As mothers we often spend all of our time nurturing others and give ourselves very little of that loving energy.
In today's meditation we'll bring awareness to the love that we easily feel for our children and family and then send some of that love to ourselves.
Our aim of this meditation is to realize that we too deserve the same loving kindness and hopefully through this practice we start to create a little more of this in our own lives.
The focus of this meditation is on feeling,
A feeling of loving kindness.
Over time the words might fade and you might simply be left with the feeling,
That's okay,
That's the aim.
Make yourself comfortable,
Sit with your back straight and your head up,
With the feet on the floor and the arms gently in your lap.
Simply sit and notice yourself sitting,
Breathe naturally,
Watch your breath going in and out,
In and out.
Keep focusing on your breathing.
Place your attention now on the area in the middle of your chest around your heart.
Repeat to yourself gently and softly,
Feeling the resonance of the words.
Love,
Love,
May my heart be filled with love.
As you say this perhaps bring to mind someone you easily feel love and kindness for.
It might be your baby or child or perhaps your partner or a good friend.
Bring to mind an image of this person.
Experience the feelings that you feel for them,
The love and the warmth.
And let it wash over your whole body.
Feel the sense of caring,
Healing and soothing.
Let it wash over you and through you.
And gently repeat these words silently to yourself while imagining this person in your mind.
May you be well,
Healthy and strong.
May you be happy.
May you find peace.
Bring to mind someone else now.
Someone that you like a lot but is not someone who immediately calls to mind loving feelings.
I want you to call to mind that feeling that you felt for your child and send this person that you like a lot that same warmth and caring.
Silently wish them well.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
May you find peace.
Call to mind someone now that you barely know or that you feel neutral about.
So it may be someone that you've come across in the street.
Perhaps someone who serves you coffee or who you've seen on a bus.
I want you to call to mind those loving,
Beautiful feelings that you felt for your child.
And send these same feelings of warmth and caring to this person that you feel neutral about.
Silently wish them well.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
May you find peace.
You may find that the feelings of loving kindness are starting to weaken.
If this happens,
You can return to that image of your child or partner and really cultivate that feeling again before moving on.
There's no need to rush this.
You may also find that practicing this meditation a couple of times might help you to cultivate those feelings of loving kindness towards those that you don't necessarily immediately feel them for.
I'd like you to bring to mind someone who annoyed or irritated you recently.
So maybe they upset you.
Maybe it was a slow driver or someone at work.
This is not the time to call to mind someone who's being very hurtful towards you.
Simply someone who has caused a minor irritation.
Call those feelings to mind,
Those same loving,
Kind feelings that you felt for your partner or child.
And send these same feelings of warmth and caring to this person who has irritated or annoyed you recently.
Silently wish them,
May you be well.
May you be happy.
May you find peace.
It's time now to call to mind someone who has hurt you.
It might be someone who's hurt you in the past or maybe more recently.
Know that in sending them these feelings,
You may be able to find peace.
In sending them these feelings of love and kindness,
You're not condoning or approving what they've done.
You're simply allowing yourself to let the pain and anger that you carry towards them go.
As the pain and anger hurts you more than anyone else.
Call to mind those feelings of love and kindness that you feel for your child or partner.
Then call to mind the image of the person who's hurt you and silently wish them,
May you be well.
May you be happy.
May you find peace.
It's time to bring your awareness back to yourself now.
I want you to call to mind those feelings of love and kindness that you feel for your children or your partner.
I want you to feel that feeling radiating across your entire chest and then spreading throughout your entire body.
Perhaps even calling to mind an image of yourself sitting.
Send yourself those same feelings of warmth and caring,
Wishing yourself silently.
May you be well.
May you be happy.
And may you find peace.
Allow yourself to sit with these feelings of love and kindness.
Try not to allow the thinking mind to come in and argue against any reason why you should feel these feelings of love and kindness.
Just sit with the feelings.
Sit with your breath and sit with yourself.
Slowly start to let the feelings of loving kindness fade and return once again to focusing on your breath.
Once again notice yourself sitting.
Notice your body,
Its position,
Perhaps any tension that you may be feeling for sitting for the last five minutes or so.
When you feel ready to,
It's time to slowly open your eyes and return to the room.
