You are not alone,
But difficult experiences,
Pain,
Stress,
Resistance can make you feel as though you are.
But remember we are all so similar,
None of us likes to suffer and we all want to be happy.
So in this practice we're going to explore a sense of connection with ourselves,
But also with others.
To remind you of what connects us.
So make yourself really comfortable.
You can sit down,
Lie down or stand up,
Whatever works best for you.
If you feel comfortable doing so,
You can now close your eyes.
Feel gravity grounding you.
Feel the weight of your body against the chair,
The bed,
The sofa or the floor.
Feel gravity pulling you down towards the earth,
Towards source.
Now rest your awareness inside the breath,
Inside the body.
Just gently,
A kind,
Loving,
Fluid awareness.
Don't need to force anything,
Don't need to manipulate the breath,
The body knows how to breathe.
Just notice each in-breath and each out-breath.
Remember it's perfectly normal for your mind to wander.
So if your mind does wander during the practice,
When you notice,
Just gently bring yourself back,
Either to the breath or to my words.
And as you rest,
Just spending some time with yourself and your breath.
Allow any positive emotions,
Feelings or experiences to arise and pass away.
Similarly,
If you feel anything unpleasant or negative or have any unpleasant thoughts,
Just allow them to arise and pass away.
Whatever comes up as you're resting here,
Just notice it and allow it to go,
Allow it to pass,
Allow it to subside.
You can think of negative,
Positives,
The ups and downs of life as waves on the ocean.
You're allowing them to come and go,
To rise and fall naturally.
You're not trying to cling on to anything,
You're not trying to push anything away.
Just allowing it to come and go,
Rise and fall.
Now I'd like you to bring to mind a friend,
Someone you really like.
Imagine them next to you right now,
See them in your mind's eye,
Feel their energy.
Stay grounded in your own experience,
But feel that connection with your friend.
Although you may look very different,
And although the details of your lives may be very different,
You are so similar.
You both want to be happy,
And when good things happen,
Pleasurable experiences,
You both try and cling on to them because you want them to last.
Similarly,
Neither of you wants to suffer,
So when you do,
When life is difficult,
Stressful,
Painful,
You both try and push it away,
We all do,
We're only human.
As you rest next to your friend,
Staying grounded in your own experience,
Breathe in a sense of connection with your friend,
With each in-breath.
And breathe out kindness,
Love,
Fulfilment,
All the good things you want for yourself with each out-breath.
So breathing in a sense of connection,
And breathing out all the good things,
Everything you want for yourself.
Imagine your friend being bathed in these things,
Love,
Contentment,
Fulfilment.
Now expand your awareness to include other people,
Bring them to life in your imagination.
These might be other friends,
Family members,
They might be people around you now.
Remember that we are all living,
Breathing,
Energy beings.
Imagine all these people in the same space as you and your friend,
All breathing in and breathing out.
Again remembering that we are all so similar,
All of these people in your life,
None of them like to suffer,
They all want to be happy.
So as you breathe in,
Breathe in a sense of connection between you and all of these people.
And breathe out a sense of kindness and compassion towards everyone in your mind's eye.
Breathe in a sense of connection,
A sense of deep knowing of the threads and ties that bind us,
The commonalities of our experience,
The desire to cling onto the good things and push away the things that we feel are bad.
Breathe in a sense of connection and breathe out kindness and compassion,
Resting in the understanding that you know some of what other people are going through.
Bathing everyone with kindness and compassion with each out breath.
Let's rest here for a moment,
Seeing all of these people in your mind's eye,
Breathing in a sense of connection and breathing out a sense of kindness and compassion.
Now expand your awareness even further,
Include more and more people in your imagination,
People who are just like you,
People who are very different,
People who live close to you in your neighbourhood,
People that live very far away,
People from peaceful places,
People from war torn places,
People that you like and love and people with whom you have a more difficult relationship,
Include them all in your imagination,
See them in your mind's eye,
Hold space for them in this moment and remember that we are all so similar.
None of us likes to suffer and we all want to be happy.
To the extent that you know yourself,
You know your own experiences of suffering and joy,
Pain,
Love,
Happiness,
Confusion,
Honestly you know everybody else,
We are all so similar.
Breathe in a sense of empathy and understanding for all of these people and breathe out a sense of kindness,
Tenderness,
Compassion towards all of these people.
You don't need to do anything,
Allow the breath to flow as it naturally does.
As you breathe in empathy and connection with all of these people,
Remembering how similar we all are,
Feel the connection,
You are not alone.
And as you breathe out kindness,
Love,
Compassion,
Allow that to flow equally,
Allow it to flow smoothly and evenly,
Allow it to flow to everyone.
Breathing in a sense of empathy and connection and breathing out kindness and love and compassion.
Let's rest here a few moments.
Let's rest in this space.
Surrounded in our own experience and understanding completely and deeply that we are not alone.
Now let's start to bring this meditation to a close.
Sense the space around you.
Feel the weight of your body against the chair,
The bed,
The sofa or the floor.
Very slowly when you're ready start to move.
Give your toes a little wiggle.
Give your fingers a little wiggle.
And when you're ready,
Very slowly,
Open your eyes.
