Smiling Kindness

A short practice on compassion. This is a variation on the Loving Kindness practice; imagine each person we are thinking of during the practice, smiling and full of joy. Recorded live at Crone Woods, Co. Wicklow Ireland. Best to do this seated with your eyes closed or gaze low. Please note that all my recordings are done using a simple headset so I apologise for the quality of the recording / sound levels.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Chris and today we're going to be doing a short 10-minute practice called smiling kindness.

So smiling kindness is a variation on the meta practice loving kindness and within this we're going to be just thinking of people so using our mind's eye to think of various different people in our lives smiling and us sharing that smile with them.

So the background sounds you can hear are those of crone woods just in the foothills of Jouse Mountains in Ireland and I'm joined by my two friends Keane and Lizzie who'll be meditating along today as well.

So in between each person we're going to be thinking of I'm going to ring a bell just so you know to change and we'll start by focusing on just a stranger that you've seen today so potentially somebody in the shopping mall,

Somebody on the bus,

Somebody on your walk to work and just think of that person standing in front of you smiling,

You seeing dimples in their face,

Joy in their eyes and just look into their eyes in your mind's eye and say may be happy may be well,

May be happy,

May be well and see them light up with joy as you say those words,

They're smiling deepening a wider mouth showing more of their teeth their eyes brightening with joy and you saying once again may be happy,

May be well,

May be happy,

May be well and their smile radiating back to you and it almost forming a circle of happiness as you smile they smile and the joy spreads and now just finding a way in your mind's eye to thank them so you might just nod at them you might place one hand over your other on your heart or you might put your hands in prayer at your heart center and just bow to them thanking them for their time so the next person we're going to think of is you this is something that we all need more of we need self-compassion it's something that we all struggle with so think of yourself in front of you just in your mind's eye think of yourself smiling think of yourself full of joy your posture open just oozing happiness and look into your own eyes and say to yourself may you be happy,

May you be well may you be happy,

May you be well seeing your smile widen seeing your eyes glisten with joy with happiness just sparkling full of positivity and recognizing yourself the feeling of smiling feel the corners of your mouth just turn up and that wonderful sensation of your lips just brushing across your teeth as you reveal happiness and joy and then in your mind's eye looking back at yourself and saying once again may you be happy,

May you be well may you be happy,

May you be well and then somehow just taking time to say thank you so pausing and smiling or putting one hand over your heart over the other and acknowledging yourself and saying thank you so now moving on to the third person and this is somebody who's special in your life so it might be a family member a friend or a partner somebody you want to share joy and happiness with so think of that person standing in front of you them smiling and you saying to them may you be happy,

May you be well dear friend family member,

Partner,

Loved one may you be happy,

May you be well and just take notice you say those words as they spread their smile joy starts to ooze out of them that sparkle of contentment and happiness repeating again slowly may you be happy,

May you be well,

May you be happy,

May you be well and now just feeling the warmth as you look into their eyes and they look into your eyes and you feel each other's soul both full of joy sharing compassion sharing love and its deepest non-conditional form and then through whichever way works for you just find a way in your mind's eye to say thank you that might be putting your hands in namaste and saying thank you or just nodding your head So moving now on to the fourth person somebody who you struggle with somebody who's caused you pain or hurt and this is hard to do because we often don't want to forget this and we're not going to we're not going to forget we're just going to forgive so it's almost a sensation of letting go of that hurt so think of that person somebody who's caused you hurt who might have betrayed you standing in front of you and maybe not as close as the others but just see a slight sense of contentment and you being comfortable with that you sharing that contentment so we don't need to push for happiness we don't need to push for a smile here because this is hard so just softly sharing the concept of contentment between you and that you're okay with them being content you're letting go of any resentment and being content and you're saying to them in your mind's eye maybe happy maybe well remember you're forgiving not forgetting here but just gradually over time becoming content with this person being content and saying again maybe happy maybe well and then slowly finding your way to acknowledge that person nodding or placing one hand over the other on your heart and just letting them step away so moving on to the last part of this smiling kindness practice so this is everyone think of everyone in your life think of everyone you've ever seen everyone you've seen today everyone you saw yesterday just think of all those people on the bus on the tram on the train in your car think of them all smiling all happy maybe all ecstatic and jumping up and down and dancing and just exuding joy and you saying to them may you all of you each and every one of you be happy may you be well may you all of you wonderful beings loving compassionate happy beings be happy may be well and echo that smile yourself just turn the corners of your lips up feel that joy spread through your body that warmth presence and again looking across all your family your friends your work colleagues loved ones everyone in your life your neighbors may you be happy may you be well everyone may you be happy may you be well making eye contact with as many of them as you can and then slowly finding a way of acknowledging them maybe a small nod or one hand over the other on your heart all your hands in prayer and just saying thank you so thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to practice smiling kindness today slowly go back into your normal life so start to move your fingers and toes and gradually stretch your body awake and slowly opening your eyes don't rush back into anything just yet just gradually go back into it so just hold off before you turn on your phone or get straight back into work just reintroduce it slowly so thank you again for listening big thank you to Keane and Lizzie for being here with me in these beautiful woods and I apologize for the quality of the sound recording but I really wanted to share this lovely nature here in Dublin Island and you could have heard from the people walking past us the authenticity of just being real in nature so have a beautiful day may you be happy may you be well

Reviews

Easy and joyful voice to listen to. Also in a real environment.
Therefore the not perfect sound and background noises are just like a wush of the wind

Thank you for sharing this beautiful meditation with us all
Namasté 🍁🌬️🎨📜

Such a comforting and loving meditation. I enjoyed chirping of the birds, too 🤗
May you be happy, may you be well! Namaste! 🙏🙏🙏

I hope to come back to this. Allowing the smile to be there brought some lightness of being. And I appreciated the bell as a signal to release and move on.

The name of meditation attracted me, so I press the play and I hear familiar voice. What a surprise 😃 ! Thank you Chris for a beautiful practice of love and kindness ❤️

So magical and feels so incredibly healing in the most simple way.

Lovely meditation and a great way to start the day.

Awesome visualization! This is what I love about buddhist meditation

Very nice! The sounds in the background are just perfect. The birds chirping, indistinct chatter, very subtle. I quite enjoyed it. Thank you!

Absolutely lovely. I think I’ll make a habit out of this one

A beautiful way to start my day. Thank you so much!

Beautiful metta, thank you. Love this meditation and the sounds of life in the background. 💜🙏

Simple, lovely: the basic teaching of all faiths. The final step in the meditation is a beautiful way to develop awareness of the enormous web of human connections in each of our lives. Chris’ voice is authentic and gentle.

Absolutely lovely. I will also get my 6 year old son to listen to this. Thanks very much for this kindness meditation, to others and to self ✌️🍀💖🌄🧘🙏

Loved the bg noise :)

I have listened to this practice many, many times over the last 8 months. Each time my heart has softened and opened and I have felt myself 'smile' on the inside.
This practice helps me start each day with my head (and heart) in a much better place.
Thank you for guiding me. This practice has (and is) making a difference.
May you also be happy. May you be well. Namaste 🙏

I loved this! Loved the birds & the folks murmurs as they passed was not bothersome to me at all Thank you for this!! I’m going to Ireland in May 2020 for a Yoga/meditation retreat & So looking forward to being out in the greenery on those ancient grounds and meditating. Thank you again for your lovely meditation. Shalom.

Thanks for the love.

Very nice meditation. Thought of so many smiling faces.

Simple and brilliant