We're about to begin the kindness and compassion practice so take your time to find yourself a nice comfortable warm position either seated in a chair,
On the floor or even lying down if you prefer.
But take your time to just settle into this shape and arrive here.
When you're ready feel free to close your eyes or half close them if you like.
As you sit or lay in this preferred position just take your time to bring stillness to your mind and to bring stillness to your body.
To become aware of the movement of your breath as it passes into your body and then as it passes out of your body.
Taking a nice intentional breath take it in through your nose,
Let the belly expand and then let it go out through whichever way comes natural.
So tuning your senses inwards towards your breath,
Inwards towards yourself and just observe the texture of your breath.
Observe the pace,
Is it fast or is it slow?
The temperature,
Just bring that air of curiosity towards yourself and towards your breath.
Just take a few moments now just to get connected with your body and with your breath and feel it as one whole being.
Using the breath to bring you into the present moment and to feel those sensations in the body right here and right now.
Now I invite you to bring your awareness now to yourself and just to take your time to feel the sensations in your body and how you are feeling right now.
What we are going to do in a moment is send some kindness and compassion and some nice thoughts to yourself and also to others.
Really feeling into their sensations fully and really connecting with them and let them wash over you and fill up your heart and fill up your entire body.
If you don't feel anything that's also fine,
Just accept it for what it is without judgment.
We are just going to repeat a few words to impact us and to send it towards ourselves.
So what we are going to do now is offer these nice words of loving kindness towards yourself.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be full of love and kindness and may I always be at peace.
We are going to repeat them two more times and just feel them wash over your whole body,
Your whole being.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be full of love and kindness and may I always be at peace.
One more time.
May I be happy,
May I be healthy,
May I be full of love and kindness and may I always be at peace.
Just let these pleasant sensations wash over you and let them start to expand from your core outwards.
Feel them fill you up with true feelings of love and kindness and compassion and this is our true state of being.
So just being in that nice natural state,
How humans should naturally be without judgment,
Without self-criticism,
Just as they are.
Always bring in your mind back to your breath,
Back to your body,
Back to how you feel.
Now we are going to bring our mind and attention to someone who you love,
So someone you have a good connection with.
It could be a family member,
A sister,
A brother,
A partner,
A friend or a loved one.
Just take your time now just to think of that person.
You might like to think of how they have supported you or what they are to you,
Their positive qualities or some good things that you have done together.
So now we are going to take some time to send them some loving and kindness thoughts with intention.
So having that person in your mind,
It can be more than one person if you like.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
Like I said,
Feel free to share this with more than one person.
Just send it out to friends and family.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
Just take your time to fully feel this from your heart and send them these kind and loving thoughts.
For the next one,
This might sound a little bit funny but we are going to send our intentions to someone that we don't know that well.
It might be the local shopkeeper or someone that you see on your daily commute on your train or on your bus or someone you just come along the streets.
Take your time to think of somebody that you have neutral feelings towards.
You don't know them that well but you might see them throughout your day.
What we are going to do is in a moment send them some nice kind wishes.
May they be happy,
May they be healthy,
May they be full of love and kindness and may they always be at peace.
Two more times.
May they be happy,
May they be healthy,
May they be full of love and kindness and they may always be at peace.
Again observing how it makes you feel from the deeper nature of yourself.
One more time.
May they be happy,
May they be healthy,
May they be full of love and kindness and may they always be at peace.
Now we are going to bring our attention to someone that we might have some difficulties with.
Someone at the moment that we may not get along with.
We might find them challenging or we might find them a bit difficult to get along with.
Perhaps we have an unresolved situation with them or some conflict.
We just don't see eye to eye.
So take your time to think of this person and just remember it is a very powerful practice to send them some kindness and compassion.
Notice how it feels in your body,
How it feels in your breath.
Maybe there is some tightening around the heart and chest or some uncomfortable sensations.
That's okay,
Just let them be there.
We are going to send them some nice kindness and compassion thoughts with an open heart.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
You really tune into your heart as you say this.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
Find more times,
A very powerful practice to continue to send them some loving kindness as difficult as it may be.
May you be happy,
May you be healthy,
May you be full of love and kindness and may you always be at peace.
Now after some time we are going to try to bring together all of these people in our heart.
The person you love,
The person you have neutral feelings towards,
The person you don't get along with and to yourself.
We are going to do a collective sending kindness and compassion.
Hold them all in your heart at the same time sharing your common fundamental desire to be happy and free from suffering and sending them kind thoughts all at once.
May they all be happy,
May they all be healthy,
May they all be full of love and kindness and may they all always be at peace.
We can even expand that further beyond the limitations of our body,
Beyond the limitations of the people that we know.
We can expand that further into the animals and the organisms of the earth to our fellow human beings of all cultural backgrounds,
To everybody,
The birds,
The fish,
The sea,
The animals of the ocean.
We are going to hold these all in our hearts.
It's bigger than us,
It's bigger than our body,
It's bigger than our breath.
Without prejudice,
Without judgment,
We are going to send the whole world as we know some loving,
Kindness,
Thoughts and compassion.
May they all be happy,
May they all be healthy,
May they all be full of love and kindness and may they always be at peace.
Really let that resonate from your heart one last time.
May they all be happy,
May they all be healthy,
May they all be full of love and kindness and may they always be at peace.
Just allow yourself to sit in this nice space now of loving kindness for all the beings around you,
For yourself and just simply take a few moments to pause and just observe the effects that it has on you and how it makes you feel.
And like always,
Take your time to savour these feelings with absolute openness and awareness and presence and silence.
Feeling the sensations of the body and just let them be there as they naturally arise and just be content with yourself to feel kindness towards yourself,
Kindness towards the people around you and compassion to all others.
Feeling connected with your breath,
Connected with yourself and connected to the wider world around you.
Take your time to sit in this space.
Very slowly in your own time when you're ready,
Just bringing some aliveness back to your body to your fingers and to your toes,
Blinking the eyes open whenever you're ready.
We're slowly going to leave the practice with a nice sense of wellbeing towards ourselves and towards others.
