Loving kindness meditation.
Setting yourself up in your meditation space.
Being aware of your posture,
Aware of your body,
Aware of your breathing.
And there may be sounds around you,
Inside the room or further away.
And just allow them to be.
Bring your attention back to yourself.
And you may have thoughts or feelings throughout this meditation.
And again,
Allowing them to be.
So that if you do notice you've become caught up in a thought or feeling,
You just bring your attention back to yourself and to the practice.
And then bringing to mind someone who you care strongly for,
Someone it's easy to wish well.
So you might visualize that person.
You might hear their voice.
You might just get a sense for them or intend to connect with them.
And as you hold that person in your awareness,
Send now your loving kindness in the form of these words.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
And you might imagine those good wishes reaching them,
Perhaps in the form of a bright,
Gentle light.
And allow your sincere good wishes to reach that person now.
And then letting go of that person,
Releasing any visualization and bringing to mind someone you feel neutral about.
So you don't have to know them that well.
Just needs to be someone that you don't have particularly strong positive or negative associations with.
Bringing that person to mind,
You might picture them or hear their voice.
You might just reach for that sense of them,
Knowing that you're connecting with them now.
And again,
Just sending that person some loving kindness.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
And you might even imagine that loving kindness reaching them and the kind of impact that might have.
And then letting go of that person,
Releasing any visualization and bringing to mind somebody that you may have some difficulties with.
So somebody that's not easy for you.
And if you're new to loving kindness,
Make it someone who you have minor difficulties with.
Don't jump in with the big guns yet.
And then bringing that person to mind,
Just enough to make a connection with them.
So you might picture them or hear their voice.
You might get a sense of them,
A feeling or a knowing.
And then send an intention to them of loving kindness.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
And you might see or feel that loving kindness reaching them.
And then letting go of that person,
Releasing any visualization and bringing your attention inwards to yourself.
So you might just sense into how you feel.
You might picture yourself from outside.
You might even say to yourself,
I send loving kindness to myself.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
And then just being really open to receiving that loving kindness and those good wishes.
And then releasing any visualization,
Bringing your attention away from yourself for a moment.
And now imagining all those people together.
So there was a person that it was easy to feel kind feelings towards.
There was a person who was neutral.
There was a person who was maybe not so easy.
And there was yourself.
And imagining those four people together now.
Making that connection to the four.
And sending positive intentions.
May we be happy.
May we be healthy.
May we be safe.
And allowing a flow of loving kindness to reach those four people.
And then releasing the practice,
Letting go of any visualization.
And coming back to yourself.
Coming back to yourself in the here and now.
Aware of your body and your breathing.
Aware of any sounds around you.
And coming gently back to awareness,
Ready to go about your day.
Thank you for sharing this practice with me.
