Loving Kindness Meditation - Relationships (30 Mins) 6.19.23
by Abbey Harmon
Thank you so much for joining me here today. We take the next 30 minutes to complete a traditional Loving Kindness or Metta meditation as I know it. We repeat phrases silently to ourselves, sending them to different groups of people or relationships. I use the phrases: May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may you live with ease. We send these phrase to 5 groups of people spending roughly 5 minutes sending our phrases to each group; first ourselves, then a loving relationship, followed by someone in the public or a neutral relationship, then a difficult relationship, and lastly all beings everywhere. This is not your average 'relaxing' meditation. I complete Loving Kindness mediations to change myself intentionally; to look at myself in the mirror and question the places I have been stuck or unaware. I believe together with this practice, we make the world a better place for all. 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.
And I'm so grateful to be back with you today with another installment of Meditation Monday.
So each Monday I've been trying to offer a public loving kindness meditation because I believe this practice makes the world a better place.
And so I'm hoping to give those the opportunity who want to contribute and connect with me to do so.
And so I greatly appreciate your time and energy in coming and practicing with me today,
Whether live or recorded.
I appreciate you dearly as our loving kindness practice looks to turn those negative thoughts that I know are far too frequent within my mind.
They turn those into more compassionate,
More positive,
More intentional movements throughout the world,
Instead of maybe just maybe reacting and not being mindful.
And so over the next 30 minutes,
We will complete a loving kindness meditation from start to finish.
No prior experience necessary.
I will walk you through the steps.
Very simple practice today as our first step here is to find our way into a comfortable seat.
So I sit on a meditation cushion here at my fancy Japanese desk in my yoga office room.
But do feel free to select whatever position is most comfortable for you today as we do have to sustain this particular position where we aim to sustain one position for the next 30 minutes.
And so on the couch is always great.
And of course,
I take my morning meditations lying down.
So after we found our way to our comfortable seat,
Our meditation practice consists of two main parts,
Our phrases,
And then the people in which we send them to.
And so the first part,
Our phrases,
We use these phrases to focus our energy to combat those negative thoughts.
And the sample phrases I will be using today are,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be safe,
May you live with ease.
These are just example phrases that I learned from my teacher Sharon Salzberg.
Do feel free to select your own phrases.
I promise the rhythm will come with time.
So after we feel comfortable with our repeating of our phrases silently to ourselves,
As I do very much like to take this practice off the mat,
Use it for biding my time in line very regularly,
Standing,
Waiting,
Hoping not to scroll my phone.
So we send our phrases as we send these to five different groups of people.
First,
We send our phrases to the self.
We fill up our cup before we move on,
Being grateful for this short amount of time we take for ourself today,
Once a week.
Then we send our phrases to a loving relationship,
A loving relationship in our life that maybe just maybe we can't recall when times are tough,
Or maybe the light is dim.
We call this loving relationship and so we cherish that for a short five minutes today by sending our phrases to this loving relationship in our life.
Third is a neutral relationship.
I often describe this as a member of the public,
Somebody you don't know very well,
But maybe see you regularly.
Neighbors,
People in front of me driving.
All these people we interact with in public,
We send our phrases to third.
Fourth is a difficult relationship.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be your most difficult relationship,
But we will look to sit for a short five minutes and be uncomfortable with our difficult relationship.
And so fourth,
We send our phrases to this difficult person.
As in fifth,
We take a breather and open up to all beings everywhere,
Understanding the possibilities,
These infinite possibilities that we could have or cultivate in this life,
If only we get out of our own ways.
And so we open up our hearts to these millions and billions of possibilities by sending our phrases,
Last but not least,
To all beings everywhere,
Understanding that we are connected,
Sharing this one universe,
Infinite space,
This one earth.
So I hope you find your way to your comfortable seat.
It is time to dive in to the self.
We bring the self to mind.
I often sit on my current self's lap.
I hold younger Abby and then I sit on future Abby or wiser Abby's lap as I hold myself through the generations,
So to speak.
Can you feel the support you give yourself?
I feel my heart be light and warm.
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.
May I be happy.
May I be safe.
May I live with ease.
May I live with ease.
May I be happy.
May I live with ease.
Sitting down to my practice today,
I feel like a reborn person.
I definitely feel confident in being in a transition phase.
