Hello and welcome.
Thank you so much for joining me here today.
My name is Abby.
I'm a yogi,
Salesforce engineer and creator of Consider Volunteering,
My personal brand of community empowerment.
And I appreciate you joining me for another week of loving kindness meditation.
So throughout the next 30 minutes,
We will complete a loving kindness meditation from start to finish.
No prior experience necessary.
I will walk you through all of this good journey that will be on for the next 30 minutes.
I've really enjoyed this practice of weekly loving kindness meditation.
I've chosen to share this particular kind of meditation with the world because I believe no matter what state of mind we come to today,
Each practice is effective in gladdening the mind combating those negative thoughts.
Because if you're anything like me,
My mind is my own worst enemy.
And so we must work on a regular basis to find a new relationship,
A new perspective on our internal life and what's going on within ourselves.
And so within the 30 minutes,
We will complete a loving kindness meditation as part of this practice.
And so the first step of our meditation is to find our way to a comfortable position.
So right over the next 30 minutes,
What position do you want to find your body physically in?
I'm sat here on my meditation cushion in my yoga office room.
But if you enjoy lying down or some other position feels good to you today,
I say go for it.
It's so unique how each and every week we come back and we are still the same person.
But yet we change each and every interaction.
And so finding our way to a comfortable seat in order for us to complete our practice for today.
As our practice is pretty simple,
At least I think it's simple,
Where our practice consists of the first part of our loving kindness phrases.
So we repeat these phrases silently to ourselves.
You definitely can say them out loud,
But people might look at you funny.
Luckily,
I'm alone here with just my dogs,
And they sure don't mind.
But you know,
Silently is always fun as I do like to take this practice off the mat.
The phrases that I will be using today are may I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be safe,
May I live with ease.
These are just example phrases that I will be using.
But you can select your own in time,
I promise the rhythm will come.
And it's always fun.
Maybe a new phrase is feeling good today.
Or maybe you want to try new phrases.
I think variety is kind of a practice in and of itself.
I myself will continue to use these same phrases for my consistency sake.
I'm in theory trying to trick the mind into not listening to me so much because I want you to focus on what's coming up in your own thoughts,
Right?
What clouds float by as we send our phrases to five different groups of people.
So our second part of the practice after these silently repeated phrases are to send them or write we're going to relate these phrases to different groups of people in order to cultivate more compassion when we are inevitably in some difficult relationships throughout our life.
So we will go on a journey through these five different groups of people.
First,
Starting with ourselves as we must fill up our own cup before we can move on and share this compassion or loving kindness with others.
Second,
We will cherish a loving relationship,
Hopefully something we can call on when times are tough,
When we've lost our connection to the whole at least in a momentary sense,
We will cherish our loving relationship then second.
Third is a neutral relationship.
I often describe this as a member of the public,
We must find compassion through all relationships.
So we before going into things that are more difficult,
We cherish than a neutral relationship to find compassion no matter where we are.
Because fourth is that difficult relationship.
Definitely my least favorite part of the practice.
But it is fun to try each week to change intentionally who I am and how I relate to these more difficult feelings.
And then last but not least,
We open up to all beings everywhere,
All beings everywhere on this beautiful planet that we live on in our ever expanding universe.
But that's all we've got for our loving kindness practice today are silently repeated phrases to these different groups or relationships as I like to call them.
And we will start in now on ourselves.
So I hope you find your way to your comfortable seat.
And we will hold ourselves and our heart.
I definitely like this kind of imagery of my current self sitting on my future self's lap.
Like to think my future self will be more expansive and more able to,
You know,
Deal with these difficulties in life,
While I hold my younger or smaller self on my lap,
Because I sure know I wasn't able to deal with them back in the day.
And I've gotten better.
And I hope to only continue to get better in these perspectives,
You know,
As I'm my own worst critic.
So how do we find a new relationship and love myself first and all things.
So 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.
As I repeat my loving kindness phrases to myself,
Filling out my cup first,
I'm prompted by a childish thought I had earlier today around sharing Valentine's with a Galentine's Day breakfast.
So in Salesforce,
We come together as a community and we'd like to have breakfast here in Denver.
And I was thinking,
Well,
Maybe I should throw in some of those Valentines from when you were young.
So I create little boxes and send them to all your friends.
As a small way to appreciate my relationship with these beautiful group of women that I've come regularly together with,
But also for myself for appreciating that childish joy that I got about that idea today.
Have you found any joy?
Could you foresee a time when a thought of yours brings joy instead of criticism?
And 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.
With that,
My dear friends,
It is time to transition away from the self.
The first third of our practice already gone.
Allowing what comes up to come up.
There's no need to judge ourselves,
Our own thoughts,
And we can have any relationship we like with those thoughts.
And we start into our loving relationship for this week.
Definitely my dogs get this one all the time,
But I definitely have some mentors and friends that I've interacted and have had a big impact on my life.
And so I like to think these short five minutes of sending them my loving kindness phrases.
I hope they feel it wherever they are in this world,
In this space.
