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 is Monday and so I'm back with Monday meditation,
Where over the next 30 minutes,
I will be completing a loving kindness meditation from start to finish.
I'm so glad you chose to join me this week,
As I've chosen to share this particular kind of meditation with the world because I have faith that it makes the world a better place each and every time we sit down on our mat.
The goal of this meditation is to combat those negative thoughts that I know are too rampant within my mind.
And so over the next 30 minutes,
We will use the loving kindness meditation as our strategy or tool in order to combat those negative thoughts and hopefully find a more positive,
Compassionate outlook on life.
And so I greatly appreciate you taking the time to connect with me here today as there are lots of other options out there.
See my other materials for those links.
But today we're focusing on our loving kindness meditation,
Very specific in our intention.
It's really a journey we go on in the next 30 minutes or so.
It's really fun.
I hope you feel the shift within yourself as I feel each and every week.
And so the first step to our loving kindness meditation is to find your way to a comfortable position.
As mentioned,
We will be here for 30 minutes and we do like to aim to be still within our practice.
But whatever position is comfortable for you today,
I say take it whether that's as I am on my meditation cushion here in my yoga office room or whether that's on the couch or lying down for you today.
Other than finding our comfortable position,
There are only two different pieces to our loving kindness meditation.
The first is the set of phrases that we use to focus our intention.
They are our vocal point,
They are our mantras,
Our positive visualizations into the future.
The sample phrases that I will use today are,
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be safe,
May I live with ease.
Do feel free to select your own phrases.
I promise the rhythm will come in time.
But these are the example phrases that I will use today.
These phrases we will then send to five different groups of people.
So that's the second part of our practice is first our phrases and then sending them to different groups of people.
We spend five minutes on each group.
First,
Starting with the self,
As we must fill up our own cup,
Right?
It takes our vessel in order to interact with the world.
And so we first send our loving kindness phrases to the self in hopes to be more compassionate,
Squashing any of those self-directed negative thoughts.
As second,
We send our loving kindness phrases to a loving relationship in our lives.
No matter what loving relationship you'd like to really enjoy,
Today we will pull it up and send our loving kindness phrases to really sink that loving feeling into our bones so that we can call on it when maybe it's not so easy to feel or see those loving things.
Third is a neutral relationship.
So right when combating negative thoughts,
We really got to find some balance.
And so one way to do that,
We send our loving kindness phrases to a neutral relationship,
Which I often describe as a member of the public,
A member of our community,
Somebody we interact with regularly but don't know personally.
As wouldn't it be nice to have a beautiful community to live in?
So we'll do our part through our loving kindness practice today.
As in fourth,
We send our phrases to a difficult relationship,
A difficult relationship.
So we see right the balance between loving and then difficult.
As in finally,
We send our phrases to all beings everywhere.
So all beings everywhere is how we close our practice for today.
We will really feel the expansiveness of our universe,
This huge planet we find ourselves on to remind ourselves that we have so many possibilities.
We can always reinvent ourselves tomorrow as a new day.
So those are all the instructions I have for you.
I hope you found your way to a comfortable seat.
This is time to dive into our first group,
Which is ourself.
The hardest part is definitely getting here.
No need to now discount any of this juicy time in which we will send our loving kindness phrases to the self,
Because we are our biggest support in this life.
And so we must take care of ourselves.
And I feel like these short five minutes is one really rich way to find that we no longer need to pick out all our flaws.
We can embrace being a flawed human and still love ourselves deeply anyway,
Hopefully,
Right?
Making a better outcome for all.
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.
Been really critical of myself and others recently as my birthday approaches and regrets of the last year or my life maybe come in,
Right?
I should be further than I am today.
That's not who I want to be.
And so this is our practice today,
Maybe our reminder to allow ourselves the space to be imperfect.
What would life be like if instead of nitpicking how we're flawed,
What if we could live life without the judgment?
And I believe taking this one pause to maybe consider how life may be without the judgment is our first step to living that life without judgment.
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,
Dear friends,
It's time to transition away from the self.
But before we go,
We take one last notice of how we feel,
What energy is now lingering in our bodies as we transition into our loving relationship for this week.
