Welcome to this guided meditation session.
Take your seat and make yourself comfortable.
Close your eyes.
Take a few deep breaths if you feel like.
And let's begin this practice by bringing your mind to someone for whom it's easy to feel positive feelings.
Someone for whom you have a strong connection or uncomplicated relation.
Someone who you love.
Bring that person to your mind and wish him or her happiness.
In whatever way it feels natural,
Think,
May you be happy.
May you be free from suffering.
May you be successful.
And picture him or her growing in happiness and being relieved of every source of suffering in their lives.
Notice what it's like to wish them well.
How does your body feel when you wish them well?
How does it feel in your mind?
And the moment you begin to experience that feeling of good intentions,
See if you can dwell on it and amplify it.
Just settle into this disposition to wish this person well.
May you be happy.
May you be free from suffering.
This feeling of loving kindness can almost become inseparable from the weight of your body.
Just sink into it.
May you be well and safe.
May you be free from pain and fear and sadness.
And the moment you begin to feel this quality of mind,
Change the object of your focus to someone with whom you have a difficult relation.
Don't set the bar too high at first.
It shouldn't be somebody who abused you or terrifies you.
You might work up to those people.
Anything is really possible here.
But if you are new to this practice,
Begin with someone who you just don't like in the normal way of not liking someone.
Someone who annoys you or someone that you just don't like to be around.
And consider how much of this person's behavior is the product of their own suffering and anxiety and self-doubt and lack of connection to others.
Think of how much ordinary difficulties this person will experience and has experienced in life.
And see if you can simply wish him or her well.
May you be free from suffering.
And if you find yourself having a hard time bringing up genuine positive feelings towards this person,
Go back to your first object and invoke the emotion again.
And then come back to the difficult person.
You might alternate in this way.
May you be happy.
May you be free from pain.
May you be safe.
Practice in this way for a few moments.
And now focus on yourself.
Realize that you too deserve to be happy and let you wish happiness for yourself.
This practice is in fact a demonstration of that very wish.
May I be happy.
May I be free from suffering.
See if you can fill your body with these feelings and good intentions and let it radiate outwards.
Take a few moments and abide and enjoy this place of loving kindness.
And whenever you feel ready,
Gently open your eyes.
