Welcome to this Metta meditation practice.
I'd like to invite you to find a really comfortable position,
Perhaps supporting your back or your knees with cushions and blankets.
Make sure you're nice and warm and that you won't be disturbed during the practice.
Taking a few moments to get really comfortable and giving yourself this moment in your day to really look after yourself,
To give yourself this time and care and attention.
So just making sure you're in a really comfy position and of course if that changes during the practice you can move.
The intention of this practice being to support yourself with whatever you need and then if you'd like to you can drop the awareness into the body from the mind.
So that's sensing directly from the body and perhaps one way to do this would be to notice the sensations between the body and the chair or the bed,
Really feeling into those places.
What's the quality of those sensations?
Are they fixed,
Solid or perhaps they have a more scintillating quality?
Maybe you can sense the temperature of the air or the feel of your clothes.
Sensing the detail and allowing the body to acknowledge everything that it's experiencing as best you can,
Keeping the attention in the body,
Directly sensing and noticing how the mind feels.
If it's feeling particularly busy or distractible and on the next in-breath you might like to turn your attention to the sensations of the breath,
Feeling the body move under the influence of the breathing,
Perhaps feeling the flow of air in the throat or in the nose,
Knowing that you're breathing and perhaps appreciating the breath as something the body is always doing for us and if you'd like to perhaps extend that spirit of gratitude to the whole body without judgment,
Acknowledging all of the millions of tasks and functions the body unconsciously does for us every day,
Keeping us in balance as best it can,
Just appreciating in your own way all the things our body naturally does in every moment.
If you'd like to,
I'd like to invite you now to call to mind an image of yourself,
Just any sense of yourself or perhaps it might even be a direct embodiment,
A sensation from the body as a whole,
But in some way having that sense of ourself and allow that sense of yourself to really take shape,
To really be present.
If there's any judgment or difficult thoughts,
Just accept those as part of the experience but try not to grasp onto them or follow them down streams of thought,
Returning instead to that sense of yourself in your mind's eye and if you'd like to,
You could place a hand on your heart,
Really feeling that connection between the palm and the chest,
Perhaps it's a sense of support for yourself,
That sense of contact,
Touch,
The weight of the hand,
The temperature and you might wish to say to yourself,
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I be free from suffering,
May I meet life's challenges skillfully and with gentleness and how would it be to receive these wishes from yourself to allow that well-wishing to permeate,
To acknowledge that whatever is happening,
You're doing your best in this moment and in this life,
Even this practice is you supporting yourself and noticing how it feels to have these wishes,
This kindness towards yourself throughout the whole body,
Sometimes it can feel really challenging,
Difficult to be kind to ourselves and if that's the case,
Perhaps just acknowledge the difficulty and maybe you can find a willingness to work towards it one day and that's good enough for now.
So take a breath in and on the exhale,
Release that image,
That sense of yourself,
Let it naturally fade,
Let it go and take another breath in and out,
Noticing again how the body is feeling,
How the flow of the breath feels,
The weight of the body and the contact with the surfaces that it's supported by and when you're ready,
Call to mind the image,
The idea of someone you love,
Someone you love in an uncomplicated way,
Where your main or entire feeling towards them is one of love and well-wishing,
It could be someone who's passed away,
It could be a child or an animal or it could even be someone you don't really know but someone who inspires you or someone religious or spiritual whom you have positive feelings towards and allow that sense of them to really fill your mind,
Perhaps even an image of them to appear in the mind's eye and notice how it feels in the body to have this sense of this person here with you.
If you'd like to,
You could wish them well,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be free from suffering,
May you pass through life's challenges skillfully or you might wish to extend them some gratitude,
Feel a sense of appreciation for the influence that they've had or still have in your life and again noticing how that feels in the body,
Spending a few moments with this being in our minds,
Really appreciating them and then take a breath in and on the out-breath just start to let the idea of them go and naturally fade away,
Taking another breath in and sensing into the feelings and the body with the breath,
The chest moving,
The flow of the air in the throat and the nose,
Connecting again with those immediate body sensations,
Our body being right here in this moment,
The only moment in which we really exist and now if you'd like to,
Call into your mind's eye the idea,
The image of someone who you have neither strong positive or negative feelings for,
Someone whom you might consider neutral,
Perhaps you don't know them very well,
Maybe someone you know on a nodding basis or a distant relative,
Again an uncomplicated relationship,
Call that person into your mind's eye,
Noticing what it's like to be in the presence of the image of this person,
How that feels in the body and in the mind,
You might like to wish them well,
You could say I wish you well,
I appreciate that in your life you have challenges and joys just like me and you're trying to do your best just like me,
May you be happy,
May you meet life's challenges skillfully,
May you be free from suffering and wishing that person well on the next out breath,
Allow their image just to naturally dissolve and fade away and returning the awareness again to the body,
The sensations,
The hands and the feet and where you feel in contact with the surface that's supporting you,
Observing again the flow of the breath and when you're ready you might wish to call to mind someone with whom you have a more complicated relationship,
So not someone with whom there's a very difficult or triggering relationship because that can be quite distracting or upsetting but someone with whom there may have been some difficulty at some point and your relationship is perhaps not how you would like it to be and again this doesn't need to be someone you know now,
Could be someone from the past or someone you don't know but I would suggest steering away from anyone too triggering,
When you've got someone in mind just notice what it's like to have this person in your presence and perhaps how different that feels from when you had the other two people in mind and notice how it feels in the body and holding them in mind perhaps you'd like to say may you be well,
May you be happy although we don't see eye to eye I know that you just like me are doing your best in life in the way that you know how and that you like me just want to be happy and that you have your regrets your mistakes and your hopes and dreams just like everybody else perhaps if it feels right for you to wish them well but only doing what feels right for you just as much as you feel able to do whilst still supporting yourself and then when you feel ready let the idea the image of this person naturally fade away dropping the awareness back into the body directly sensing physical sensations whatever they happen to be directly sensing the temperature in the room the movements of the breath the feel of your clothes and now call to mind the image of yourself your loved one your neutral person and your difficult person in your mind's eye you're all together and how would it be to wish all four of you well to know that you're all doing your best to navigate your way through life you all have loved ones and difficult relationships you all share regrets memories hopes and dreams like every other human being and perhaps it's possible to find that place in ourselves that's always there our true nature from which we can wish ourselves and others well finding that authentic place within all of us desire for connection and desire to help from that place wishing all four well including ourselves as much as anyone else and then if you'd like to extending that sense of well-wishing to the people who are near you right now in the building or in the street wherever you find yourself right now perhaps wishing well to others nearby and further away maybe even to all humans in the country in the world or wishing well to all living beings may you be well may be happy may you be free from suffering and resting now for as long as you would like to with this sense of well-wishing and including yourself in that category of all living beings or if you prefer you can return the attention to the body again noticing the movements of the body under the influence of the breath feelings in the hands and the feet the weight of the body you might like to wriggle your fingers and toes gently circle your wrists your ankles and if it feels right for you have a nice stretch and when you're ready you can gently open your eyes and perhaps set an intention to carry some of the spirit of this practice through the rest of your day and we'll now end the practice
