Loving Kindness Meditation With Music

A calm and peaceful loving-kindness meditation to help you develop compassion and love for yourself and those around you.

Background music: Meditation Impromptu 03 Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Transcript

So for this meditation,

Ensure you're feeling comfortable and warm.

A physical feeling of safety and warmth will help you cultivate the emotional quality of compassion.

So just bring yourself into a nice,

Upright,

Seated position.

I like to think that we're trying to embody a sense of dignity,

But at the same time,

Be relaxed and comfortable.

Now take one deep breath in through your nose.

Nice,

Long,

Slow,

Deep out-breath through your mouth.

We're going to do that one more time.

A nice,

Long,

Deep in-breath through our nose and a nice,

Long,

Slow out-breath through our mouth.

Now see if you can let your body find its own natural state and flow of breath.

Just notice if you can the feeling of the breath entering your body,

Expanding your chest,

And then collapsing as the breath comes out.

I just want you for this next few breaths,

Just see if you can be aware of everything that's going on with your breathing.

Maybe you can feel the muscles in your diaphragm expanding,

And feel your chest muscles contracting and expanding as you breathe in and out.

Maybe there's some referred movements between your arms.

Maybe your shoulders are moving up and down.

In fact,

There's a lot you can be aware of as you're breathing.

Just spend a few moments just bringing that light awareness to all aspects of your breathing.

Now you can bring your awareness into your heart.

Be aware of the warmth around your heart and the warmth of your body.

You can even try placing your hand representing kindness and care softly on your heart area.

Just what effect that has.

Really feel the warmth of your hand on your heart.

As you're doing that,

Bring to mind someone that makes you smile.

Someone with whom you have a nice,

Easy and positive relationship.

This could be a partner,

Or maybe it's somebody else.

Maybe like an aunt or uncle.

Maybe a child,

Your son,

Your daughter,

Spiritual figure,

Or somebody that you hold in great respect.

Bring that person to mind,

This person that brings you a sense of warmth and a sense of joy.

As you bring that person to mind,

Really see if you can feel the warmth and the love that you have for this person originating in your heart and the area around your heart.

As you bring this person to mind,

I want you to wish this person well.

You can say the words to yourself,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

And may you be free from suffering.

Really allow the words to drop into your heart area.

Really tune to the words and feel the meaning behind those words.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be free from suffering.

You don't need to force any feelings.

You may find that these feelings that you have,

This warmth and love that you're feeling as you bring this person to mind and wish them well,

It might just be very small.

You might just have a general feeling of peacefulness and warmth.

As you repeat the words in your head,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from suffering.

If your mind goes elsewhere,

Maybe it travels off to the future or the past,

Or maybe you get lost in a dream,

Well that's okay.

And just with the same sense of kindness and compassion,

Come back to the image of this person and wish them well.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be free from suffering.

Just spend a few more moments wishing this person well.

Maybe bring a smile to your face as you're doing it as well.

You feel those feelings of warmth and love and compassion in your heart and in your chest.

Imagine these thoughts and feelings of love and warmth and compassion radiating out from you towards this person.

And now in the same spirit of love and compassion and warmth,

Bring yourself to mind and wish yourself well.

You're just as worthy as any other being on the planet and you deserve this love.

You deserve an equal amount of kindness and care.

So again with a sense of love and compassion,

Repeat the words,

May I be happy,

May I be healthy and may I be free from suffering.

Sometimes this may be difficult for you to do.

You may feel guilty for sending kindness to yourself or think that you're overindulging yourself.

You deserve these feelings of love and compassion as well.

So just be patient with yourself and try the best that you can.

Persevere gently and notice what happens with interest.

Just keep repeating the words to yourself,

May I be happy,

May I be healthy.

May I be free from suffering.

And just notice any thoughts and feelings that come up while you do this exercise.

Revisualize yourself,

Maybe looking at yourself in a mirror or the reflection of your face in a pond or a lake.

May I be well.

May I be healthy.

May I be free from suffering.

And next bring a neutral person to mind.

Somebody you don't have any kind of relationship with.

It's somebody you neither like nor dislike.

