Hello and welcome to this loving kindness meditation.
To begin,
Find a comfortable seat,
Anchoring down through your sit bones and taking a moment here to lengthen up through the spine.
Soften down through the shoulders.
Release any tension in the jaw and continue to extend all the way up to the top of your head.
If you haven't already,
Feel free to close your eyes or just steady your gaze on a point in front of you.
Slowly begin to notice the flow of your breath.
As soon as we become aware of our breath,
We tend to change it.
But if you can,
Just being aware of that natural rhythm of each inhale and each exhale.
If it feels good to you,
You can begin to bring the breath deeper into the body.
With every inhale,
Noticing how the belly expands.
With every exhale,
Letting the belly button draw back towards the spine.
Full deep belly breaths.
If you find it easier to keep your intention on the rise and the fall of the belly,
You can anchor your awareness there.
Otherwise,
It may be easier to notice the flow of the breath as it moves in and out through your nose.
As you continue to breathe deep and full breaths,
Begin to think of somebody that you know,
A friend or a colleague that you have a good relationship with.
And for a moment,
Just visualize that person as if they were standing right in front of you.
As you visualize that person,
Repeat these words after me,
Sending these intentions towards that person.
May you be happy.
May you be free from suffering.
May you be at peace.
And just taking a few deep breaths here,
Sending that positive energy towards them.
Now to begin to think of somebody that you may have met or crossed paths with a couple of times,
But that you don't know very well.
This should be a neutral person,
So they don't bring any strong feelings in one direction.
And then as you visualize that person,
Imagine that they're standing in front of you.
And repeat these words after me,
Directing the intention of these words towards them.
May you be happy.
May you be free from suffering.
May you be at peace.
Now begin to imagine somebody that you may not get along with so well,
Someone that you may be having a challenging relationship with at the moment.
And once again,
Imagine that they are in front of you.
As you hold that image of them before you in your mind,
Repeat these words,
Sending that energy towards them.
May you be happy.
May you be free from suffering.
May you be at peace.
Now imagine that you are sitting in front of yourself,
Holding an image of yourself clearly in your mind's eye.
And start to repeat these words after me.
May I be happy.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be at peace.
And just letting those words wash over you.
Now start to imagine the world around you as we send healing energy to all beings everywhere.
As you continue to breathe deep,
Full breaths here,
Repeat these words after me.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be free from suffering.
May all beings be at peace.
And letting any images just float away and come back to the flow of your breath in and out through your nose.
Whenever you feel ready,
If your eyes are closed,
Gently blinking them back open and coming back to the room.
Thank you.
