Welcome to this meditation on kindness.
This is my absolute favorite practice because kindness is so important to us.
We know how one small act of kindness can positively affect our whole day,
Giving us that warm feeling of connection,
Of belonging,
Of joy.
So when we take the time to reflect on kindness,
As we are doing in this meditation,
It primes us to see more opportunities for us to be kind,
To be kind to other people and to be kind to ourselves.
So let's begin by bringing our attention into our bodies.
Just notice how your body feels.
If there's any areas of tension,
Just gently releasing any of that tightness,
Relaxing into that space.
And now take a few deep breaths in and out through your nose,
Breathing in more deeply on the inhale.
And on each exhale,
Releasing your breath more slowly,
Feeling that sense of relaxation on the exhale,
That sense of letting go.
And now let the deep breathing go,
Allowing your breath to be natural.
And I want you to focus your attention on your heart,
Imagining as if you're breathing in and out of your heart.
Think back into your memory of a time that someone was kind to you.
It can be a recent act of kindness in the last day,
In the last week,
Could be a month ago,
A year ago,
Just bringing to mind a memory of some kindness.
And as you reflect on this act of kindness,
Really remember how you felt.
How connected you felt,
That sense of belonging,
That feeling of total acceptance,
Of being seen,
Of being acknowledged,
That someone took the time out of their day to do something kind for you,
That they were thinking of how could they make your day a little bit better.
And notice what it is that you're touching in your heart,
How their affection,
Their kindness,
Their generosity touched you.
Feel that sense of connection through your heart to this other person that was kind to you.
Notice that through their kindness,
It's as if there is no separation at all between you and this other person,
But what they touched in you is so profoundly deep and connected to them.
And you feel that sense of completeness,
Of wholeness.
Feel that warmth radiating out from your heart as though you were being cocooned in the tender loving energy of kindness.
There are no borders,
No edges,
Just an ever expanding vibration of love radiating out from your heart.
Encers while As the poet Rumi says,
Your task is not to seek for love,
But merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Through the reflection of kindness,
The intention,
The actions of kindness,
We tear down all those barriers that give us that sense of disconnection and separation.
It's just that we're so lost in our experience of trying to get somewhere,
Of trying to find happiness outside of us chasing it,
That we don't even realize that one small act of kindness brings us home,
Back to what we've always wanted.
It's just that we're so lost in our experience of trying to find happiness outside of us chasing it.
Imagine if every morning you wake up and your first thought is,
How can I bring more kindness into this day?
How can I spread more kindness?
So instead of imagining your day with dread and fear of how you're going to get it all done,
You see it through the lens of kindness,
Looking for all the opportunities to open the door for someone as you enter a building,
To let someone go ahead of you in line,
To give someone a compliment,
To be present and seeing what's going on around you,
Seeing the opportunities to practice kindness,
Knowing that one small act of kindness creates a ripple effect through the entire tapestry.
And we can take the opportunity right now to think about the rest of our day and how we can bring more kindness into our day.
So our kindness practice has three parts to it.
The first is the intention.
As early as we can remember in our day to have that intention of kindness.
And then the action of performing those kind acts,
However small,
A smile,
Greeting a stranger,
Giving ourselves a break when we're having a tough moment,
Knowing that these small acts do make a difference.
And at the end of the day,
As we lie in bed,
The very last thing we do is reflect on all the acts of kindness,
Feeling that sense of connection with those beings.
Okay.
You you And to remember every day this simple simple practice It's almost so obvious we overlook it But when we set that intention we follow through with our actions and Then we have lots to reflect on every night continuously removing the barriers from knowing the love that we already are you you you you
