Welcome.
Today's loving-kindness meditation,
Also known as the Buddhist metta prayer,
Will be what we'll focus on.
And so when times are a bit challenging and we find it hard to fill our hearts up with love,
Coming back and practicing self-love makes it easier to give our love away.
So I'll invite you to come in and find a comfortable seat,
Or perhaps even lying down.
And then begin to notice your breath,
And perhaps even taking a deeper inhale in through your nose,
And then opening up your mouth and exhaling that all the way out.
Take another big breath just like this,
And then out the mouth,
Starting to sigh a relief as you come into your meditation,
Following your natural breath rhythms.
I'll invite you to close your eyes,
Feeling safe and comfortable here.
And as you fill your heart up with love,
Perhaps even placing one hand or two somewhere on the heart center,
Cue yourself to filling the heart up with love.
Starting to focus there on the heart center,
Perhaps even picturing the heart chakra.
And may you be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
May you have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
And may you be protected from harm and free from fear.
May you be alive,
Engaged,
And joyful.
And may you enjoy inner peace and ease.
And may that peace expand into your world and throughout the entire universe.
Allowing this love to grow a little bit deeper here,
I'll invite you to picture somebody who you love very dearly.
And someone,
This person may be also someone who returns the love right back to you.
Silently,
As you look at them in the eyes,
Heart to heart,
Make this connection to them as you send them this love.
And so may this person who you're looking at,
Picturing them here in front of you,
Be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
And may they have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
May they be protected from harm and free from fear.
May they be alive,
Engaged,
And joyful.
May this person that you love so much enjoy inner peace and ease.
May that peace expand into their world and throughout the entire universe.
Allowing your smile to pass,
A smile towards this loving person in your life that may be alive or deceased.
Allowing their smile to connect with yours,
Being heart to heart.
And again,
Now finding someone else who is dear to you in your heart.
Someone that returns that love right back to you.
Allow them to come into this circle.
Maybe this is someone that you haven't seen in a very long time.
Maybe this is someone that you had an argument with,
That you would like to apologize to.
Whoever this person is,
They love you dearly.
And as they come into your beautiful circle in this sacred space,
Picture them here in front of you and looking at them.
May this person be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
May they have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
May they be protected from harm and free from fear.
May they be alive,
Engaged,
And joyful.
And may all this inner peace allow them to be at ease.
Taking that peace and expanding it into their world and throughout the entire universe.
Smiling at this person as they smile back at you.
And now,
Sitting here,
Allowing our circle to expand.
Perhaps the next person that we find might be someone that we don't know by name,
But we would like to acknowledge them.
This could be a neighbor.
Maybe someone that we've recognized as we've walked across the grocery store parking lot.
This might even be the person that helped bag your groceries there.
So,
Picturing this person,
Inviting them into your circle,
Looking at them into their eyes,
Heart to heart.
May this person be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
May they have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
May they be protected from harm and free from fear.
May they be alive,
And engaged,
And joyful.
And maybe this person who you don't know all that well,
May they enjoy inner peace and ease.
Because just like you,
They would like to have inner peace and ease.
And may that peace expand into their world and throughout the entire universe.
Watching as they smile back at you.
And then I'll invite you to find that person who you stand out to.
If you're not ready to do this at this time,
Choose wisely.
But when you are ready,
Perhaps this is a difficult person for you.
Someone who you don't see eye to eye with normally.
And when you're ready,
Finding this next person who may seem like a stranger to you,
Who may seem oppositional,
But remembering that they would like to find love and peace too.
And in their hearts,
They would like to be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
So,
Watching them here as they gently enter your circle,
Share with them this prayer.
Looking at them,
May they be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
May they have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
May they be protected from harm and free from fear.
And may they be alive,
Engaged,
And joyful.
And may this person also enjoy inner peace and ease.
And may that peace expand into this person's world and throughout the entire world into the universe.
Gently smiling back at this person.
Letting your heart flood with love and peace.
With love and comfort.
And continuing on here,
Allowing.
Next,
Moving out into a bigger circle.
Looking at the people across your town,
Your city,
Your state.
Moving out into maybe even the country.
Expanding out into all countries,
All beings.
The trees,
Plants,
The birds,
And animals.
All creatures,
Big and small.
Invite them into this widened circle.
And to include all beings.
May all beings be happy,
May all beings be happy,
Healthy,
And whole.
And may they have love,
Warmth,
And affection.
May they be protected from harm and free from fear.
And may they be alive,
Engaged,
And joyful.
May all beings,
Big or small,
Enjoy inner peace and ease.
Because just like you,
They also would like to feel that peace expand into their world and throughout the entire universe.
And now that you've expanded deeply across all of your circles,
Coming back in and allowing the hands to feel this warmth.
If your hands are resting on the top of your heart center,
Again,
Filling up your heart,
Your being.
Checking in to see how the emotional state of your body is doing as starting to wiggle the fingers and the toes.
Starting to wiggle the fingers and the toes.
And when ready,
You'll allow yourself to take a few more deep breaths.
These breaths may also grow some bigger movements into the body.
So thinking about maybe bending at the elbows,
The knees,
Perhaps even reaching the arms up overhead,
Allowing a nice big stretch to occur.
And to center ourselves,
Thinking about allowing that breath to wake us up when ready.
So after an inhale,
You'll take your exhale,
Let that go.
Another inhale,
Exhaling.
Eventually on your next inhale or exhale,
You'll open your eyes.
Perhaps even swallowing,
Moving the mouth around with a gentle pause.
May we take this practice throughout the rest of today,
Tonight,
Tomorrow.
And may all beings know peace and be free from harm and suffering.
