Dancing Kindness

A short practice on compassion. This is a variation on the loving kindness practice. In your mind's eye you will be thinking of people dancing. You can choose to have a favourite dance track on in the background. I thought of this whilst dancing at the Unicorn Dance Camp in the UK.

Transcript

Hello, My name is Chris and today we're going to be doing a 10 minute meditation practice called Dancing Kindness. So this is a variation on the Buddhist Metta practice of loving kindness and it came to me when I was at the Unicorn Dance Camp in the UK last week. Dancing in union with other humans looking into their eyes it just made me and reminded me of the beauty of even just thinking of other people dancing and the joy that that brings. So we're going to be going through five different people and groups of people for this dancing kindness practice. I'm going to be narrating throughout and when we're thinking of those people we're going to be thinking of them dancing. So to aid this if you have a favorite dance song that really makes you smile and makes you want to get up and get out onto that dance floor you can switch it on as background music. So this could be anything from devotional music through to disco whatever works for you or you can quite simply do this in silence and focus on just the image of each individual and group of people dancing. So to start find a comfortable seated position close your eyes or bring your gaze low and just to note when we switch from each person and group of people I'll be ringing the tinsha bells and I'm joined by my friend Claire today who will be meditating with us and the first person we're going to focus on in your mind's eye is a stranger somebody random who you've seen in the last 24 hours it could be somebody on the bus on the way to work on the tram or somebody at the grocery store or somebody in the elevator as you are going to work. Just think of that person standing in front of you I want you to envision them dancing so gently moving from left to right swaying could be to a beat or could just be to a feeling just see them dancing in front of you look into their eyes and in your mind's eye say to them may you be happy may you be well may you be well may you be happy may you be well and when I say dancing they could be doing something as simple as tapping their foot or clicking their fingers or going crazy and doing some choreographed dance whatever works for you just look into their eyes and say to them may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well and as you're looking at that person feel a sense of connection a sense of union almost as if you're flowing with them looking into their eyes and every time you're looking at them and they're dancing a deeper sense of joy and maybe see them smiling seeing dimples appear in their face and you saying to them may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well moving on now on your mind's eye to the second person which is of course you so think of yourself standing in front of you in your mind's eye look into your eyes start to feel the beat or just a movement start to see yourself slowly dance and flow again it can be as simple or as complex as you want look into your eyes and say to yourself may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well make eye contact with yourself feel a union feel joy just vibrating between you and you saying in your mind's eyes you look into your eyes and you see yourself dancing and moving and swaying may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well and see yourself just step it up a little bit if you're just clicking your fingers maybe introducing a bit more movement to the body just in your mind's eye just looking at yourself and imagine yourself dancing with yourself feeling those movements you could even just introduce a very subtle movement into the body just doing your physical body just subtly moving your shoulders seeing your public play if you're in a public place you don't have to do this but it's very subtle movement most mirroring and matching yourself on your mind's eye and saying to yourself may you be happy may you be well feeling that joy may you be happy may you be well now moving on to the third person so this is somebody who is close to you so someone in your family a friend a life partner think of that person stood in front of you you may well be familiar with dancing with this person so but try to choose somebody who really needs love at the moment so they might be going through a challenge think of them dancing in front of you look into their eyes and your mind's eye say to them may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well as you're saying these words see them start to move even more maybe deepening their flow to the beat or just movement the medicine of movement increasing just a little bit look into their eyes share the joy in your mind's eye looking at them may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be happy may you be well so now moving on to the fourth person and this is often the person we struggle with because it's somebody who has presented us with a challenge who we actually struggle to have a good relationship with so whoever that might be choose the person and remember to go easy on yourself so if this is raw try to introduce the person softly so maybe they stood a little bit further away from you in your mind's eye and remembering this isn't forgetting but slowly letting go of that negative association so maybe they're a little bit further away from you in your mind's eye you can just see them very subtly dancing they don't have to be full of joy but you can see them dancing and say to them in your mind's eye look at them and just say may you be happy may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well and just watch them in your mind's eye move again this is raw keep them at a distance that feels right to you but if it feels right maybe have them dance slightly closer to you and you're looking into their eyes and you're saying may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well so now moving on to the final part of this dancing kindness meditation I want you to think about I want you to think of lots of different people so maybe just going back through the people that you chose to focus on for this meditation maybe thinking of a slightly wider group so your neighbors all your friends all your family all the people that you saw on the way to work all the people at work all the people in the pastimes that you have so your hobbies your leisure activities all the people that you've seen when you've traveled all the people that you've seen whilst you were traveling and just slowly go through them see them all dancing just so full of joy you look into their eyes and you say to them may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well and see them all dance in unison almost or a little bit more than a river of movement that movement medicine the beauty of human union coming through dance you look into their eyes and say may you be happy may you be well may you be happy may you be well very slowly bringing awareness back into the body so maybe just moving the fingers and toes moving the head from left to right and then gently opening the eyes and very subtly go back to what you were doing before don't rush into anything so quite often this type of meditation opens up some thoughts which we just need to mind and we need to be conscious and mindful of looking after ourselves so thank you so much for listening may you be happy may you be well

Reviews

Lovely way to interpret an iconic Buddhist teaching ❤️🙏🌻

Thank you that was beautifully presented a really nice way to open my mind and be mindful and more present. 🙏

How lovely that was! Totally different but really enjoyed it, thank you chris!

That may have been the most joyous metta meditation I’ve ever done. The emotions of loving kindness flowed naturally, spontaneously, even for my “difficult person”. Thank you!

🙏🏻👯‍♂️💃💖👯‍♀️🕺🏻🙏🏻