Loving Kindness For All

This Loving Kindness Practice is helpful for nourishing your heart. It develops and nurtures compassion
and an easy-going disposition. Key affirmations used during this guided mediation are- 'May I be filled with loving-kindness. May I treat myself with kindness in good times and in hard times. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be well. May I be happy!

Transcript

The loving kindness practice for all.

So let's get our mindful bodies on.

Take a moment to adjust your posture.

If you're sitting sit open and upright still and strong like a mountain.

Or if you're lying down like balanced and symmetrical with your legs out long,

You may like to bend your knees a little and support them with a pillow to take some pressure off your lower back.

Palms are open resting by your side,

Resting on your lap or resting over your belly.

And to start I invite you to take a wide face stretching yawn with an audible release as you breathe out.

Let's try that together.

Big breath in stretching the face.

Allowing the face to soften the eyelids to lower or gently close.

Your jaw is soft.

Just nestle your tongue behind your top front teeth.

Draw your shoulder blades in and down your spine to help open up your heart space.

Lengthen through the neck and take a few moments to settle into your body.

Perhaps taking three slow deep belly breaths helps.

Allowing your body to relax and release that little bit more each time you breathe out.

Relaxing.

Awake.

And alert.

And please remember there's nothing you need to experience or achieve during this loving kindness practice today.

This is your time.

And you might like to follow my words or just allow them to gently sit in the background.

Allow your breath to find its own depth and rhythm now.

Just let your breath breathe you.

And I invite you to begin to bring your attention to the space in front of your closed eyes or lowered eyes.

It's like a field of darkness and perhaps there's some muted shapes or colours there but we're not looking for anything.

We're just simply resting our attention in this space with relaxed eyes and a soft gaze.

And I invite you now to bring your attention to any sounds coming to you from outside.

We're just listening with a gentle curiosity.

Allow the sounds to come and go without resistance.

Begin to draw your attention to sounds coming from inside,

Inside the room.

Perhaps even from inside your body,

The subtle sound of your breath,

Digestion,

Heartbeat.

Just listening.

Allow the sounds to help call you into the present moment.

And I invite you to begin to draw your attention further to your breath.

Begin to notice any sensations associated with your breath.

Can you feel the slight movement of your chest and your belly?

Can you feel the flow of air passing by your nostrils?

Just your natural breath,

Let your breath breathe you.

Just noticing any sensations associated with your breath.

Allow your breath to help anchor you into the present moment.

And I'm going to share some phrases with you and I invite you to gather your attention behind each phrase one at a time.

And you don't have to try to fabricate or manufacture any special feeling.

Just try to shepherd your attention behind the following phrases.

If you notice your attention has wandered at any stage,

That's okay.

That's what the mind does.

Without judgment,

Just gently and kindly bring your attention back to each phrase and to your breath.

So I invite you now to bring to mind yourself.

Breathe in consciously direct the breath to your heart.

Wish yourself well and say silently in your mind,

May I be filled with loving kindness.

May I treat myself with kindness in good times and in hard times.

May I be peaceful and at ease.

May I be well,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

Allow your heart to fill with loving kindness.

And as you breathe out,

Send loving kindness out to every part of your being.

And I invite you now to bring to mind someone you love.

So this might be a child,

A pet,

A good friend,

Your partner.

And this time in the meditation,

Just bring to mind one person,

One beloved.

We're going to wish them well too.

So breathing in consciously direct the breath to your heart and say silently in your mind,

May you be filled with loving kindness.

May you treat yourself with kindness in good times and in hard times.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be well,

May you be happy.

Breathing in and allow your heart to fill with loving kindness.

And as you breathe out,

Send loving kindness to this loved one.

Feeling your heart.

And I invite you now to take this beautiful feeling you have for the people you love and see if you can spread it across to someone you don't know so well.

So picture in your mind a neutral person.

So perhaps this is someone you've walked past earlier today or a postman,

A shopkeeper,

Or perhaps someone who served you a hot drink or some food.

Visualize this person and again,

Direct the breath to your heart as you breathe in and say silently in your mind.

May you be filled with loving kindness.

May you treat yourself with kindness in good times and in hard times.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be well,

May you be happy.

Breathing in,

Allow your heart to fill again with loving kindness.

Breathing out,

Send loving kindness to this person.

And I invite you now to picture in your mind someone you know or perhaps you don't know,

But someone you find difficult to love.

And this may be someone who has hurt or disappointed you.

And if you're just beginning with this practice,

If you're new to this loving kindness practice,

Please start with someone who has hurt or disappointed you just a little,

Not too much.

And if you're returning to the practice,

You might choose to send the same person loving kindness,

This same person you've sent loving kindness to before who you find difficult to love.

We're going to try and remember that they too want to be happy,

Just like us.

So breathing in consciously direct the breath to your heart and try to wish this person well by saying silently in your mind.

May you be filled with loving kindness.

May you treat yourself with kindness in good times and in hard times.

May you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be well,

May you be happy.

Breathing in again,

Allow your heart to fill with loving kindness.

And as you breathe out,

Send loving kindness to this person.

And I invite you now to join me in wishing all beings loving kindness as we come towards the end of our practice together.

So you might like to rest an open palm or both of your open palms over your heart.

And again,

Starting with ourselves,

Visualize yourself and say silently to yourself,

May I be filled with loving kindness.

Visualizing your family now all of your family.

May my family be filled with loving kindness.

Visualizing your friends.

May my friends be filled with loving kindness.

Visualizing your local community.

May my local community be filled with loving kindness.

May all beings all over the world be filled with loving kindness.

May all beings enjoy true peace.

May all beings be well and happy and appreciate their one wild and precious life.

May we all be filled with grace and gratitude.

Again breathing in each time you breathe in,

Allow your heart to fill with loving kindness.

As you breathe out,

Send loving kindness out to the whole world,

To all living beings and to our precious,

Precious planet.

Allow your whole body to fill with this warm fuzzy feeling of loving kindness.

Allow it to fill and flow out to others.

Resting for a few moments in this feeling of loving kindness.

And as we come towards the end of our practice together today,

This loving kindness practice,

I invite you to begin to reactivate and re-energize your body with a little wiggle of the fingers,

A wiggle of the toes,

Perhaps a deeper breath or two.

If you're seated or if you're lying down,

Please open your arms wide,

Wrap them around your torso and give yourself a big hug filled with loving kindness to finish.

And then when you're ready,

You can go on your way.

Thank you.

Reviews

This was absolutely fantastic and exactly what I needed! Thank you so much and if I’m not already following her, I will follow her!

I loved the symmetry of opening arms wide at the beginning and end. It was wonderful to do various “rounds” in a powerful way in a short practice. Thank you ❤️💫🙏

From this side of our beautiful planet I thank you very much for this relaxing, easy and wonderful meditation on Loving Kindness. Namaste 🤓🙏🏻