Begin in your place where you are settling down.
Coming to an experience of rest.
Quite simply,
Rest.
Noticing spaces of tension in your musculature,
And inviting those muscles and joints and nerves to settle and release as you come into this meditation.
Loving your body through breathing.
Inhaling deeply.
Exhaling slowly.
And each time a little deeper,
And a little slower.
Breathing again,
A little deeper in.
A little slower out.
You can take stock of other processes in your body.
Digestion,
For example.
Outers your belly feel and your intestines.
Heavy.
Full.
Empty.
Relieved or rumbling.
You don't have to evaluate it,
Just notice.
Take stock.
As a witness,
Or a scientist might.
Where are you right now?
How do you feel?
And if at any time you get distracted,
Your mind wanders as it will.
Brains are meant to do that.
Draw your mindful attention back to your breath,
And see if you can breathe a little deeper and slower.
Can you feel your pulse?
Maybe the rhythm of your heart?
You might notice it,
Or just envision it.
You might experience the thrum in your neck or wrists.
Or just imagine the sensation of blood coursing through you,
Nourishing and replenishing.
What is awesome and lovable about you?
If you were watching yourself from the outside,
Or perhaps above,
What would you see that's remarkable?
You might notice the ways in which you are competent and confident.
Or the ways in which you give kindness and gratitude.
From outside,
You might notice the graceful ways you move,
Or the gentle ways you speak and observe.
There are many things to love about you.
Sometimes it takes a little perspective.
See if you can't step outside yourself.
And observe with generosity what the world might see.
It takes courage.
When you get distracted,
Just return to your breath.
Draw the inhale deeper.
And extend the exhale slower.
Extend your attention,
Awareness,
And mind's eye to a family member or friend.
Someone whom it's easy to love.
What do you observe that's uniquely lovable about that person?
Inherent in their being.
Reasons for their creation.
Why are they here?
How can you love that?
Their smile.
Their joy and enthusiasm.
Even their darknesses.
Their pains.
How does the world see them?
How do their parents see them?
With love and compassion.
Try to understand them.
Try to understand them in the most generous and charitable way.
And when your mind wanders,
Just return to breathing deeply and slowly.
Imagine a stranger or someone to whom you have a neutral,
Non-negative experience.
A cashier,
A distant coworker,
Someone whose face and name you can't quite register.
As you breathe in and out,
What might be great about them?
What is deserving of love and created with grace inherent in their being?
A vitality.
A vitality.
A brave existence.
Sometimes just being is enough.
Imagine a stranger and the love that someone and someones have felt for her or him or them.
They were created pure.
When you become distracted,
As we always do and we all do,
Just bring your attention back to breathing.
Breathe in even deeper.
And breathe out slower.
We're going to take on a challenge now of imagining someone with whom you disagree.
Someone you don't like.
They might be rude.
They might have strongly different opinions to you.
They might be culturally very anathema to you.
That's okay.
Those are externals.
Those are externals.
Something internal to their being was created exactly.
Why and how?
Imagine them from the outside.
What is inherent and lovable about them and their unique and shared brokenness with us all?
Can you find compassion for and seek out why they were made?
Why the world loved them so much to bring them into existence?
And what might be their mission here?
Even if it's only to teach you a negative lesson,
That has value.
Try to love even that which is unlikable.
Imagine beyond the difficult exteriors into something that is soulful and true.
Breathing.
Supporting yourself and engaging your attention with your breath.
Expand your awareness to encompass the entire world or at least large parts of it.
So many living creatures.
Some pleasant,
Some unpleasant.
Some bearing gifts and blessings and some bearing challenges,
Even curses.
Regardless to whether you can like them all and you can't,
You can extend love to them all.
Knowing that each creation is here for a fundamental reason.
To share an important truth.
To bring forth a lesson.
Extend that kind of loving as far as you can.
It's not easy,
That's okay.
Breathing and settling.
Resting slowly and steadily as you extend love outward to yourself and from yourself.
And breathing.
