Welcome to this Loving Kindness meditation.
I invite you now to find a comfortable position for today's practice.
Perhaps it's sitting in a chair or even lying down.
There is no perfect way to meditate and today's practice is about showing compassion and kindness to yourself and others.
So I invite you to put that into practice from the beginning as you choose the most comfortable position for your body in this moment.
Once you've found your comfortable position I invite you to allow your eyes to close softly and we'll begin this practice by taking three long slow deep breaths and then allowing the breath to fall back into its natural depth and rhythm.
I'm not trying to force it or control it in any way,
Just simply allowing it to breathe itself.
As we rest our gentle open awareness in the easy breath I invite you just to call your attention to those points of your body that are making contact with the chair,
The bed or the couch,
Whatever surface is beneath you right now.
And as you allow your awareness to rest at these gentle touch points where your body is supported by the surface beneath you,
I just invite you to simply notice what it feels like in your body to be supported,
Noticing a sense of deep pressure and support where your legs or your buttocks meet the surface beneath it,
Resting your awareness just at those gentle touch points and noticing the sensations in your body,
A sense of weighty heaviness perhaps,
Warmth,
Deep pressure.
We're not trying to change anything that we find,
We're just simply noticing what it feels like in our body to feel supported by the surface beneath us.
And as we hold this awareness of what support feels like in our body,
The sensations that arise as our body feels cradled and held,
I just invite you to remember these feelings,
These sensations and use them almost as a home base,
Somewhere you can come back to.
As we now allow our awareness to call to mind someone who cares deeply for us,
Someone in our life,
Perhaps who's currently in our life,
Has been in the past,
They may be alive now or they may have passed on,
Just bringing this person to mind who always has our best interests at heart,
Always wants what's best for us,
Feeling bathed in the warmth of their love,
Almost as if their love is a warm sunshine sunshine radiating down upon us.
As we take in that warmth,
That feeling of love,
Unconditional kindness and positive regard,
I just invite you to allow that sensation,
To meet that sensation that we thought about earlier in the body of feeling held and supported.
This awareness of love,
Compassion and kindness,
Meeting the awareness within us of support,
Of being held.
As we hold both these feelings of support and love,
I invite you now to bring to mind someone who you care very deeply about,
Sending them your love,
Sending them your love,
Extending some of this care,
Support and compassion that you feel within yourself,
Out to this person who you care so deeply about,
Repeating in your mind,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be well.
As we extend our awareness again,
Further afield,
Bringing to mind someone in our life who we have no particular ill will towards,
Perhaps it's someone we see quite regularly in our day-to-day interactions,
But we really feel not too much towards them.
As you bring this person to mind,
I invite you to allow that sense of love,
Compassion and support,
It's bubbling up inside you,
To extend out towards this person,
Repeating in your mind,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be well.
As we again now allow our awareness to return to those touch points where our body meets the surface beneath us,
Noticing what it feels like in our body,
To come home to this sense of deep support and cradling,
Again remembering what it feels like to be bathed in the love of someone who holds us with unconditional positive regard,
Sitting with the sensations of what this feels like in our body,
As we hold this awareness of love,
Compassion and support,
I invite you now to bring to mind someone with whom you've had difficulty in the past,
And perhaps you notice a change in your body as you bring this person to mind,
A tensing or a tightening,
A racing heart or a clenching jaw,
You don't need to judge anything that arises,
Or perhaps nothing arises at all,
But as we hold this person in our mind,
I invite you to repeat after me,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be well,
Again allowing our awareness to return home,
To the sensations of our body being cradled and supported by the surface beneath it,
Noticing all the points of contact between our body and the bed,
Chair or floor,
Moving upwards through the body,
Noticing each point of contact and moving on to the next,
Noticing what it feels like to feel supported and held,
Cradled and loved,
And now calling to mind the entire world,
Bringing to mind all of the people that inhabit this earth,
And gently repeating after me,
May you be happy,
May you be safe,
May you be well,
Coming home to the body again,
Noticing again what it feels like in the body to feel supported and deeply held,
Checking in with those touch points where our body meets the surface beneath us,
And calling to mind that person who cares for us very deeply,
Allowing the warmth to once again spread through us,
Bathing in their love and kindness,
And remembering that we can recharge ourselves,
We can always come back to this sense of being held,
Supported and loved,
And then extend that out into the world when we feel replenished.
As we come to the end of this practice,
I invite you to bring some movement back into the body,
Perhaps wiggling the fingers and the toes,
There's no rush to open your eyes,
But when you feel ready,
Allowing the eyes to open slowly.
