Welcome.
My name is Pam Ressler,
And I am a holistic nurse and the founder of Stress Resources.
The type of meditation which I will be guiding you today is called Metta,
Or loving kindness meditation.
Loving kindness is often easier to extend to others than to ourselves,
But it's essential that we develop strategies for our own self-compassion in order to care for others.
So let's start with finding a comfortable posture.
It could be sitting in a chair with your feet on the ground or perhaps reclining or even on a mat or laying on your bed.
Whatever posture feels good for you today is just fine for this meditation.
And then I like to use the analogy of the importance of this meditation,
So CPR for ourselves.
We often think of CPR as a cardiopulmonary resuscitation,
But let's shift that a bit for our Metta,
Or loving kindness meditation.
So the C stands for compassion.
Think if you saw a small child who was hurt or had fallen down in front of your house,
What would the words of comfort be that you might share with that small child?
Perhaps are you hurt?
Are you okay?
Can I help?
Allow yourself to embrace these words for ourselves.
And then the P is for an area of pain.
So taking a moment and really feeling the body,
Feeling perhaps some anxious thoughts or tightness and placing your hand on some area of the body that you feel pain or discomfort,
Tightness or anxiety.
For the busy mind perhaps placing the hand on your forehead.
For feeling overwhelmed or simply anxious,
Maybe placing that hand over the heart.
And then notice feeling that hand resting on your body that someone is listening and that someone is yourself.
Releasing the hand and dropping into a nice belly breath,
Expanding the belly on your in-breath,
Deflating it on the out-breath.
And now the R for our CPR stands for how we're responding to that pain or tightness,
Anxiety,
Discomfort.
And we're going to respond by allowing this Metta or loving kindness meditation bathe over us.
I'll be repeating twice the words of Metta,
Simply allowing yourself to let these words become your meditation.
May I be happy.
May I be as healthy as possible.
May I be as healthy as possible.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be free from suffering.
May I be at peace.
May I be at peace.
Taking a moment to breathe into the area that you feel in your body,
An area of loving kindness that may be in the heart area.
It may be all over the body,
But try to breathe in warmth.
Add a little oxygen to that flame of compassion with each breath in and each breath out.
And now allowing your compassion to extend beyond yourself,
Bringing in friends and loved ones into your meditation.
May they be happy.
May they be happy.
May they be as healthy as possible.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be at peace.
May they be at peace.
Breathing in warmth,
Compassion,
Allowing your loving kindness to extend even farther,
This time including neutral people.
So these are people who you may recognize by sight.
You don't know their stories.
You have no judgment,
Either positive or negative towards them.
But simply bringing their images to mind and extending loving kindness to these neutral people in your life.
May they be happy.
May they be happy.
May they be as healthy as possible.
May they be as healthy as possible.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be at peace.
May they be at peace.
Allowing your loving kindness,
Your compassion to extend outward again,
This time including difficult people in your life.
So perhaps there's anger.
Perhaps there hasn't been resolution.
No matter,
Allowing yourself without expectation of it being received or returned to simply extend loving kindness to these human beings.
May they be happy.
May they be happy.
May they be as healthy as possible.
May they be as healthy as possible.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be free from suffering.
May they be at peace.
May they be at peace.
Allowing your loving kindness to extend outward again,
This time including all living things,
All living beings.
May we be happy.
May we be happy.
May we be as healthy as possible.
May we be as healthy as possible.
May we be free from suffering.
May we be free from suffering.
May we live in peace.
May we live in peace.
Allowing yourself a few moments to center back into the breath.
Allowing yourself to breathe in,
Extending the belly and breathing out.
Allowing the belly to deflate.
With kindness and compassion towards yourself,
Remembering that you can take this Metta,
Loving kindness,
CPR meditation with you throughout your day.
