Meditation For Kind Love With Dr. Diana Hill

This guided meditation invites you to cultivate loving-kindness through breath, body awareness, and gentle visualization. You’ll begin with a calming breathing practice to settle your nervous system and connect with a sense of inner ease. The meditation then expands into a field of kindness, helping you offer care to yourself, others, and the wider world. It provides a supportive space to soften, open your heart, and rest in a deeper sense of connection.

Transcript

So we're going to start with some breath work this morning and I think we'll do alternate nostril breathing again. What I like about alternate nostril breathing is it feels like a real balancing of the body of the right side and left side of our bodies and it also is really nice for our parasympathetic nervous system. It really kind of slows us down and soothes us. The other thing I like about alternate nostril breathing is that you put your first finger in your middle finger right up here on your third eye and there's something about touching that third eye that feels like we're touching our wisdom, You know, Our wisdom. And then you take your right thumb, If you're using, If that's your dominant hand, You can do this with your left hand if that's your dominant hand, But you're going to take your thumb and we're going to close off our nostril and we're going to take a slow breath in and then we're going to close off both nostrils open up that thumb and take a slow breath out. Emptying completely and then inhaling through the right side. Closing off both nostrils and exhaling through the left. Inhaling. Closing off both and exhaling through the right. And then repeat on your own at your own pace of what feels like the most soothing rhythm for you. Bring awareness to the whole body of the inhale from the belly through your whole body up to your nose and exhaling when you exhale, Complete emptying, Complete emptying. And taking one more round, Finishing this round. And then when you're done, We're just going to place our palms, Palms up on our lap and take some slow breaths here through both nostrils. Slow soothing breaths, The kindest breath possible for you in this moment. Gentle, Without expectation. And then we can just let our breath settle into, It's just natural rhythm. And as we take our seat here, Just as we did in Tadasana, We can sit with a kind stance. So stacking our spine so that our body feels supported, Letting go of our belly, And feeling that contact with the earth, The roots of our body, Going down, Down, Down, Deep into the earth. But also out, Out, Out, Interconnected with all of the other roots, That stability of depth and expansion. And then we can lift the weight of everything that happened before this moment off our shoulders. And the pressure of everything that's going to happen after this moment, We can lift that off of our shoulders as well. So that we're free to let go of everything that's going to happen after this moment. So that we're free in this moment. Kindness in our face, Kindness in our hearts, Kindness in how we are breathing. And if kindness is about invisible helpers, Those that we walk right past, We can begin by bringing some of those invisible helpers into this space with us. The invisible helpers that are the animals that help you, Remember kindness. What animals would you bring into this space? The invisible helpers that are natural spaces, The sun, The ocean, Particular trees, And the people that you encounter that are invisible helpers, Supports, Kind people in your life. And as you sit here, You can just feel their energies, That presence of invisible help supporting you, Their kindness around you. And maybe collectively, You can feel that energy at the front of your body, In front of you, But can you also wrap that energy to the sides of your body, The back of your body, So that you are in a field, An energetic field of kindness. And then can you take that energy and move it to the top of your head? And allow that kindness to spread down your forehead, Your cheekbones, Your jaw, Your throat, Down the back of your spine, Into your heart, To your arms and your hands, That kind energy moving into your belly, In your hips, Your legs, Your feet, So that every cell of your body is filled with kindness, And every molecule of air around you is filled of kindness. And then maybe you can let the edges of you and the edges of what's around you just dissolve, Dissolving the edges of your body, So that you just become this kind, Loving awareness. And we'll sit here in silence for just a little bit, Experiencing this and being this loving awareness, This kindness. And if our mind goes off into story, We always just come back to this kind breath and this posture, Kind eyes, Kind face, Gentle breath, And we can always bring back our invisible helpers to remind us everything is waiting for you. The great mistake is to act as if you were alone. And then maybe you can just let go of your mind. We can choose to bring into this field either a part of our body that we want to bring some attention to, More kindness to. We can start with that, A part of our body that we'd like to bring more attention to. What part of your body wants your awareness? Wants your attention? Needs your kindness? And we can breathe and be with that part of our body with kindness, Kind eyes, Kind heart, Loving presence, Without expectation. Just saddle up next to it. And then we can bring this kindness to a part of our, Ourselves that could use more kindness. What part of you would benefit from some kindness that needs attention? And find that part of you and offer it kind eyes or breath or presence. Saddle up next to it. And then we can bring into our field of kindness a person that you want to be an invisible helper to right now. Bring them in and offer them kindness, Kind eyes, Kind presence, A wish to be well, And then we can bring into our field a group of people that you'd like to offer presence and kindness to. And finally, We can make our heart the size of the world. We can welcome the whole world into this loving kindness. And we can make our heart the size of the world. So Derek Walcott writes, The time will come when with elation you will greet yourself, Arriving at your own door, In your own mirror, And each will smile at the other's welcome and say, Sit here, Eat. And we close out our meditation with three bows. First bow to our being, True Buddha nature, True nature that is good and kind and loving. The second bow is to becoming the Dharma and teachings that help us guide the way. And then the third bow to belonging, Our community, Our sangha, Our invisible helpers.