Somebody you hardly know,

For example somebody in the supermarket,

The person who delivers your post,

Somebody who served you in the shop yesterday,

Somebody you saw in the street.

Remember that they,

Like you,

Have a life outside of their work role.

They have friends and family,

They have hopes and fears and dreams and desires.

And they too suffer.

So wish them well and use your words,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from pain and suffering.

They too deserve love and kindness and compassion.

So again just bring up those feelings of warmth and love in your heart and send them out to this person.

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from suffering.

And just repeat those words with meaning,

With love and with compassion.

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from suffering.

Next I want you to bring someone to mind that you don't like.

Somebody you have a sense of strain or frustration with.

This person may be dead or alive.

It could be somebody who has called you a problem and suffering in the past.

It could be a friend at the moment who brings you suffering and frustration and anger.

But this person also experiences pain,

Anxiety,

Stress and a host of difficulties.

So they too deserve love and compassion.

So again with a sense of warmth and love repeat the words,

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from suffering.

You might find it's difficult or some difficult feelings and thoughts come up as you think of this person that you have a sense of difficulty with or a sense of strain.

And just see if you can put that aside for one moment.

And just really say those words with meaning and with love and with compassion.

May you be happy,

May you be healthy,

May you be free from suffering.

And now bring to mind all four people,

Yourself,

Your friend,

Your neutral person and your difficult person.

And try to imagine them in front of you.

And as you imagine all of you together,

See if you can offer a sense of well-wishing and compassion to everyone equally.

Just send your matter out,

May we be happy,

May we be healthy,

May we be free from suffering.

You might notice a tendency not to give your loving kindness equally.

Just see if you can just radiate your love and your compassion and warmth like a golden light from your heart.

Radiating out of you towards these people,

Towards yourself,

Towards your friend,

Towards the neutral person and towards the difficult person,

Each receiving your love and kindness equally.

May we be happy,

May we be healthy,

May we be free from suffering.

And now see if you can imagine yourself radiating love and kindness to everybody around you,

Maybe everybody in the building that you're in,

Everybody on the street.

If you can hear cars going by,

People talking.

Remember these are human beings as well,

Thinking and feeling beings.

They're all suffering,

They all carry pain,

They all have anxiety and worry.

So let your loving kindness radiate out from you.

May all beings be happy,

May all beings be healthy,

May all beings be free from suffering.

You can widen your love and kindness out further,

Out to your village or your town or your city,

Out to the countryside,

Out to your region,

Out to your country.

There's a big ball of loving kindness,

Golden energy radiating out from your heart throughout the world.

May all beings be happy,

May all beings be healthy,

May all beings be free from suffering.

Just let yourself bask in the warm glow of love and compassion for all beings,

For all sentient beings on the planet and in the universe.

And now come back to your breathing and center yourself on the rhythm of your breathing,

The cool touch of the in-breath,

The warm touch of the out-breath.

Just become aware of your breathing and the cycle of your breathing.

Become aware of your presence,

Your presence on your seat and maybe the weight of your body on the seat,

The presence in the space that you occupy and the space around you.

Become aware of the air touching your skin.

Become aware of the sounds you can hear,

The voices,

Any noises.

And become aware of the light behind your eyelids.

And again we can take one deep breath in through our nose and a nice long out-breath through our mouth.

We can open our eyes and come back to the room.

Reviews

Thank you Gary for the wonderful peaceful meditation. Great way to start the day 💕

Beautifully done with peaceful music.

Just what I needed after a particularly viscous week in politics.

Thanks for reminding me, that the (for me) random people on the street have problems and dreams, too!

Your voice is calming and music is sweet. Very relaxing. Thank you~

Great Lovingkindness guided meditation! Thank you!

It was just the meditation I was looking for to start my day with loving kindnesss

So fantastic! Sending happiness and health to the whole world. Thank you so much. 🙏

Throughly enjoyed this meditation!

Imagine if everyone began their day with thoughts of compassion and love towards all... this was lovely, thank you.🙏💞💖✨

Lovely background music, gorgeous voice and beautiful practice. Thank you.

I appreciate the pace, gentle music and guidance. Thank you. Sending good wishes.