Welcome to Loving Kindness practice.
For this meditation you can be sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Whatever feels comfortable for your body and you'll just silently repeat these phrases to yourself.
If you've repeated all the phrases and we haven't moved to the next round yet,
You can just keep repeating them.
May I be safe,
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
And may I live with ease.
And if it's challenging to repeat these phrases,
Sometimes it can be helpful to see yourself as a small child or just tune in to the basic goodness in your heart.
And bring to mind someone who it's really easy to repeat these phrases for,
Sometimes called a benefactor.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you live with ease.
And then see this being,
This benefactor,
Just sending those words right back to you.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you live with ease.
And then you can bring to mind someone who you know who's going through a hard time.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
And may you live with ease.
And then you can bring to mind a neutral person,
Someone who you don't know but maybe you see from time to time in your life.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
And may you live with ease.
Then you can bring to mind someone who you have a hard time with.
May you be safe,
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
And may you live with ease.
And if this causes any agitation,
Just take a moment to sit with that discomfort and begin again.
And if it's still too agitating,
Just come back to the I version and take care of yourself.
Then we're gonna just widen the circle to include yourself,
Your benefactor,
Someone who's going through a hard time,
Your neutral person,
Someone who you have a hard time with,
As well as everyone in your immediate proximity,
And everyone in your country,
And continent,
And all beings everywhere on the planet.
May all beings be safe,
May all beings be happy,
May all beings be healthy,
And may we all live with ease and be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
And we'll finish the practice just taking a nice big deep nourishing breath together.
So go ahead and exhale everything out.
Take a nice big deep breath in.
Exhale,
Let it go.
And just let your breath return to its natural pace.
And you can begin to flutter your eyelids whether they're open or closed and just come back to your space.
Thank you so much for practicing loving kindness with me.