Hello and welcome to this shorter session of loving kindness for yourself.
It's not a full practice,
It's simply focusing on you.
Why?
Because you deserve to stop,
Pause,
Take 10 minutes just to remind yourself that self-love in the purest form is critically important to your mental health and well-being.
Don't worry if you're new to loving kindness,
I will guide you.
I also have other recordings with the full practice on my profile that you can check out another time.
If you are familiar with loving kindness,
You'll know that the first stage of the practice is always focused on yourself.
We take three or four phrases,
A little bit like mantras,
And we silently repeat them to ourselves over and over with love and sincerity.
These are phrases of well-wishes,
Reminding us that it's okay to want health,
Happiness and a life without suffering.
It's what we all want.
So assuming you're in a comfortable position,
You can be lying down,
Sitting,
Kneeling,
Whatever works for you,
And just let your eyelids gently close.
Sometimes it can be a great way to start your day by sending these well-wishes to yourself before you've even gotten out of bed in the morning.
So what are the phrases?
We'll use some of the standard well-wishes I use in my full practice as well as some others.
As mentioned,
These should be silently repeated to yourself over and over until I introduce different phrases.
I'll give you time to practice each section.
The first phrases are May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering.
May I know peace.
May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering.
May I know peace.
Now I want you to take some time to silently repeat them to yourself.
The more you can really mean them as you say them,
The more benefit you'll feel.
It may feel a little odd at first if you haven't practiced this before,
But stick with it,
You'll get used to it.
Repetition is the key.
These phrases are so important.
Because you are so deserving of happiness,
Safety and good health.
Just take a few minutes.
May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering.
May I know peace.
There's going to be some silence now,
But don't worry.
I'm here and I'll come back to you when it's time to move on.
May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering.
May I know peace.
And the remaining phrases we are going to again direct towards ourselves are May I live without fear.
May I be free from anxiety.
May I know love.
May I live without fear.
May I be free from anxiety.
May I know love.
So again,
Just repeating those phrases silently to yourself for the next couple of minutes.
And I'll let you know when we're coming to a close.
May I live without fear.
May I be free from anxiety.
May I know love.
Please take your time with this practice.
Come back to it whenever you need it.
And if you feel comfortable,
Let me know how you get on.
Take care.
See you soon.
