Posture yourself in a way that allows you to feel relaxed yet alert.
This can be done sitting,
Standing,
Or lying down.
Hands can be cupped holding each other on your lap,
Palms up or down,
Or perhaps on your heart or another soothing location on your body to remind us that we're not only giving loving awareness to ourselves,
We're also giving loving,
Connected presence to the experience of ourselves.
Your eyes can be opened or closed,
Whatever allows you the most lucidity.
And as we begin,
Take three very gentle,
Easy breaths.
Feeling your breath move in your body wherever you notice it most easily,
Be it at your nose,
The top of your lip,
Or perhaps the movement of your chest or belly rising and falling.
And think about what loving-kindness feels like,
Looks like,
Sounds like,
Tastes like,
Or smells like to you.
Consider a time when you were naturally loving and kind toward others.
What was that experience like?
Perhaps it feels warm inside or a particular color emerges in your awareness.
There might be some words coming from your heart when you think of that experience.
Or a time when someone was kind to you.
That experience in your body,
Wherever you feel it easily,
In what sensory portal is most accessible to you.
And if you like,
Consider a quality in yourself that you truly appreciate that has helped you on numerous occasions through very difficult circumstances.
Something like resilience,
Maybe,
Or patience,
Humor,
Generosity,
Courage.
Something that comes to you easily.
Let this ride along in with your breath.
These experiences of loving-kindness,
Giving and receiving,
Along with noticing your gifts,
Your qualities that you can rely on here and now.
As we release the focus on our breathing,
Allowing it to slip it to the background of our awareness,
And beginning to offer yourself these phrases or your variation of them with authenticity and with a tone of complete tenderness.
May I be content and at ease.
And as you say these phrases,
Whispering them into your own ear,
Feel them in the same way that you experienced loving-kindness,
Thinking of times when it was given to you or you were offering it up,
Along with the qualities in you that you can rely on that allow you to be here now.
May I be content and at ease.
May I be content and at ease.
These phrases can be said just with one word,
Ease,
If that feels better.
Create them so that they come from your heart easily.
Your words,
Your tone,
Your rhythm.
May I know peace here and now.
May I feel peaceful in my body and in my life.
Peace.
May I be as healthy as possible on all levels.
May I enjoy the best health in this moment,
In this body,
In this life.
Health.
May I be safe and free from harm.
May I feel safe and free from harm.
Safety.
May I hold myself in loving-kindness.
May I be held in loving-kindness.
May I know my essence as loving-kindness.
Contentment.
Health.
Safety.
Loving-kindness.
And this is available to you at any moment simply by pausing and checking in and giving yourself the messages that you long to hear.
And if you like,
You can bring in a loving-kindness wish on the inhalation and then release it out on the exhalation wherever you wish it to go to an individual or group of individuals.
Your pace,
Your style,
Your truth.
And when you're ready,
Finally releasing the phrases and resting quietly in your own body as you are here and now.
Soak it up.
You deserve it.
