Amiento Hello.
This meditation will help us learn goodwill or love for ourselves.
In all of this world there are many people,
Many things.
Some you can come close to and some are far away.
The closest person to you is you and that's why it's so important to love yourself.
You are the part of this world that you are most responsible for.
You can care for your parents,
Your friends,
Your brothers and sisters,
Anyone you know,
But that care has to start with care for yourself.
Love and care for yourself is the foundation for bringing love into the world.
Let's start with a breathing exercise to help get settled into the meditation.
Make sure you're in a very comfortable position,
Either sitting up straight but relaxed or lying down.
Observe your body in the space that it's in.
Pretend that you can see yourself from the outside for a moment,
Taking in your whole body in the picture.
Now gradually enter your body and get in touch with your breathing.
Just follow your breaths,
All the way through the in-breath and all the way through the out-breath.
When you're breathing in,
You know it,
And when you're breathing out,
You know it.
Notice things about the breath,
Like how long it is,
How deep.
Is there a shape your breath makes in your body?
For now,
Just stay with the breath and if your mind wanders,
Return to the breath as soon as you remember.
Goodwill for yourself means you wish yourself well.
You wish happiness for yourself.
This may be the most natural feeling we can have,
But sometimes it gets buried and confused.
We're practicing now to keep it unburied,
To keep our goodwill in a place that we can always find it.
We begin this by using the breath.
We've already practiced following the breath and noticing some simple facts about it and how it is in our body.
Now let's notice even more.
When you pay attention to your breathing,
Can you perceive any feelings of pleasure,
Calm,
Peace,
Or goodness of any kind?
Your breath is designed to be refreshing.
If you pay close attention,
Can you feel that your breath is refreshing?
While you pay attention to your breath,
Search for anything that feels good,
Refreshing,
Calm,
And let this grow in your mind.
For instance,
If you notice your belly rise with the breath and when it falls it feels more relaxed,
Imagine that relaxation spreading in your body.
And you no longer have to stick with just the movement of breathing.
Any sensation in the body that feels pleasant,
Relaxed,
At ease,
Can be felt and then shared with the areas nearby.
In this way,
Keep on peacefully staying with your breath and growing a sense of ease throughout your body.
How does that feel?
This has been an example of goodwill for yourself.
Anytime you feel like you could use some love,
Or even if you want to give someone else love,
It can be helpful to make sure that you are full with whatever peace,
Ease,
And happiness you can make for yourself.
Practicing like we just did can be helpful,
But sometimes in the middle of a busy day,
All we have is a moment.
As we come to the end of this meditation,
Let's practice doing this whole exercise in three breaths.
The first breath is for remembering to pay attention to the breath wherever we feel it in the body.
The second breath is for noticing any good,
Refreshing feelings that we can feel in the breath.
The last breath is to spread those good feelings throughout the whole body.
You don't have to stop there,
Of course.
You can repeat this if you have time,
Or take more breaths for each step.
Experiment and have fun with the breath.
Okay,
Let's try that for the final exercise of the practice.
Ready?
Breath one,
Just noticing the breath.
Breath two,
Finding refreshment in the breath.
Breath three,
Filling the entire body with good feelings.
Okay,
Great.
For the last one,
I'm just going to count and you do the breathing.
After that,
I'll leave a little silence to sit with and then you'll hear the bell ring to end the meditation.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
And one,
Two,
Three.
