Allow your eyes to gently close.
And we're going to start by settling our minds,
By bringing attention to our breathing,
And then we will shift into the practice.
So bring your attention to your breathing,
And notice where in your body is easiest to pay attention to.
So either the rise and fall of your belly,
Or the breath coming into and out of your nose.
That's where you want to place your attention.
And we want to pick that spot and stick with it for the minute or so that we do this breathing practice.
So just bring attention to your breathing and just notice the breath coming and going.
These are things that are happening all the time that we don't really pay attention to.
So just notice your breath coming and going for just a minute.
And we're just going to do that for a minute.
And whenever the mind wanders,
It really gives us an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and concentration.
Each time we notice our mind wander,
We're strengthening our ability to come back,
To come back to the breathing.
So we're going to begin the practice now.
So we're going to begin the practice now.
I want you to bring to mind yourself as you sit here right now and take a moment to try to connect with your deepest intentions for things like happiness,
Ease,
And safety.
You don't need to dive into stories about what's going to make you happy,
But just connect with that desire you have to be happy.
And we are going to cultivate this intention to open our hearts to our own wellbeing.
And we're going to do that by silently offering ourselves,
Silently offer yourself some phrases of metta.
So I'm going to recite these phrases and you're going to mentally,
Just mentally repeat them and see how that feels.
So I'll start.
May I be happy.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be healthy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be at ease.
May I be at ease.
And now that we've taken that step to offer ourselves kindness and compassion,
I want you to bring to mind someone,
A good friend,
Or someone that you love,
Someone that is really meaningful to you.
And it can even be a pet,
Just someone that you love and you really want their happiness.
Bring that person to mind and connect with your natural desire to see this person that you're close to as happy and at ease.
Just like you,
This person wants to be happy,
To feel safe and to be healthy.
So then we will offer these phrases again.
And again,
Mentally,
Silently,
We'll offer these phrases to this person that we're trying to generate these feelings for,
To this person we care about a lot.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And next,
We're going to try to let go of this person who we care about a lot.
And I want you to try to bring to mind a neutral person.
This is someone you see,
Maybe you see them regularly,
But you don't know them very well.
You don't have a lot of feelings attached to them.
So it can be someone,
A coworker that you don't know,
Or a neighbor you've never talked to,
Or the squirrels in your yard,
Whatever.
Someone that you don't attach a lot of importance to their feelings.
And I want you to bring them to mind,
Someone you never think of,
You know?
And although you don't know this neutral person very well,
You can recognize that they want to be happy.
And you don't need to know what their happiness looks like,
But we're just going to recognize that they want to be happy,
Just like me,
Just like you.
And we're going to offer them these phrases as well.
So take a minute to come up with your neutral person.
May you be happy.
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.
May you be at ease.
And just one more.
We're going to let this neutral person go.
And I want you to bring to mind someone who is difficult.
You don't pick the most difficult person in your life.
Choose someone who's minorly difficult,
Maybe someone who's a little bit annoying that you interact with.
I don't want you to choose at this time.
I don't want you to choose someone that's really deeply harmed you,
But just someone who's a little bit annoying.
And I want you to recognize that this person wants happiness,
Just like we do.
And we're going to connect with our intention to care for this person.
Although we may not mean it wholeheartedly,
Each time we offer a phrase this time,
We're making an effort.
So we're going to go through the phrases again one more time.
May you be happy.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
May you be at ease.
And we'll just sit here for a few seconds,
And I want you to just notice how you feel having done this practice.
And we'll just sit here for a few seconds,
