Loving-Kindness Meditation

This guided meditation offers a simple and heartfelt way to cultivate compassion - for yourself and for others. Using the traditional, easy-to-remember phrases, you’ll soften self-judgment, nourish your nervous system, and awaken connection. This practice organically softens your heart and expands your capacity to practice kindness. Gentle, grounding, and accessible for any time of day.

Transcript

Welcome,

I'm Lisa McCruin and today I'd love to guide you through this loving kindness meditation.

So loving kindness or metta is a practice for cultivating compassion for yourself and for others.

And what we do is we simply offer phrases of goodwill to various groups of people.

And what happens is over time in practicing loving kindness,

This practice begins to soften and also strengthen our hearts.

It starts to quiet judgment.

And it connects you to the truth that all beings,

Including you,

Are worthy of care.

So I'll guide you through.

So take a moment and invite your body to get into a comfortable position.

Whatever that is for you,

Whatever feels nourishing and supportive to presence.

And as you find this comfortable position,

Invite your body to soften and settle.

Maybe make a few movements that you might need to,

To then begin to soften and settle into this position.

So gently close your eyes or soften your gaze,

Whatever feels right to you.

And take a few breaths here.

You might inhale through the nose and then exhale fully through the mouth.

Really pressing the air out on that exhale.

Take a few more full breaths like that.

And just feeling the breath be organic,

However it is in this moment.

And notice how you might be already feeling a bit more grounded and present.

So throughout this practice of loving kindness,

You might place one hand or both hands on your heart.

Or one hand on your heart and one hand on the belly.

Or just rest your hands comfortably,

Like wherever they want to be.

And obviously you can change that however you want to during the practice.

I like to place my hands,

At least initially,

On my heart to just help me come into this awareness of my heart center.

And that helps to evoke compassion and supports me being able to do this practice.

So whatever feels right to you.

So as we begin,

Bring to mind that the intention of this practice is to cultivate loving kindness.

A sense of goodwill,

Warmth and compassion towards yourself and others.

And just allow this intention to settle into your heart.

And then we start with ourselves first.

So again,

Gently placing one hand on your heart or both hands,

If that feels right to you.

Or simply just focusing on the sensation of your chest rising and falling with your breath,

The heart space.

So you can silently or out loud repeat these phrases.

And feel free to modify them for what's right for you.

But these are the ones that I learned and are really easy to remember.

So the first,

Here we go.

May I be safe.

May I be safe.

May I be happy.

In every sense of the word.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be healthy,

Mind,

Body,

Spirit.

And may I live with ease.

May I live.

So notice any feelings or images or any sensations that arise.

Just notice anything and whatever it is,

That's just fine and it's okay.

And then now,

Take a big breath.

And what I like to do is bring the arms out to the side just to clear the energy as I reach up on inhale.

And then exhale,

Palms of the hands together and draw them right through the midline of your body.

Just a couple of times.

Let's do that again.

Inhaling,

Reaching the hands up,

Clearing out the space.

And then exhaling,

Hands down,

Midline of the body.

Exhaling out.

And one more time.

Resettle the body.

And then again,

Place your hands wherever that feels right and comfortable for you right now.

So now bring to mind someone who brings you joy.

Someone who just loves you.

Who you feel loved by.

It could be a close friend,

A family member,

A dear teacher,

Or even a pet.

So see them clearly in your mind's eye and in your heart.

Bring an image of them into your heart space.

And imagine them smiling or feeling peaceful.

And then let's use these same well wishes for them.

Let's send them metta.

So may you be safe.

Imagine them receiving this blessing from you,

This well wish.

May you be safe.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

And may you live with ease.

Feel the warmth and love that you're sending to this person.

Notice what's happening right now in you as you are here.

In your body.

Your heart space.

Your energy.

And then imagine them thanking you.

Imagine them thanking you for this.

Okay,

Let's take a few breaths again.

Reaching the arms up and out.

And then the palms of the hands come together and exhale out.

Two more times.

Okay,

So now what we do is we bring to mind someone that you see regularly,

But maybe you don't know them very well.

Like a co-worker or a neighbor or even a stranger that you encounter often.

A bus driver,

Metro bus driver.

Anyone that or someone at the grocery store,

A worker at the grocery store.

See who comes into your mind and heart right now.

And bring their image and their presence into your mind and heart.

And then imagine sending these well wishes to them as well.

So may you be safe.

May you be safe.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be healthy.

And may you live with ease.

So notice how this is,

How this feels for you to wish them well.

And imagine in your mind and heart that they receive this and they thank you for this.

And then now let's take those breaths,

Those cleansing breaths.

Inhaling up,

Arms up.

And then exhaling out.

Two more times.

One more time,

Clearing out,

Inhaling up.

And then exhaling out.

Now invite into your awareness someone who you have,

You've had a conflict with or it's been difficult to work with or relate with recently.

And if you're doing this for the first time,

I suggest someone who doesn't trigger you a whole lot.

It's just a little bit difficult.

There's been a little bit of difficulty with them.

And I encourage you to approach this gently.

And again,

Start with someone.

So we build this capacity,

Start with someone that is just a little bit irritating right now for you.

And together,

Let's think of this person as a human who is just like you.

They are looking for happiness.

They want to avoid suffering.

They don't want to suffer.

And you can wish them well and still have good boundaries that regard you and your integrity.

And let's try this.

Let's test this out.

Imagine them as a human being who also wants to be happy and to not suffer.

And so let's see what happens as we send these well wishes to them.

So starting with that first one,

Saying out loud or quietly to yourself,

May you be safe.

I wish you safety.

May you be happy.

I wish you happiness.

May you be healthy,

Mind,

Body,

Spirit.

And may you live with ease.

Notice how you're feeling right now.

Just what's happening in your body,

In your heart space,

In your energy,

Your mind.

Just become aware of that.

And right here,

This is when I find it really helpful to place both hands on the heart and say to yourself,

Like,

Oh,

I did that.

I did that.

I did that.

And if you encountered any resistance,

That is just fine.

No judgment.

And just return to your breath and to this moment.

And now let's take those three cleansing breaths again one final time before we go into this next group of people.

So inhaling up,

Then exhaling out.

Clearing out your energy.

Reaching up on that inhale.

Palms of the hands come together on that exhale right through the midline of the body.

And one more time,

Reaching up.

And then exhaling out.

Do a little shake or shimmy if you need to.

There you go.

So this final group of people,

We broaden the circle of loving kindness to include all beings everywhere,

Known and unknown.

So as you do this,

Imagine this loving energy is radiating out from your heart and wraps around the whole world like a warm blanket.

May all beings be safe in every sense of the word.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be healthy.

May all beings live with ease.

Feel the expansiveness of your goodwill that you extended to like infinitely actually around the whole globe.

Maybe even out into the cosmos.

Okay,

So when you're ready,

Bring your attention back to your breath.

Feel your body here.

Notice what is shifted or changed in your body,

Your heart space.

And as you take a few breaths,

Notice the shift in your energy.

And gently open your eyes.

And take a moment to appreciate the warmth and compassion that you have cultivated.

And imagine that there are so many thousands,

If not millions of people throughout the world that could be practicing this at the exact same time.

Loving kindness is one of those meditations that's done around the globe.

So you are part of that community,

Creating a more compassionate world.

So as you go forth into your day,

Carry this intention of loving kindness for you and anyone else that you might see.

Just carry this into the rest of your day.

Thank you so much for practicing with me today.