I feel renewed.
Also just finishing my period,
Just finishing my birthday.
So many things have just transitioned to my life and so I'd like to think I'm embracing this transitional period,
Really using this spike of energy that I feel so unusual in this new moon phase.
But we ride this wave into this more compassionate form of myself as I embrace the more loving person I am as that is who I wish to be and I believe these practices contribute greatly.
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 live with ease.
May I live with ease.
May I live with ease.
May I live with ease.
And with that dear friends,
We take this next breath to notice how our energy has shifted throughout this last session.
Can you feel the prana move pulse as we transition into our loving relationship for this week?
My pretty little dogs,
My amazing mentors that I've had in my life,
Family,
Friends,
Somebody you love this week.
We cherish that relationship as we don't love enough people in this world.
I think my list of love is too short and I'd like to make it longer.
And so we cherish these relationships in hopes that more come to us.
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 is your definition of love?
Love can be like a battlefield.
It's not always easy and simple,
But it can be.
And so today I encourage you to look within,
See what your definition of love is.
Does it need adjusting?
Or do you feel confident in this new relationship to love you've maybe been cultivating as I have been?
You should be so proud of your work.
So this loving relationship we cherish.
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 our next breath to notice the shift in our energy when thinking of our loving relationship.
Maybe call on this when we forget as we transition into our neutral relationship with this week.
What is our relationship to the public,
Our community,
Those around us?
I know it's a very midwestern thing to smile as you walk by,
But what does that say about us?
Is it a fake smile,
Safer in big cities to keep your head down?
But who do you want to be in your community?
And that is what we ponder as we send our phrases to our neutral relationship.
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.
Today,
We are not going to feel bad for when we are too tired to be a good member of our society.
When we notice that we are too tired to put in the energy,
We must recuperate ourselves first.
And then when we do have the energy,
We interact with intention.
We vote with our dollars and our voices.
And so today,
We do not feel bad about taking the energy back that we need and to not give everything.
Because unfortunately,
This world has conditioned us to give everything.
So we're a good member of community,
Even though we cannot give all,
But we sure do try.
Together,
We make 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,
Dear friends,
We take one final breath towards our neutral relationship.
How am I feeling?
Maybe your legs are asleep as they are with mine.
As we sit through the most uncomfortable part,
Our difficult relationship.
Maybe if some other part is difficult for you,
Please take me with you.
For me,
This is most difficult to sit and feel compassion towards a difficult relationship in my life.
But I know they were doing the best with what they could at the time,
Right?
Do the best we can with what we have,
But we are imperfect people.
So we must forgive those who transgress against us,
As God would forgive us for our transgressions.
So we are more than ourselves in our difficult 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.
These difficult relationships won't always be difficult.
We can get past them,
Even if it seems unfathomable.
All possibilities are there,
And so we look forward to all beings everywhere as they remind us of our humanity.
Even though this difficult relationship has caused us pain and wounds in some way,
Together we heal through this human connection.
That is what gives our life meaning.
And so I appreciate you sitting with us to comfort,
As I said,
With mine.
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 this final breath within our difficult relationship,
And we notice how our energy has shifted.
My life has actually come back.
We open up to all possibilities now with all beings everywhere,
Sending our phrases to all those we share this one earth with,
All the plans,
All the microns,
All these possibilities that I know I wish I felt more regularly.
And so let's take this short five minutes to feel like we have all of these possibilities laid out to us.
There are no more restrictions or guardrails that we have to work within.
Anything is possible,
Even if it's just a figment of our imaginations.
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.
The healing I have to do going forward is going to be very painful,
Because I've got to fill my heart with these moments of awe,
These truly touching,
Inspiring stories to combat all the self-hate that I've collected for far too long.
If only I didn't hold myself back,
Thinking that I only have a few possibilities when I have so many more in front of me.
If only I were present enough to imagine it.
If only I let the energy flow instead of letting my fear and anger hold me back.
So I pray to all beings everywhere.
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've come to the end of our practice.
Maybe you can notice how you've shifted from the start to the finish.
It's 30 minutes is up,
And I'm so grateful you've taken this short 30 minutes for yourself.
I so appreciate you have chosen me to be your guide.
Until next time,
I wish you all the best.
With love.
Namaste.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you live with ease.
