#7 - Breath, Metta & Forgiveness

BC Association for Living Mindfully - BCALM – Listeners receive gentle and calm suggestions and guidance on how to begin a sacred mindfulness meditation practice. Great listening for beginners or those nurturing a meditation practice.

Transcript

Welcome to this mindfulness meditation with metta forgiveness and metta loving kindness for self.

I'll invite you to sit in a posture that allows you to pay attention and be comfortable for the next 20 minutes or so.

Inviting a straight back,

Not rigid but aligned with your head reaching up towards the sky.

Inviting the shoulders to sink down.

Hands to rest comfortably wherever that is for you.

Inviting the eyes to gently close or just to have a soft gaze in front of you,

Whatever you feel safe and comfortable with.

Meaning the eyes can change throughout the meditation as you like.

I'll also invite you to bring to this practice today an attitude of kindness,

Of curiosity,

Of openness to whatever it is that you discover in your present moment,

In your practice today.

So let's begin by tuning into the breath,

Just taking a moment to find the breath in your body.

And then on your next out breath,

Breathing all the way out.

And when you're ready,

Taking a breath in through the nose and gently comfortably filling the belly and then letting the chest expand and now gently breathing out all the way out.

Using this awareness of the breath in the body,

This one breath to bring us into the present moment.

And let's continue preparing for meditation by doing a brief body scan.

Checking in with the body as we practice paying attention.

So bringing attention to the top of the head,

Noticing your scalp and your hair,

Noticing how the head is balanced in the body,

Hearing sounds.

And then moving your attention over the top of the head to the face,

To the forehead,

The eyebrows,

Breathing in awareness of the eyes themselves,

The nose,

Noticing the cheeks and the jaw and then the mouth and the throat,

Noticing the shoulders and the arms,

All the way down to the hands and the fingers,

Breathing in awareness of these parts of the body as we touch on them.

And as you breathe out,

If there's anything that you notice that you don't need,

Tightening,

Tension,

Discomfort,

This is an opportunity to invite those parts of the body to soften,

To rest.

So bringing attention now to the chest,

Noticing how the breath moves,

The rib cage,

How it lifts the torso and then how it falls and changes with an exhalation.

Moving your attention down to the lower torso,

To the abdomen,

To the belly,

To the pelvis,

To the low back.

Just paying attention to that part of the body for a moment.

And then to the buttocks,

To your contact with the chair or the cushion or the furniture that you're sitting on,

Really noticing the sensations of sitting,

Noting the firmness or softness of the surface beneath you,

Noticing the edges as they press into the parts of your body,

And then extending your attention down the rest of the legs all the way down to the feet,

Pausing to really feel your feet on the ground,

Perhaps pressing them down,

Noticing their temperature,

Noticing the nature of what's beneath your feet.

And then when you're ready,

Bringing your attention up through the body to the breath,

Finding that place in your body where you're most aware of the movement of air.

And we're just going to sit for a few moments,

Following the breath,

Finding our place,

Practicing mindfulness.

So following the breath with your attention,

Perhaps counting the breaths,

One as you breathe in,

Two as you breathe out,

Or describing the breaths.

I notice I'm breathing in.

I notice I'm breathing out.

I notice I'm breathing out.

And when you notice your attention is wandered,

Just notice where it's gone.

Has it gone to thought?

Is there a habit of mind that you go to often?

Understanding perhaps,

Or remembering,

Analyzing,

Complaining,

Criticizing,

Dreaming.

Just notice what it is that your mind has gone to.

Name it if you can with one word.

Might be a sensation,

So you might notice pain or itch or tension or softness or relaxation.

You might notice a sound or an emotion.

Name it as simply as you can,

And then come on back to your anchor.

Come back to the breath.

Find your place in the awareness of breathing.

Come back to the breath.

Noticing your experience,

Observing the objects in your awareness,

The thoughts and sensations,

The sounds,

The emotions,

The urges.

Seeing if you can observe them arise and pass,

Perhaps like a bird flying across an open sky.

Your awareness being the sky and the bird carrying a thought or a sound,

An emotion or a sensation.

You simply watch it arise and fly through your awareness.

And then another one comes along.

Our practice is to notice what arises and to let it pass,

Simply noticing.

If your experience feels too full,

Then simply come back to the breath,

Perhaps describing it.

I'm aware that I'm breathing in.

I'm aware that I'm breathing out.

Just repeating those phrases,

Practicing mindfulness,

One breath at a time.

I'm aware that I'm breathing in.

I'm aware that I'm breathing out.

I'm aware that I'm breathing out.

I'm aware that I'm breathing out.

If you would like to extend this period of open awareness practice,

Feel free to pause the recording,

Stay as long as you'd like,

And then resume the recording and join in for the metta forgiveness and metta loving kindness practices.

So the metta forgiveness practice that we'll do now involves three statements.

I'm going to repeat each of them in their entirety and then break it down into parts,

Which I'll invite you to repeat after me.

And you can repeat those phrases in the quietness of your own mind,

Or if you're in a space and you feel comfortable and would like to say them out loud,

Feel free to do so.

The first statement of metta forgiveness is this.

In as much as I am able to today,

May I forgive myself for any harm or suffering that I have caused to myself or to another.

So let's repeat that together.

In as much as I am able to today,

May I forgive myself for any harm or suffering that I may have caused to myself or to another.

The second phrase in as much as I am able to today,

May I forgive those who have harmed me or caused me to suffer knowingly or unknowingly.

Repeating it together now.

In as much as I am able to today,

May I forgive those,

Those who have caused me harm or who have caused me to suffer knowingly or unknowingly.

Taking a moment now to just notice what's in your experience,

What's happening in the body,

What thoughts,

Emotions,

Urges might be present.

Sensing them and then coming back to your anchor.

And now the last phrase of metta forgiveness.

May I be forgiven by those whom I have harmed or caused to suffer intentionally or unintentionally.

Repeating it together now.

May I be forgiven by those whom I have harmed or caused to suffer intentionally or unintentionally.

And tuning in again to the objects in your awareness.

What is your experience now?

Or simply coming back to the breath,

Following it with your attention.

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

And now our practice of metta loving kindness.

So I invite you to bring to mind an image or sense of yourself.

Take a moment to let that form and firm in your attention,

In your awareness.

And then offering to yourself the following shortened phrases of metta loving kindness.

May I be safe.

May I be healthy.

May I be happy.

And may I live with ease in my world.

May I live with ease in my world.

So taking a few moments now to continue to notice what's happening in your present moment,

In your awareness and using the phrases of the metta loving kindness as your anchors.

Whichever one you remember or whichever one resonated with you today.

Coming back to repeating.

May I be safe.

Or may I be healthy and happy.

May I be at ease.

May I be healthy.

May I be at ease.

May I be safe.

I'll invite you now to deepen your breath.

And when you're ready to breathe out,

Take a full exhalation all the way out.

Then breathing in,

Filling the belly with a gentle,

Comfortable breath,

Letting the chest expand.

And then as you breathe out,

If you'd like to end the practice with moving your fingers and toes,

Feel free to do that or you can listen for the tone of the bell and end your practice at the end of the bell.

Reviews

Exactly what I needed. Very clear, easy to understand, and thoughtful instructions. I will be revisiting this one again

Absolutely wonderful. Exactly what I need to help me to practice forgiveness for myself and people who have hurt me. I love the Metta affirmations. I will be listening to this often. Thank you so much. 🙏🙏🙏

Great mixture of mindfulness, forgiveness, and metta. Thank you.