With the practice of loving kindness meditation we invite our hearts to open and to offer a real sense of goodwill,
Good wishes to ourselves and to others.
And there's no forcing our hearts so sometimes our heart doesn't feel so kindly towards people and that's okay.
So this practice is really an invitation so we can be really soft and gentle with our hearts.
We simply place ourselves where we could be warmed by the sunlight of loving kindness.
So allowing yourself to feel very comfortable and safe whatever cozy is for you.
And we begin this with the sense of a smile,
Sense of a soft smile playing around your lips,
Your jaw.
If it's difficult to sense you can try to not smile and whatever you do don't smile.
And often that just helps with our warmth bringing the smiling energy into our lips,
Our jaw,
Smiling inside our mouth.
Just that lightness,
Warmth of a smile.
And allowing that energy to come up to your eyes sensing how your eyes feel when they're infused with the energy of a smile.
Allowing it to diffuse your whole face,
Warmth of a smile and bringing it down to your throat and neck,
Your upper chest,
Your heart.
And when you have a strong sense of smiling energy with the beating of your heart just allow it to radiate outwards so it can fill your whole body and beyond your body.
So that you are held in a field of kind loving energy.
A love that has no conditions,
No boundaries,
Simply offering love to love.
And we'll offer a series of kind wishes to ourselves and sometimes we're a little turned on ourselves.
It's not so easy to care for ourselves.
So one way of doing this is to imagine a heart that you really trust,
A heart whose love you really trust.
It could be a religious figure,
It could be a great teacher,
It could be a great friend,
A dog,
A cat,
Someone whose loving kindness towards you you really trust and you can bring them to your mind and then imagine them offering you these wishes.
So if your heart feels stuck at all please delegate outwards.
And it can be very effective to lay a hand on your heart or a hand on your body just to deliberately make contact with yourself.
May I be safe.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be free from all harm.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be free from all harm.
And very gently you can always draw up a memory of not being happy,
Of feeling maybe lost or so sad,
Maybe frustrated or feeling a bit powerless.
Just drawing up a memory of when we haven't been so happy,
When it hasn't been an easy moment for us,
When really challenging can really activate that seed of kindness in us and really germinate that sense of care for this body,
This presence in this moment.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be free from all harm.
May I step into each moment with grace and ease.
May I learn to see myself with the eyes of love and understanding.
May I always know my way home.
May I step into each moment with grace and ease.
It's a beautiful wish to be able to move into each moment of our life with a sense of solidity and ease,
An open heart.
So whether it's an easy moment or a challenging moment,
That we are able to move from this sense of solidity,
Peace.
May I learn to look at myself with eyes of love and understanding.
What a beautiful wish.
Often we see ourselves with very critical eyes and imagine if the only purpose in seeing ourselves was to understand ourselves more deeply.
Imagine if that was the only purpose in coming close to ourselves,
Drawing close,
Getting a sense of our feelings,
Our thoughts,
The whole complex landscape of us simply to understand more deeply.
And when we understand,
We love very easily.
May I learn to see myself with eyes of love and understanding.
May I always know my way home.
I know my mind is a wild time traveler at times and may I always know my way back to my true home,
To this body in this moment,
Just as it is.
May I know that this is my sanctuary,
My refuge,
My one abode.
May I always know my way home.
And simply resting in this care for yourself,
This field of care that you've generated,
We allow our body,
Our presence to just rest within,
Sensing what it feels like to receive care and what it feels like to offer care without any conditions.
And then we widen our sense of care,
Widen this field,
Widen to take in the room that you're in,
The building,
The street,
The geographical area,
The country,
And then expanding over other lands,
Oceans,
Seas to enfold the entire planet.
So many hearts are experiencing really difficult moments right now.
So many hearts may have never experienced compassion towards themselves,
May never have experienced unconditional kindness.
So with this energetic field of kindness that we enfold around this planet for all beings,
All living beings,
For the entire planet.
So preciously interwoven in each other's lives that by taking care of the planet and each other,
I know I'm already taking care of me.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be free from all harm.
Sending out our waves of care,
Strong and effortless.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be free from all harm.
May you step into each moment with grace and ease.
May you see yourself with eyes of understanding and love.
May you always know your way home.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be free from any harm.
May all know how to step into each moment with grace and ease.
May all see with eyes of understanding and love.
May all know their way home.
Staying with this sense of offering unconditional care,
Receiving unconditional kindness and care,
This constant flow,
Wave after wave of the ocean of our existence.
By offering kindness,
You make a great contribution.
And by allowing yourself to receive kindness and care,
You make a great contribution.
Thank you for practicing.
