Hello and welcome to this loving-kindness meditation.
There are many benefits to practicing loving-kindness,
Or Metta as it's also known.
It's great for developing a genuine sense of love and concern for the well-being of others.
It can also help to calm the mind.
Recent research has shown that not only can loving-kindness increase our positive emotions,
But it can even reduce pain,
As demonstrated in studies with migraine sufferers and biopsy patients.
In Derren Brown's 2016 book,
Happy,
He writes,
Loving-kindness can help you with that.
So how do we practice loving-kindness?
Well rather than,
For example,
Paying attention to the breath,
It instead asks us to focus on statements of well-wishes that we repeat silently to ourselves and others.
I'll walk you through all five stages of the loving-kindness,
Or Metta,
Practice.
The three statements we'll use today are And may I know peace.
Again,
That's may I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering.
And may I know peace.
You'll get more benefit from this practice if you really,
Genuinely believe those statements as you say them to yourself.
You deserve happiness,
You deserve safety,
Freedom from suffering,
Peace and love.
So really mean it when you say it to yourself.
Find yourself a comfortable position,
Whatever that means for you is absolutely fine.
You could be sitting on the floor,
On a mat or a cushion.
You could be kneeling,
You could be sitting on a chair or even lying down.
If you do choose to lie down,
I would just say only do so if you are not going to be distracted,
You're not going to fall asleep.
And let's start with a few slow,
Deep,
Nourishing breaths right down to the stomach,
Helping us to relax.
Breathing in through the nose and letting it out through the mouth.
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
And one more,
Nice deep breath.
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
Now just let your breath settle into its natural rhythm.
And if you haven't done so already,
Just let your eyelids gently close over.
As you relax,
Let's start the practice with those well wishes to yourself.
I want you to silently repeat them over and over again and really mean them.
As you say,
May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering and may I know peace.
Now let's just spend a few minutes silently repeating those statements of well wishes to ourselves.
I'll bring you back when it's time to move on.
May I be happy,
Safe and well.
May I be free from suffering and may I know peace.
We'll now move on to the second stage of the loving kindness or metta practice.
I want you to bring someone to mind who you really care about.
Someone you love.
Someone you probably already do send well wishes to and already want to be free from suffering.
Bring that person to mind as clearly as you can.
Imagine they're standing right in front of you and we're going to change those statements ever so slightly.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
So again,
Just silently repeating those statements to yourself but directing them towards that person.
That person you love,
That person you care about.
Picture them as clearly as you can standing in front of you.
And for the next few minutes,
Just silently repeat to yourself.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
And again,
I'll come back to you when it's time to move on.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
And if you can just put your loved one to one side for a moment.
And we'll move on to the third stage of the loving kindness practice.
I want you to think of somebody neutral now.
Someone that you don't have a relationship with but someone that you might see regularly in your life.
It could be a colleague or a co-worker.
Someone that you've never really spoken to but you've seen them at your place of work.
It could be a bus driver or a subway driver.
Someone who works on public transport or somebody in your local grocery store.
It could even be your post person.
Bring them to mind as vividly as you can.
And again using those same statements of well wishes.
Direct them towards them for the next few minutes in silence to yourself.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
Now we're going to move on from that neutral person to the fourth stage of the practice.
I want you to bring someone to mind who you might have a little bit of a tricky relationship with.
Nothing too triggering,
Nothing too traumatic for you.
Just somebody that you don't necessarily see eye to eye with.
Somebody again could be somebody from work or it could be a friend.
Just someone that there's kind of a little bit of friction with on a regular basis.
This is possibly the trickiest part of the practice.
But if you bring that person to mind clearly and really mean it as you say.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
Again just spending a couple of minutes really genuinely directing those well wishes to that person.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
I'll let you know when it's time to move on.
May you be happy,
Safe and well.
May you be free from suffering and may you know peace.
Now as we move on to the final stage of the practice.
I want you to keep that tricky person in mind.
As if they're standing in front of you.
But now I want you to line up everyone else next to them.
So bring the neutral person back.
Bring your loved one back.
And even picture yourself.
So all four of you are standing in a line.
And we're going to change the statements of well wishes again ever so slightly.
To may we be happy,
Safe and well.
May we be free from suffering.
May we know peace.
And again I want you to really genuinely believe what you're saying.
Really direct those well wishes in equal measure to every person in front of you.
Yourself,
Your loved one,
The neutral person and the tricky person.
May we be happy,
Safe and well.
May we be free from suffering.
May we know peace.
And just spend a couple of minutes on that.
And I'll take us through an expansion of that final stage.
May we be happy,
Safe and well.
May we be free from suffering.
And may we know peace.
And as you direct these statements to yourself,
To your loved one,
To the neutral person and the tricky person.
I want you to open it up to everyone who's in your building right now.
The house that you're in.
Or the apartment block.
The street that you're on.
Everyone here on Insight Timer.
Everyone in your town,
Your village or your city.
Open it up to everyone across the world.
Even include animals.
And let's just spend the last minute or two directing the well wishes to all sentient beings.
May we be happy,
Safe and well.
May we be free from suffering.
And may we know peace.
May we be happy,
Safe and well.
May we be free from suffering.
And may we know peace.
You can let all those images of the people you had in mind go now.
And let's do one final deep breath together.
In through the nose.
And out through the mouth.
And you can slowly open your eyes.
I hope you feel a little bit more relaxed now.
With regular practice,
Loving kindness can be an incredibly powerful tool to have.
And the more you practice,
The easier you'll find it to genuinely want people to be free from suffering.
People to be happy.
After all,
We are all looking for the same thing.
We all just want to be happy.
Thank you for joining me today.
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And it would be great to see you on those.
Take care.
See you again.
