Welcome to this loving kindness meditation where we will be deliberately creating,
Generating,
Welcoming feelings of kindness,
Compassion,
Generosity,
Love.
So sitting in a comfortable position,
Making sure you feel well connected to the support beneath you,
Feeling the body upright,
The torso upright,
And just noticing if there's any tightness or tension in the face or shoulders,
And just as best you can,
Allowing the eyes and the face,
The shoulders to relax,
To soften,
Feeling into the flow of your breath,
Just feeling the breath coming in through the nostrils and out through the nostrils.
So in this meditation,
We will be bringing people into our imagination and sending these feelings towards them.
So as best you can moving with the guidance that I give,
But if at any point it feels uncomfortable or something that isn't working for you,
Then you can always return to simply following your breath,
Settling in your body,
And just being here.
Now I'd like you to,
To the best of your ability,
Bring someone to mind now,
Or it might be something or a pet or.
.
.
But thinking of someone or something that you feel very easy around,
That you feel a sense of love and peace and safety around,
Someone that it's very easy for you to feel love towards.
See if you can see their face,
Perhaps imagining they've just came and sat in front of you.
And just starting to feel the heart area,
Feeling this sense of opening that is so natural towards this person or pet.
Just feeling how easy it is to give feelings of kindness and love and compassion,
To wish this being happiness,
To wish them peace and good health,
To wish for them ease of being and safety in this world.
May they always be safe.
May they always be at peace within themselves.
May they have ease of being.
Just allowing those feelings to reach out and wrap around that person and feeling the warmth and the energy of that easy connection with that being.
And now we're going to move our awareness and bring another person to mind.
And this one,
Maybe someone that you come across in your life regularly but you don't really know,
That you don't have particular feelings of friendship or love towards or dislike or enmity towards.
Maybe someone at the local supermarket or the postman or someone who just comes into your life and see if you can picture their face.
Maybe in the setting where you usually encounter them and just in these few moments imagine offering to them this peace and ease of being,
This sense of kindness and compassion.
Knowing that they probably struggle with the same things you do.
They probably have difficult moments in their lives.
So from the generosity of your heart offering them this sense of kindness.
May they be happy.
May they find peace and ease of being.
May they be safe on this planet.
And allowing your heart as best you can to send that energy,
Wrap it around this individual.
And then moving awareness into another being.
And this time just to practice and evoke these feelings towards someone perhaps you have difficulty with.
Perhaps don't pick your arch enemy or someone that you have a very strong feeling of dislike towards.
But someone who just maybe irks you or you find it difficult to feel a sense of easy connection with.
So just bringing this person,
This being to mind.
Seeing them in perhaps the setting you usually encounter them or imagining them coming and sitting down in front of you.
And as you look at them just as best you can offering them a sense of kindness.
Compassion for the fact that they also struggle with life from time to time.
They have moments of darkness and heaviness.
They make mistakes.
Offering this being some peace,
Ease of being.
May they be happy.
May they feel safe on this planet.
And then taking your awareness now and turning it in a new direction.
Turning it towards yourself.
Feeling yourself sitting here.
Feeling your heart inside your chest.
And feeling this sense of love and compassion.
Extending that towards yourself.
Compassion for the way you seek to live your life as best you can.
Love for the efforts you make in the world.
May you have peace and ease of being.
May I feel safe on this planet.
Have you ever been allowing this feeling of love and kindness for yourself?
To spread throughout your body.
To feel that deep tenderness of connection.
And if any of this is your own,
Then you can feel this is difficult for you.
And having compassion for that difficulty.
Letting yourself accept whatever has arisen.
Whatever is arising now with openness,
Gentleness.
Now return your awareness back to your breath.
Feeling it enter and leave the body.
Feeling the body present in connection with the support beneath you.
Letting yourself just be here for another moment or two.
Feeling into the heart.
Feeling into this moment.
And then as you're ready,
You can open your eyes and move into your day.
