Hello,
And welcome to the loving kindness meditation.
My name is Brenda,
And I will be guiding you today.
And the loving kindness meditation is a pretty well known meditation in the meditation world.
And it's used to cultivate,
As it does love,
Kindness,
Gratitude for not only oneself,
But also for others,
And for others that we know and others that we may not know.
And I want to preface it that there may be for some of us,
Feelings or moments where it feels a bit contrived,
Or it may feel like there's a bit of resistance to go through with some of these words.
And like always,
I encourage you to have an open mind.
And I want to remind you that this is a practice.
These are practices.
And we enter this practice in knowing that oftentimes we may not fully grasp,
Understand,
Receive or all those terms,
We may not fully understand what it is that is going to be quote our results.
But through that practice,
I hope that as you continue exploring the loving kindness meditation and other meditations,
You may start to see the fruits of your practice.
So let's get to it now.
We're going to come into our seat,
Whether that's the chair,
Feet to the floor,
You may come to sit on the floor,
Perhaps bring a cushion or a blanket underneath you.
Or you may choose to lie down for this session to perhaps knees bent knocking in as a way to kind of cue the body that it's not sleeping time,
It is just a way for you to find your most comfortable position.
And as you're arriving there,
I want you to now close your eyes and maybe just get a little movement,
Any wiggles,
Shoulder rolls,
Head rolls,
Anything that just kind of needs to move,
Toes wiggling.
Yeah,
Oftentimes we come to our meditation practice and that movement still wants to,
The movement of our body and our mind is still there.
And so let's honor it.
And so if there is moments in the practice that you need to move,
Feel free to move.
Take a slow breath in through the nose and a slow breath out the mouth,
Kind of like you're blowing a candle,
Breathing in through the nose,
Slow and steady,
Filling up your belly.
As you part your lips,
Just a slow exhale out the mouth.
One more just like that,
Breathing in through the nose.
Part the lips open in a gentle blow out the mouth,
Kind of like you're blowing out some bubbles.
Good.
And then just feel your face,
Notice your face and invite this softening,
Relaxing sensation to the eyes,
The forehead and the jaw.
Feel the shoulders roll down the back.
Feel the hips rooted to the ground.
Feel or notice the lower half of your body grounded.
Observing the entire body as it is right now.
Getting a little bit more subtle and inward.
Begin to observe or notice the sounds around you.
Anything that may be far away from you and then anything that may be closer to you.
We're not trying to analyze any of these sounds,
We're simply observing.
Our thoughts are very similar to sound in the way that they often just happen.
We can't control the sound of loudness or when a car zooms by,
But we can observe our reaction and we can observe what it is that is happening in our body.
So with that analogy,
Take that with you as we explore today.
The impact or the effects of your own thoughts.
Now see if you can bring your attention even more inward.
See or notice the sound of your own breath.
Sound of your own inhale.
The sound of your own exhale.
Might be very soft,
Just notice anything that you can catch with your internal observation.
So we're now silently going more in,
More in.
I'm going to begin the loving kindness meditation,
Reciting certain words and phrases.
As I say them out loud,
I encourage you to silently repeat them in towards yourself.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
May I be happy.
May I be safe.
May I be healthy and at ease.
Just allow the echo of the words to stay with you for a moment in the eye,
In the eye form.
Now I'll begin to visualize someone else.
Someone that you want to extend this loving kindness.
And this someone might be someone that needs it or someone that you may not even fully know,
But truly can be anybody that comes up to your attention or your mind's eye right now.
And so just take a moment,
Visualize this person.
Visualize their face,
Perhaps what they're wearing,
Any gestures in their body or face.
And as you slowly look into this person's eyes,
You will silently repeat,
May you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be healthy and at ease.
Continue to visualize this person,
Letting the words land,
Extending out the words to them.
Now we extend it out even further and begin to visualize where you're at.
Visualize your neighbors,
Perhaps the building you're in,
The people in your home or office.
And that out and visualize the people on your street,
In your city,
In your state.
And further and further out,
Visualize people in the world.
And we'll silently repeat,
May we all be happy,
May we all be safe,
May we all be healthy and at ease.
Just allow the words to echo,
To extend further and further out,
Rippling it out from your center,
Your place,
All the way out to the world.
Stay connected to your breath and your practice.
Feel or notice whatever it is that comes up for you.
Go through the cycle one more time.
Silently repeating the words and phrases to yourself.
May I be happy,
May I be safe,
May I be healthy and at ease.
Believe the words within your own heart,
Within your own self.
Now visualize someone else,
Could be the same person or maybe someone else that needs the loving kindness that you're extending out to them.
Imagine putting your hand on their shoulder,
Looking into their eyes,
Seeing their facial expressions as you silently repeat,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be healthy and at ease.
Really feel or notice that extension of extending the loving kindness to someone else.
Notice a breath and we expand and we grow the loving kindness to our building,
Our home,
Our neighbors,
Our street,
Extending further to the people in our city and just visualize all of the people in your city that you may encounter,
That you may not even know and then grow that out even further into your country and then the world and expand out and zoom out and just imagine everyone,
Everyone in the world and we repeat,
May we all be happy,
May we all be safe,
May we all be healthy and at ease.
Let those words,
Let those thoughts ripple out,
Grow and grow.
Notice or see how you're feeling right now without the judgment of one way is better,
One way is right,
The experience is anything.
Imagine the echo of the words.
Words lingering around you.
Imagine that they'll stay with you throughout the rest of your day and if at any moment in your day the words or phrases come into your mind,
Repeat them silently at any moment without the need to sit down in meditation,
They are there for you.
Take a few bigger breaths now as a way to gesture to our body,
Your mind that your practice is gonna end soon.
Make a little movement perhaps with fingers or head or shoulders,
Slowly easing back into the space,
Your physical body,
Into the day and if you'd like,
You can bring the palms at your heart space,
Bringing the thumbs towards the breastbone in a gesture of gratitude for yourself for showing up to your practice here and for exploring something like the loving kindness meditation.
Take a big breath in through the nose,
Final moment and let it out the mouth.
Allow your eyes to blink open slowly,
Welcoming yourself back into the space,
Back into your physical room.
Thank you so much and I encourage you to explore this meditation once again at any moment whenever you need it,
Whenever you're noticing that you need to practice something like the loving kindness meditation.
It is often not an easy approach or language to use for many of us.
I hope you have a great rest of your day.
