Hi,
This is Martina.
Welcome to the loving kindness practice.
Find a comfortable posture that will allow you to be relaxed and at ease,
Yet maintaining a degree of uprightness and wakefulness in the body.
You can gently close your eyes or keep them open,
Whatever feels most comfortable for you.
Let's begin our practice by tuning into our bodies,
Opening our awareness to the simple sensations of our bodies sitting here.
Taking a moment to tune in into your face,
Noticing any sensations.
And if you notice any unnecessary tension,
Just relaxing,
Softening,
Letting go.
Relaxing the mouth,
Relaxing the jaw,
Feeling into the neck and the throat and relaxing.
Using the shoulders and allowing your hands to drop heavy on your legs or the chair.
Taking a moment to feel your chest,
Softening the chest,
Opening and feeling into your belly,
Especially lower belly and allowing it to be soft too and the breathing to be natural.
And for a few moments,
Just opening the awareness to the whole body sitting here,
Breathing.
Seeing your entire body,
Receiving the sensations in your awareness.
And staying sensitive to your body,
I invite you now to bring to mind a person or a being that you deeply care about.
It could be a dear friend,
A member of your family,
Someone that makes you smile when you think about them.
It might be an adult or a child or even a pet that you love.
Or maybe someone who helped you at some point of your life and you have a natural sense of gratitude towards them.
Bring the image of that person to mind.
You may imagine them sitting in front of you or just remember the felt sense of what it is like to be around this person.
And let's now offer some good wishes towards this person,
Phrases that will express the love and deep care that we feel for this person.
May you be safe and protected.
May you be filled with happiness and joy.
May you be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May you live with ease.
Very gently,
Without forcing.
We are not trying to make ourselves feel anything or make anything happen.
Just placing all your attention behind those phrases and wishing well,
Wishing well,
Offering kindness.
Looking at that person,
Seeing them in your mind,
Saying to them,
May you be safe and protected.
May you be filled with happiness and joy.
May you be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May you live with ease.
And if you are visual,
You can imagine yourself hugging that person or if that's helpful maybe touching their arm,
Seeing them happy,
Peaceful.
And now I invite you to imagine this person looking back at you and smiling to you.
This person cares about you and loves you very much too,
So they want the best for you too.
So imagine them saying the same phrases to you.
They are saying,
May you be safe and protected.
May you be filled with happiness and joy.
May you be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May you live with ease.
And now I invite you to see what it would be like to offer these phrases to yourself.
You may put your hands on your heart if that's helpful and very gently,
Without any pressure,
Expressing this while wishing to yourself.
May I be safe.
May I be filled with happiness and joy.
May I be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May I live with ease.
Gently tuning into our natural,
Beautiful desire to be well,
To be peaceful.
May I be safe and protected.
May I be filled with happiness and joy.
May I be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May I live with ease.
And in the same way that we want to be happy,
So too all people and all animals want to be happy,
Free from harm,
Free from suffering.
So let's now extend our good wishes to everybody,
All the beings we know and those we don't know.
May all beings be safe and protected.
May all beings,
People and animals,
Be filled with happiness and joy.
May all beings be peaceful,
Free from suffering.
May all beings live with ease.
And to end this practice,
Let's bring our attention once again to our body.
Once again I invite you to sense into your body sitting here breathing.
And for a few moments just staying with whatever sensations are present in your body right now.
Sensations of sitting,
Sensations of breathing.
See we can get some less Dungeons.
A one depended feeling.
You
