I've got this meditation written here.
So I want everyone to find a comfortable way that you can sit.
I'm going to sit here with my feet firmly planted on the floor and my back straight because that's how I like to sit,
But whatever way you can sit where you're not going to fidget and your feet aren't going to fall asleep or whatever is a good position.
And allow your eyes to gently close.
And pay attention to your body and make any minor adjustments you need to make.
So we want to sit in a way that feels comfortable and alert.
Which I don't,
If we were on couches or something you know sometimes people fall asleep.
I don't think we're going to struggle in these chairs though.
So we will start.
I'm going to ring my bell and then I'm going to direct you.
We're going to do concentration practice first and then we're going to go into,
We're doing a kindness meditation today.
So I'm going to ring my bell.
And I want you to bring your attention to where you can feel your breath in your body.
So you can bring your attention to either the breath coming into and out of your nose and mouth or the rise and fall of your belly.
And just bring attention to that.
Just notice your breath coming and going.
This is happening all the time but we don't bring a lot of attention to it typically unless there's a problem.
Just bring attention to your breathing.
So and very likely you've noticed your mind wandering.
This is normal and natural.
When your mind wanders it offers you an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and concentration.
Each time you notice your mind wandering you're really strengthening your ability to recognize your experience and bring your attention back.
So each time your mind wanders we want to just bring it back to our breathing and this we'll have to do this a bunch of times bring it back again and again and that's okay.
We're strengthening our ability to focus with this with this practice.
So and we'll just sit here for a couple minutes just following our breathing.
So so so Now I want you to bring into your mind yourself as you're sitting here right now and try to connect with your intentions for happiness,
Ease,
And safety.
Don't you don't have to dive deeply into stories about what you want to make yourself happy but connect with the natural desire that you have for happiness,
Ease,
And safety.
And we're going to cultivate the intention to open our hearts to our own well-being by mentally silently repeating these phrases.
So we're going to say this to ourselves okay.
May I be happy.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be safe.
May I be at ease.
May I be at ease.
May I be at ease.
Now I want you to try to bring to mind someone you care about a lot.
A good friend,
A loved one,
Could be a teacher or even a pet.
Someone that just means a lot to you,
That you really care about a lot.
And try to connect with your desire to see this individual happy and at ease.
Just like you,
This being wants to be happy,
To feel safe,
And to be healthy.
Just like you.
And so we're going to cultivate this intention of kindness for this individual as well.
And just again,
We're going to mentally say to our person,
May you be happy.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
May I be at ease.
So now we're going to let go of this person from our minds and try to bring to mind a neutral person.
What's a neutral person?
This is someone that you see and you really do not know them very well.
So it can be someone,
A co-worker that you don't really know,
Or a neighbor,
Or a friend of a friend,
Or something like that.
So take a minute to consider someone that you would say is neutral,
That you have no feelings about at all.
And although this person is not someone we know very well,
Again,
We can still recognize this person wants to be happy.
And we don't even,
For this,
We don't even need to know what would make them happy.
We just know they want to be happy,
Just like we do.
So again,
We're going to offer these phrases of kindness,
Connecting this intention to care about the well-being of a person we don't know very well.
So we will silently repeat these phrases again.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
May you be at ease.
So next we're going to let this neutral person go.
And I want you to bring to mind someone that you find difficult.
And you may not want to pick the most difficult person in your life or anything like that.
And like I said,
I don't want you to pick your abuser,
But choose someone who's minorly difficult,
Maybe someone you find a little bit annoying,
Especially if there's someone you find annoying and you can't figure out why.
So bring to mind someone you don't really like.
And we are again going to take a moment to reflect on how even this person wants to be happy,
Just like we do.
Even this person wants to be happy,
Just like we do.
So we are once again going to offer these phrases to connect with our intention to care for this person.
And because this is our difficult person,
We may not really mean it wholeheartedly every time we mentally offer the phrase,
But we're going to make an effort and do it anyway.
So don't beat yourself up if it's really hard to wish for someone to be happy that you don't like.
So we will go through these phrases again with our difficult person.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And you can sort of slowly open your eyes and stretch a little bit,
Move around,
And just notice how you feel.
If you feel anything,
Notice how you feel.
