Come to find your seat for today's meditation.
Feeling the weight of your body and the earth beneath you,
Start to settle in and become comfortable.
You may place your hands on your lap,
Either on your knees or cradled one into another.
Perhaps today you place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly.
Starting to bring awareness to your breath,
You feel your belly rise and fall as you inhale and exhale.
As you close your eyes or gaze gently towards the floor,
Start to deepen your breath a little bit more.
And for today's practice,
You breathe in through your nose and out through your nose.
Settling into this space,
You notice how your body feels at this moment.
Perhaps there's discomfort or pain somewhere in your body.
Settle into your space as you feel yourself relax a little bit more.
Focusing your breath on those areas as you settle in.
With a tall spine,
You reach your head up to the sky,
Your sits bones ground down into the earth beneath you.
Creating an open space for energy to flow.
Relaxing your shoulders down your back and away from your ears.
Relaxing the jaw,
Separating the teeth.
Relaxing your tongue,
The space behind your eyes.
And any other place in your body that you feel needs relaxation.
Today's practice is called Loving Kindness Meditation or Metta Meditation.
And the purpose of this meditation is to recite a mantra to a variety of people in your life.
With the intention of positive energy flowing from your heart center out into the world.
The first person I'd like you to meditate to is someone that you love dearly.
Someone you're close with.
And to that person,
You say,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be without suffering.
Next,
I'd like you to imagine someone neutral in your life.
Someone perhaps you bump into in town.
A person that serves your coffee to you in the morning.
You may not even know their name,
But they're in your life.
And to that person,
Say,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be without suffering.
For the next person,
I'd like you to picture someone that you have history with.
Difficult history.
Perhaps someone you dislike.
Someone that dislikes you.
Someone you've had arguments with in the past.
This could be difficult for some folks because of the history.
But remember that this practice is for you.
It's for you to give your loving kindness energy that you have in yourself out into the world.
So for that person,
We say,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be without suffering.
Next,
I want you to picture every individual in this whole world.
Everyone that you can imagine living in all corners of the world.
And to those people,
You say,
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be without suffering.
And finally,
To yourself,
You say,
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be without suffering.
When you're ready,
You can start to bring your awareness back to your breath.
Deepening your breath a little bit more.
Inviting some movement into your fingers and into your toes.
And as you do so,
Start to notice how your body feels now.
Does it feel any different from when you started your meditation practice?
And know that if it doesn't,
That's okay too.
You can start to roll your shoulders up,
Back,
And down in circles.
Moving your arms.
Giving your head a rock back and forth.
Taking one last moment to thank yourself.
For giving yourself the gift of today's meditation.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
Take good care.
