Loving Kindness Meditation - Relationships (30 Mins) 8.22.22

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 word together. With Love, Namaste - Abbey

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

Thank you so much for joining me here today.

My name is Abbey and I'm the Marhaim A.

Yogi Salesforce Engineer and creator of Consider Volunteering,

My personal brand of community empowerment.

And I'm here today with another installment of loving kindness meditation.

So I've been coming each Monday as a practice of my own to share a loving kindness meditation with right all in order to put more of this feeling into the world because I know I sure need it for myself to gladden the mind and combat those negative thoughts as I find myself online for work and for many other aspects of my life.

And so loving kindness meditation has been the way in which I've been able to connect ground,

Take that pause as you hear many times,

And I greatly appreciate your time in joining me here today with my personal installment of this practice.

So within the next 30 minutes,

We will complete a loving kindness meditation practice together.

No skills needed.

The first step is to find a comfortable position.

So I myself am sitting on my meditation cushion today,

But I do often take this practice lying down.

But be wary as to naps,

Always helpful,

But you know,

Doesn't get in those practice hours.

So we must balance between finding a comfortable waking seat that will achieve for the next 30 minutes of our practice together.

I will then walk you through each step of our practice,

Which involves two parts.

And the first is repeating a set of phrases.

So my phrases that I will use as examples today are,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be safe,

May you live with ease.

And so these are the phrases I will use as I've learned from Sharon Salzberg.

But please feel free to leverage your own phrases,

Whatever feels best.

The rhythm comes in time.

So find what you like and repeat your phrases as you see fit,

What feels good today in your practice.

So the first part,

We repeat our phrases to ourselves,

Usually silently,

But I do find saying them out loud,

Depending on your situation is up to you in time,

Right?

The dogs don't mind,

But your neighbors on the train may find you a bit different.

So silent or out loud repeating of your phrases brings us to the second part of our practice,

Which is we set our intentions to five different groups of individuals and we send our phrases to these groups.

So the first group of the five is ourselves.

So we must fill up our own cup before jumping into other more sometimes difficult sides of life.

And so the first group we send our loving kindness phrases to is ourselves.

The second group will be a loving relationship in your life.

So we will set our intention,

Visualize,

Feel that loving relationship or the person on the other end of that loving relationship in your heart.

And we will repeat our phrases towards that particular person.

Our third group of individuals will be the public or a neutral relationship in your life.

So somebody that you pass in the grocery store,

Maybe in front of you in a car,

Beside you on the train,

You know,

Somebody you don't know too much about,

But is a part of your community that you would interact with.

I find sending our loving kindness phrases to the group reminds us that we are all connected.

The fourth group of individuals will be a difficult relationship.

So we must find balance,

But we must also practice on our mats.

These difficult relationships and interactions that we have are inevitable throughout our life.

So we practice on our mat,

Sending loving kindness phrases in hopes that we find more groundedness when we are interacting with these more difficult people or relationships on a daily.

Last but not least,

We will refresh at the end of our practice by sending our loving kindness phrases to all beings everywhere.

So last but not least,

We open our hearts to all beings everywhere as we do share the limited resources on this rock floating in the ever-expanding universe.

And so that is how we round out our practice today.

Our five groups of people repeating our phrases silently to ourselves.

And that is the instructions.

So we move into our first group of individuals.

We'll jump right into our practice.

I hope you found your way to a comfortable seat.

As you recall,

Our first group of individuals is ourselves.

So we bring ourselves to mind,

Whatever that means for you today,

Whether it's been a hard day or an easy day,

We still relinquish in the strength and centeredness of my small fractal of light that shines out of me.

And I am very grateful for that today.

So with that,

I enter my practice of sending my loving kindness 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 happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be safe.

May I live with ease.

I don't always find starting this practice with myself to be the easiest.

Today I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.

Of course,

In the terms of work,

That's how it feels.

And I take it a bit too seriously.

But I think that's what makes me different is because I do really care.

I try my hardest every day.

I show up at work to play my role.

But I really do think that since I practice on a regular basis,

I also interject that practice into everything that I do.

So even though it is tough,

I'm still grateful for all the effort I put in,

Because I know I care and that's what matters.

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.

With these practices,

In time,

I found even the thoughts towards myself get lighter and more compassionate,

And I hope you too see it before long.

And with that,

My friends,

We will shift to our second group of individuals,

Which is our loving relationship.

So what loving relationship comes up for you today?

Whether that's a pet,

Close friend,

Family,

A mentor,

Teacher.