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 be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be safe,
May you live with ease.
The other day I was thinking about my childhood best friends.
I don't believe my childhood was so peachy-like.
There's definitely many things I wish I could change about it,
But being a child,
You know,
Can only do so much.
But I always found I had a few good friends.
We had sleepovers and blackberries in the backyard.
And it's so wonderful to reflect on the beautiful women that they've become today,
The amazing lives that they've grown into.
I hope they share that love now with many others.
But I was thinking,
Maybe I should tell them how much I appreciated their loving friendship when I was so small,
When I didn't have this unconditional love everywhere else.
Maybe it's your opportunity to reach out to somebody who's been in a loving relationship for you in the past.
And 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 friends,
It is time to transition away from our loving relationship,
Taking one last sip of that compassion,
Joy,
Maybe some lightness.
I like to one day wish that I hold that kind of feeling with me always.
But through our loving kindness practice,
We're able to cultivate more of this feeling as we transition into our neutral relationship for this week,
Our member of the public,
Our neighbor,
Our community member.
As it's so interesting how this location in which we live impacts us so greatly.
But how can I find a more deepness in my connection with my community?
And so we send this five minutes to send our loving kindness phrases to maybe all those members of our community cherishing this relationship that we have in this local area.
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.
We've been watching the librarians recently,
Which is a old TV show,
But I sure found it cute as I'm not much of a TV person.
I like books more than I like those kinds of things.
But my partner has been giving me lessons on different TV shows and we really like sci-fi.
And the librarians the other day are working through magic about your deepest dream.
And one of their deepest dreams was to live in a small town where everybody knows your name.
And I just think that's a fun concept to think about when we contemplate our neutral relationship for this week.
Is the best place to be in a small town where everybody knows your name?
But maybe in a small way we can cultivate that neighborly feeling in these more populous areas.
I do love the anonymous nature of cities,
But I think small acts of kindness and this relationship with community makes the world a better place.
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 neutral relationship.
Appreciate that feeling that has come up,
This new perspective we may have on things.
And we transition to my least favorite part of the practice,
Our difficult relationship.
But we must find that balance,
Right?
And together we will get through this.
Our accountability is a safe space in my own little world.
I sure have my comfy blankies around to help me through when these times are tough.
Or we call on our loving relationships.
How can we find more compassion when,
Unfortunately,
Relationships become difficult?
And so we send our loving kindness phrases and hopes for a new perspective.
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 thing I've been thinking about for myself a lot recently,
Right?
I say this section is my least favorite because of how uncomfortable it is,
Right?
Difficult relationships.
I'm not much for confrontation.
But I find almost that I feel more confident in these different relationships than I do with simply sitting with myself.
You know,
Idleness,
Unproductivity,
Or in other words,
Enjoying my own comfort can sometimes be more uncomfortable than this current feeling of a difficult relationship.
What could that possibly mean for me?
I'm not sure yet,
But I'm sure it could be for you.
And I'm sure it could be for me.
What could that possibly mean for me?
I'm not sure yet,
But I am going to continue to contemplate.
But maybe,
Just maybe,
This is a dynamic that you should also contemplate along with me.
Finding more ease in the self,
Not having to feel like pain is the only thing I deserve in this life.
Not every relationship has to be difficult.
We can become better or let go.
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 difficult relationship,
Taking that big sigh of relief,
As I find all beings everywhere to be much more comfortable.
I love sitting in a big city.
Nobody knows who I am.
I could be anybody and everybody.
I'm one who gets a lot of comments a lot about,
Hey,
You look like somebody I know.
Well,
I promise you,
I'm not that person you know.
I'm just some small town girl from Indiana trying to make it,
The world a better place.
And so opening up to all beings everywhere,
I find this,
Right,
Large sense of freedom,
Right?
Can you feel how large the earth is around you?
Can you extend that to how big the universe could be around that?
That's how many possibilities we have in this world.
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.
One day I will need to ponder how I will feel if anybody ever recognizes me.
I've spent a long time running away.
I mean,
For heaven's sake,
I ran away a thousand miles across the country.
It takes a whole day to drive that.
Because I didn't want to be my father's daughter.
I didn't want to be what everybody else thought I was.
Because that's not me.
I'm the weirdo.
Possibly neurodivergent person.
I don't fit in.
I think about the world in a different way.
If anything,
This proves it,
Right?
Between this and object-based programming,
I got you covered.
So what,
Who would you be,
Right?
When somebody recognizes your name versus when I'm just one fractal of light of all beings everywhere.
How can my relationship with the whole versus an identity evolve?
I'd like to think it's more compassionate with these loving-kindness 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 friends,
Our practice is done for today.
Take your time getting out of your meditation position.
I know my legs fall asleep every time,
All day,
Every day.
It's a consistent process of waking my legs back up.
They are quite long,
Those two,
So it's fighting me.
But until next time,
I greatly appreciate you taking this time to connect with me,
To connect with yourself,
Making the world a better place.
I wish you well,
With love.
Namaste.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
