Kindness To A Dear Person Meditation

When we practice Kindness To A Dear Person Meditation we are inviting an easy connection with an atmosphere of kindliness that can then be spread further to include ourselves and other people around.

This meditation is to support participants of the Mindfulness-Based Compassionate Living Course (MBCL) developed by Frits Koster and Erik van den Brink.

Transcript

Kindness to a dear person meditation settling into the practice in a way that works for you today feeling connection with the body the mind heart and the breath and connecting with atmosphere of kindness towards yourself by offering phrases of loving-kindness and now bringing a person to mind who is dear to you a good friend partner parent or grandparent child or grandchild a dear colleague or neighbor or other person who brings a smile on your face and opens your heart imagining this person in front of you and you meet their face and eyes noticing how this affects you physically and emotionally and allow the wish of kindness towards this good friends to flow from your heart and then gently repeating this wish on the soothing rhythm of the breath perhaps in the words that spontaneously came up or one of the four traditional wishes may you be safe may you feel healthy happy at ease you can extend this practice to other people who dear to you alive or deceased you can also choose an animal your favorite pet you can repeat similar or other wishes which you feel connect well when you imagine this dear one in front of you and you tune to their deeper needs also wish in the way form maybe very connecting may we be free from suffering may we feel peaceful may we share happiness and this practice is not about striving to include all the persons and wishing them every goodness you can think of and it's not about achieving results or magic effects whether the other person will be affected by your kind wishes can remain an open question this practice is simply about cultivating an inner attitude of kindness towards somebody dear to you so mindfully observing what happens moment by moment sometimes you may wish to leave the phrases and just repeating one or two cool words or simply being present with the atmosphere of kindness and goodwill and if you notice an emotional heaviness or worrying thoughts holding them in the cradle of kind awareness allowing the soothing breathing rhythm to return you may offer yourself a kind or compassionate wish and then to return to other people when you feel space to do so you can continue with this practice as long as you wish or bring it to a close on the sound of the bell