No matter how long it's been since this relationship has touched your life,

I still think it's so worthy to express your love.

As I find even the smallest seeds from the quickest of relationships really do last and create meaning that we can share with others.

So we are grateful for that in this moment.

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.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

Please know that the love that I hope you feel in this moment while thinking about the loving relationship in your life,

You can call on it at any time.

Even when the new moon is approaching,

That beautiful moon energy is slowly slipping away.

These loving relationships are a place of solace where I go to when I miss that internal fire and when I'm not feeling it in that particular moment.

These loving relationships are a boost,

Keep me motivated.

And so I cherish them so in my loving kindness practice.

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.

For us at this moment I'm having a Bridgerton quote fly through my head about the many times in which they speak of love and most specifically when the queen is helping Edwina decide,

Is it time to marry the Viscount?

Is it time to move on?

Right?

And how do we make that choice?

And love is hard,

But we can relish it together.

And I hope that you find thinking about it now makes those thoughts of love easier to call upon when you need them.

So I'm grateful for you practicing.

Your loving kindness as we shift to our third group,

Our neutral relationship,

Or as I think of it,

A member of the public.

And I myself today am more apprehensive about an upcoming interaction with the public that I know I am partaking in.

That makes me anxious,

But I hold hope that maybe just maybe when I revisit the past in some way and these public interactions with acquaintances that you once knew and interacted with more,

That even if you've changed and they have changed,

You can still find connection,

Right?

As we all reflect that light that we share from within.

And so I hold hope for my interactions with the public in the future.

And I hope maybe just maybe in this practice,

We can cultivate more of them together.

So I send my loving kindness phrases to my 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.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

These thoughts of public interactions for me come with a lot of anxiety from my past,

My version of my childhood trauma,

In which it was very important,

Right,

To be accepted by all,

Right?

This external facing approval that I am good enough.

I am all right to keep walking amongst all.

But these practices,

These loving kindness practices dismantle all of that because I know I'm worthy no matter who interprets this here being,

I think I'm pretty rad and I'm trying to make the world a better place.

And so,

So libertarily from all of these different angles,

It can be a matter of perspective,

But we keep trying and we keep practicing together.

And I appreciate your time sending your loving kindness phrases to our neutral relationship,

A possible member of the public.

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.

As we work to gladden our minds,

We must take the time to settle down.

To send our loving kindness phrases to our fourth group of people,

Our difficult relationship.

As I mentioned last time,

Sometimes I can find these difficult relationships to also be within my loving relationships as well,

As loving relationships can too have a dark side.

Or at least something that is difficult,

Right?

Something you don't see eye to eye on.

Is it possible to respectfully disagree?

I've heard several meditation teachers talk about the true happiness for others and then how that can be a milestone on our journeys.

So maybe that is what I will see you with today.

Instead of having this difficult relationship,

Be focused on what is difficult.

Can you by chance flip the script,

Change the perspective to find the beauty in that difficultness,

Honor the other person's happiness that they share from that perspective that may cause you pain.

And from that,

Maybe just maybe we can let go for our own good.

So we send our loving kindness phrases to our difficult 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.

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 hold faith that these practices do make a difference,

That they can change that perspective of this difficult relationship to truly be able to be happy for the other individual and the love that they share,

Even though it may not be with us anymore.

Sometimes that cliff of faith can be the hardest to climb,

But I myself have seen it be true.

And I encourage you to keep going.

Maybe just maybe you'll find the same faith above all else keeps us going.

So I send my loving kindness relationships to my difficult 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.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

With one big sigh,

I let go.

Let go.

We open our hearts up to our fifth and final group,

All beings everywhere.

Let the wash of energy be far greater than the bounds of your human form.

Feel the expansiveness through time and space are larger than any of us can truly conceptualize.

So with a great compassionate heart,

We shift our loving kindness phrases 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.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.

You are never alone.

If you feel as though you do not have any companionship in the present,

I would point you to see the fingertips or the fingerprints that you will leave behind for those who come after you.

Because we do not have to be connected on a physical plane in this three dimensional world.

We are connected in far greater ways.

And so I'm so glad I get this opportunity each and every time in my loving kindness practice to send my phrases 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.

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.

May you live with ease.

May you live with ease.

May you live with ease.

I hope you have a lovely day my sweet friends.

I'm so grateful that you chose to practice compassion here with me today in our loving kindness practice.

And I hope you will choose to again practice in your own way.

If you need some help,

Find your way back here.

We are happy to be connecting with you.

I hope you have a great one.

Until next time with love,

Namaste.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe.

May you live with ease.