What relationship would you like to pick?
My dog,
My mentor,
Friends or family,
Icon.
Of course,
I'm talking the Dalai Lama maybe.
This loving relationship that we can call on when times are tough,
When the darkness creeps in.
This is one of those lights that will remain.
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.
At the moment,
I'm thinking about sharing things I love with these people that I love.
So I have very many obscure interests that I've collected from the world wide web nowadays.
But isn't it so fascinating how we find such niche things that maybe just maybe if we share with others around us,
We may find we have in common with them.
Or maybe you can spur a love of this thing you love in someone else.
So maybe this is an opportunity to share something you love with me.
I greatly appreciate it and it will linger on.
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 friend,
It's time to take one last notice of how this loving relationship has stirred the energy in your body.
And we transition into our neutral relationship for this week.
Our member of the public,
Of our community.
How we may want or picture a town where everybody knows your name.
And that may not be what you are looking for out of your future.
But manage for it would be nice to have some semblance of a community in which you are loved and respected.
So how can't we be a member of our community that also loves and respects those around us so that they may love and respect us in return?
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.
A simple way in which I can be a better community member is by putting my shopping cart away at the store,
Picking up my litter,
Right?
Doing a small act of kindness,
Shuffling something back or away when it's been left out.
I think those small acts of kindness make not only a big impact in our community,
But also in our loving relationships as well.
Our families,
Our people in which we touch.
So in what ways couldn't we spread some more small acts of kindness without much effort from ourselves just by happenstance of where life leads us?
Maybe those small acts will change the world to be 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,
Dear friends,
It is time to take one last notice of how our energy has shifted during our neutral relationship this week as we transition into our difficult relationship.
As I myself find that I'm anticipating the uncomfortableness during this difficult relationship,
Well,
Together we will try to find some more peace,
Some more compassion through our loving kindness phrases to this difficult relationship so that we can find new perspectives mostly for ourselves.
May we be free of the second arrows that come with these difficult relationships.
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.
When I ask myself why am I so fearful of these difficult relationships,
The thoughts that come up are somebody calling me out for being deficient,
Right?
I didn't do this well enough.
I hurt their feelings because of X.
And so I must remind myself,
Maybe just maybe you need the reminder too,
That I'm happy to say that I'm sorry.
I am not a perfect person.
I have many flaws.
I'm very sorry for doing X,
Y,
And Z.
How can we make it better?
Or,
Right,
That's our pause to be able to discern,
To make our own choice.
Because maybe we do want to continue to say no.
But this fear of being called out is nothing to worry.
We have a simple answer of I'm a flawed human.
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,
We take one last notice of how we feel after the phrases to our difficult relationship this week.
With this exhale,
We get to let it go,
Release it into the world,
Back into the earth as I can take it all.
Can't fight against that magma.
As we release into all beings everywhere,
Drinking in all the many possibilities or many chances to start over or find something new,
How fate is random,
We cherish this feeling the expansiveness as this short journey that we've been on today comes to a close.
May all beings,
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.
What if we lived in a world in which you could not force anybody to do anything?
You know,
It seems like a far-fetched idea,
But what I'm really hoping that you get out from this question,
This exercise,
Is the encouragement to sit in somebody else's shoes,
To try to look from all of these various perspectives.
I know it can be uncomfortable and difficult to maybe even unfathomable to think somebody out there lives without anxiety,
But there are people who do not know what anxiety feels like and it runs my world.
So don't limit yourself.
There are truly that many possibilities for this life.
Let those that you want come to you.
We have the deepest faith and together we practice more in hopes that a little happiness finds us all.
May all beings,
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.
With that,
Dear friends,
We take one last breath to notice how we've ended our practice today,
Thinking of all beings everywhere,
This immense opportunity for possibility,
And we are done with our practice for today.
Wonderful work.
Way to take this short 30 minutes for yourselves,
For all beings everywhere.
You are truly making the world a better place and I'm so grateful you've allowed me to be a part of your journey because I am grateful to have you as part of mine.
Until next time,
With love,
Namaste.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
