Welcome to this loving-kindness meditation.
This meditation is aimed to nourish and cultivate your relationship with yourself and other people that may come to your mind during it.
Simply find a comfortable position in which to sit or lay down for this practice.
As you allow your eyes to gently close,
Tune into the body and make any minor adjustments.
It can be helpful to remember your intentions of both ease and awareness.
So,
Sit or lay down in a way that feels comfortable but alert.
We will start with a concentration practice to help your mind settle and arrive in the present time experience.
As you allow the body to resume to natural breathing,
See where in the body you can feel the breath.
It may be in the stomach or abdomen,
Where you can feel the rising and falling as the body breathes.
It might be in the chest,
Where you may notice the expansion and contraction as the body inhales and exhales.
Or perhaps it's at the nostrils,
Where you can feel a slight tickle as the air comes in and the subtle warmth as the body exhales.
You can pick one spot to stick with for this meditation practice.
And as you feel the body breathing,
Try to stay with the breath all the way through.
Stick with it from the beginning of the inhale all the way through the end of the exhale.
You may notice during the practice the mind wandering.
When the mind wanders,
It really offers us an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and concentration.
So,
You may take it as such and return to the breath as many times as you need during this practice.
You can begin by bringing to mind yourself as you sit or lay here right now.
Try to connect with your own deepest intentions for happiness,
Ease and safety.
You don't need to dive into stories of what will make you happy,
But connect with that natural desire you have.
You can cultivate this intention to open the heart to your own well-being by silently offering yourself some phrases of metta.
In your head,
Slowly offer yourself the phrases May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be at ease.
You can now bring to mind a good friend.
This may be a loved one,
A friend,
A teacher or a mentor or maybe a pet.
You can connect with your natural desire to see this person happy and at ease and offer them a few phrases of metta.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
You can let this person go from your mind and bring to mind a neutral person.
This is someone you see maybe regularly but don't know very well.
It may be somebody who works somewhere you go a lot,
A co-worker or maybe a neighbor.
You don't need to know what their happiness looks like necessarily,
But again offer this person the phrases of love and kindness,
Connecting with the intention to care about their well-being.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And as you let this neutral person go,
You can bring to mind somebody who you find difficult.
You may not want to pick the most difficult person in your life,
But maybe someone you find yourself agitated with or annoyed by.
Although you may not mean it wholeheartedly every time you offer a phrase,
You can make an effort with them.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
Now bring your awareness back to your energetic heart.
Let your awareness rester,
Spreading the energy of love and kindness in all directions.
You may remain in this state for as long as you see fit and when you're ready you may begin to come back into the space and close the practice on your own.
Thank you so much for sharing this practice with me and have a beautiful,
Lovely rest of your day.
