kindness phrases to today are we start with ourselves.

The first group is ourself.

The second group is a loving relationship.

So I normally pick the first one that comes to mind.

What loving relationship would you like to cherish in our practice today?

Third is a neutral relationship.

I often describe this as a member of the public,

Somebody at the grocery store,

In the car in front of you on the train down the way,

A neutral relationship,

We will find balance by sending our loving kindness phrases to the neutral or third group today.

Fourth is a difficult relationship.

Right?

We really go on a journey through our practice.

And so the fourth group people send our loving kindness phrases to is a difficult relationship.

And then last but not least,

We will round out with all beings everywhere.

So our fifth and final group is all beings everywhere as we do luckily share this beautiful planet with all sorts of creatures and microorganisms,

But also fellow humans and animals on our surface of a planet.

So we will round out our 30 minutes of loving kindness practice today with all beings everywhere.

And that's it.

That's all it takes to jump into our practice.

And that's exactly what we will do.

I hope you found your comfortable seat.

But we will start with ourselves during our practice today,

Repeating our phrases silently to ourselves,

Cherishing this time as it's so valuable to pause and cherish the connection to you,

Right,

Letting your innermost light shine out.

No need for that self shame that I know I are too often allow too much time in those thoughts.

So we will start by sending these loving kindness phrases to ourself.

May I be happy?

May I be healthy?

May I be safe?

May I live?

With thesemusic 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.

There is no special breath that comes along with this practice.

If you want to think about breath today,

I will leave you with if your exhale is longer than your inhale,

Then we're working to calm the body.

While if our inhale is longer than the exhale,

Then we are warming up the body.

And so how was your breath today,

Which is longer?

The inhale or the exhale?

Maybe the next time your heart races,

You're on an unknown,

Uncharted scenario.

Will you notice which is longer?

Your inhale or your exhale?

We continue with our phrases.

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.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

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 safe.

May you be safe.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be safe.

And with that my dear friends,

It is time to move on to our next relationship.

This week,

Our neutral relationship.

Our third group,

Our neutral relationship.

Our default state.

Be more compassion,

More peace,

More centeredness,

More light.

I like to think of this idea of getting used to it.

Like we have to get used to living our lives in joy instead of living my life in stress and overwhelm.

And so can you channel this loving relationship into our neutral relationship this week,

Finding more compassion for all around us in our community.

And so we send our loving kindness phrases to a neutral relationship,

A member of the public possibly.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I was recently looking for a florist in my local area,

As I would greatly love to cultivate a more local community around me and the way in which I live.

What I found so intriguing was that the florist I found was actually a shop I'd passed downtown many times,

Writing it off as an expensive,

Too expensive place that I would never walk into.

But finding out they were a florist and something that I truly value coming from somewhere close to me,

Really made me rethink it all.

Does my story inspire you to rethink maybe a neutral relationship in your life?

I hadn't thought would affect you so deeply.

Maybe it can.

Maybe it will.

Maybe we can choose to have an impact us.

And so we send our loving kindness phrases.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

May you be happy.

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.

May you be happy.

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

I cherish you often in this idea of a neutral relationship.

I hope one day,

May you feel it.

May my light shine for you when it's needed.

And with that we will transition to our fourth group of individuals this week are difficult relationship.

Definitely my least favorite part of the practice as I have more than enough difficult relationships in my life.

But together we will breathe through these difficult relationships,

We will cultivate this truly loving feeling towards ourselves demolishing any limiting beliefs we may have,

Because it could have been our perception of the scenario that kept us clouded and angry.

And so today we will let go.

And we will move on,

Or at least we will try.

And I truly believe in time.

The wall will melt.

The shame will reduce,

And you will find more compassion,

Even in these tumultuous of relationships.

So we send our loving kindness phrases to our difficult relationship this week.

May you be happy.

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

You live with ease.

May you be happy.

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

You live with ease.

Maybe happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

Live with ease.

Live with ease.

I sit through these practices,

Not only for you,

But for myself.

Because it does take the largest leap of faith to believe in yourself fully to believe that there are unlimited possibilities past even your wildest imagination.

I too am terribly frightened that I won't have my back.

But from what I've learned,

That is true.

So together,

I come back with you for us to strive for these unfathomable beautiful futures.

Because it is possible.

And it only gets better as we continue to practice.

So we send our loving kindness phrases to our difficult relationship.

In hopes that tomorrow,

In the future,

Will be better because we continue to practice.

May you be happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.

May you be happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.

Maybe happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.

Thank you.

Amazing work,

My friends.

The hard part is over.

It is time to transition away from our difficult relationship and into all beings everywhere.

Be kind to yourself as you make this transition.

Heart is tender.

At this point in our practice.

But your vulnerability is your strength.

It is so much tougher to be vulnerable to somebody trying to control you.

To let them see behind your veil openly.

I believe will rock them to their core.

And that's something that they have to live with and not you,

Because you lived your truth.

And I find that the most beautiful thing in the world.

And so we let that go and we embrace all beings everywhere,

Sending our loving kindness phrases cherishing this life.

This time where we get to share the space together.

May all beings be happy,

And all beings be healthy,

And all beings be safe.

They all beings live with ease.

Maybe happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

They live with ease,

Maybe happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe,

Maybe live with ease.

You You.

I'm just so excited for you.

And that first time you notice this practice is working.

The first time,

The negative thought doesn't come to mind right away,

But a possibility for a different future arises first.

I've seen it happen.

And I believe the more we practice,

The more will happen.

And so I encourage you to continue on.

I hope together,

We will continue practicing,

Making the world a better place for all beings everywhere.

May you be happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.

You.

You.

You.

Amazing work today my friend.

I can never believe how fast these 30 minutes go to me it starts and finishes in two seconds.

I know mine felt like a long time to you but I promise to me it's a quick time.

It's all an illusion.

We love the paradox of life.

Thank you again my dear friend for sharing,

Connecting with me here today.

I really do believe we made the world a better place and I can't wait.

And I still hope to see you next time,

Or in the future.

Come back to your practice it does work will work.

I hope you have a great day and have a great day.

I hope you have a great day and have a great day.

Thank you for all your faith and all.

Until next time my friends may be happy,

Maybe healthy,

Maybe safe.

May you live with ease.