This meditation combines a take on the Buddhist loving-kindness approach,
Metta Bhavana,
Along with some somatic guidance so that you're also offering loving-kindness to your nervous system and to your whole body.
So just finding a place to sit,
Stand or lie down that feels comfortable for you right now,
Where you feel awake and alert and at the same time also relaxed and at ease.
So just finding that position that feels right for you,
Taking a few breaths if that's useful.
You can let the eyes lower,
Just glancing out through eyelashes,
Keep the eyes open or close the eyes.
Just play around with those three and see what feels safe and if at any time with eyes closed you feel an anxiety coming on that feels unmanageable and it's really distracting,
You can always open your eyes and really slowly just look around the space that you're in and this slow looking around will hopefully bring your nervous system back,
Back to a place of rest and you can you can carry on with the meditation.
So I invite you to just start by placing your hands really anywhere,
There isn't a right place but kind of coming into contact with yourself,
So it might be a hand on a hand or hands on feet or knees,
Hips,
Low back,
Belly,
A hand on the chest or kind of crossed across your chests,
Your arms,
Your hands holding your shoulders,
Giving them a little squeeze,
You might place a hand at the base of the head or on the cheek or both cheeks,
On the forehead and just inviting you as well to kind of maybe play around with different places,
Perhaps not not where you would expect to place your hands,
Maybe on the top of your head or squeezing your toes and placing them in such a way that you can feel the sensation really feel it in a way that feels warm and comfortable and that there's definitely enough that there's definitely enough sensation but not too much,
So you might might be a really light touch,
Might be a bit of a squeeze,
You might pat or tap you might gently rub little circles so it might be a firm touch or a more gentle light touch,
It's just finding what your nervous system needs to to take in a bit of kind sensory data in a way that feels interesting and comfortable and maybe even lovely for you today,
So just playing with that different locations for a moment and just noticing how much pressure,
How little or whether you like there to be a bit of movement,
A bit of patting or tapping or circles and movement might pinch the earlobes,
Tap the cheekbone just under the eyes just playing with different ideas around self-touch,
Self-contact and then as you start to find perhaps one area that you're particularly liking or that at least feels relatively neutral,
It doesn't feel uncomfortable I'm going to repeat some sentences that are used in Buddhist loving-kindness in metabhāvana meditation,
You can just kind of silently say them to yourself or just listen to me repeating them and you can kind of imagine if imagining's your thing that you're kind of saying it to that part of your body where your hands are on or you can just let the words sit there in your mind and just see what happens,
Just let them be there so I'll start with the words may you be peaceful and light in your body and mind may you be safe and free from harm may you be free from anger,
Fear and worries may you be peaceful and light in your body and mind may you be peaceful and light in your body and mind may you be free from anger,
Fear and worries may you know how to look at yourself with the eyes of understanding and love may you know how to look at yourself with eyes of understanding and love just remembering that these words are,
They're an intention it might not be how you feel today or or ever about yourself or or about this part of your body but they are a hope that there might be able to be space for these sorts of feelings to slowly start to develop that this is a this is a meditation of cultivation of cultivating some gentle more loving feelings towards ourself we can use our hands keep moving them around if you'd like to now or keep them on one place but we're using our hands and this this sort of self-paced contact to to stay grounded in our bodies to to help our nervous system to to stay online to stay present so when we're hearing the words when we're saying the words to ourself silently we're really present and online to the to the words we're saying so we'll run through those one more time just knowing there's no need to to really feel this today but to know that it's an intention just using your hands to keep yourself here in the here and now in whatever way feels comfortable soothing neutral or maybe even lovely may you be peaceful and light in your body and mind may you be safe and free from harm may you be free from anger fear and worries may you know how to look at yourself with the eyes of understanding and love and then whenever you're ready if your eyes weren't already open letting them open and and just very slowly so not darting the eyes but slowly looking around the space you're in walls the ceiling the floor the sky if you're outside maybe just taking two or three deep breaths if that feels useful or interesting or lovely and thank you for taking the time to have a go at this practice with me
