Make yourself comfortable.
You may sit back into some cushions and a back rest for this meditation as well.
Close your eyes.
Notice your surroundings.
And all that is around you.
The temperature of the air.
Any ambient sounds you can hear.
The support that you're sitting on.
The amount of light coming in beyond your closed eyes.
Now begin to deepen your breath.
As you feel your breath,
Notice how your body swells to receive more breath.
And softens to release it.
Take five deep abdominal breaths.
Inhale and exhale.
Inhaling and exhaling.
Continue breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in.
Breathing out.
Last breath.
Inhale deeply.
And exhale completely.
Notice how your mind and body soften and how you're becoming more at ease in your own body.
Bring your attention back to your whole body.
And allow yourself to feel whatever is there right now for you.
Open to your experience in the present moment.
But also allow yourself to open to any of the tension or worries you might be carrying around with you.
Maybe it's something that has emerged only recently,
Or perhaps it's been there for quite some time.
Maybe it's an old wound,
A tender place of sadness inside of you,
A place of fear or anxiety.
Allow yourself to feel whatever tensions are just beneath the surface for you.
You might feel them bubbling up into your heart with a feeling of restriction or contraction.
Continue to breathe and allow the sensations to exist.
Be present to the sensations that arise and stay with them a little longer.
Now begin to lift the corners of your mouth upward.
Feel a smile emerging and brimming into your body and onto your face.
Feel the inside of your mouth waking up.
Feel the corners of your eyes lighting up.
Feel the smile emerging and attend to the sensations in your heart.
They may remain as they are.
The sensations still perhaps feeling unclear or unsafe.
Yet you are smiling nonetheless because you're telling yourself now,
Physiologically,
That it's okay to feel this way.
You're telling yourself as you smile that you have the permission to feel unsure or anxious or unwell and that it is in fact okay and that you don't need to push those feelings away.
They can exist in you.
You're giving those feelings some space to exist.
Take a longer breath into your heart and a long,
Complete exhale.
Be with yourself a little longer in this.
You may say to yourself,
It's okay to feel this way.
I'm allowing myself to feel this way.
You can find your own way of saying this as well.
Now repeat to yourself,
May I be happy?
May I be free?
May I be kind toward myself?
May I be trusting?
May I be forgiving?
May I be open?
May I be loving?
And may I be open to receiving love?
May I be at peace?
May I be at rest within myself?
Allow yourself to repeat any of those you find resonate with you or you might find other ways to express goodwill towards yourself.
Now bring to mind someone you care deeply about.
Someone with whom it is uncomplicated with.
A pure kind of love that you have with someone.
If you find the idea of this difficult,
You might think of a pet or a place in nature.
Repeat mentally,
May you be happy?
May you be free?
May you be kind?
May you be trusting?
May you be forgiving?
May you be open?
May you be loving?
May you be open to receiving love?
May you be at peace?
May you be at rest within yourself?
If there's anything else that comes to mind that you would like to extend toward this person,
Pet or place,
Go ahead and do it now.
Now think of someone you don't know very well.
It could be a person you passed by on the street or someone that you saw on the bus or the street corner.
It could be your neighbor or a co-worker that you don't know very well.
Repeat mentally,
May you be happy?
May you be free?
May you be kind?
May you be trusting?
May you be forgiving?
May you be open?
May you be loving?
May you be open to receiving love?
May you be at peace?
May you be at rest within yourself?
Now think of someone whom you feel challenged by,
Someone that has hurt you,
Someone with whom there's a negative charge towards.
Perhaps this is the person whom your difficult emotions revolve around.
You will take the time to send them some positive intentions.
Despite how you might be feeling about this person,
Despite your closeness and sensitivity to the situation right now,
You might be able to see that sending them loving intentions opens you to creating a different mindset toward this person,
Enabling you to see them in a different light.
But most of all,
You're healing your heart and unburdening yourself of the toxic feeling of harboring resentment.
Even if you're sure that this person has done you wrong,
Can you simultaneously send them good intentions with your dynamic and evolved heart?
May you be happy?
May you be free?
May you be kind?
May you be trusting?
May you be forgiving?
May you be open?
May you be loving?
May you accept love from others?
May you have integrity?
May you be at peace?
And may you be at rest within yourself?
I wish you well even though I feel hurt by the situation with you.
I wish you well from afar.
I care about myself enough to not harbor resentment.
I'm setting myself free by letting you go in peace.
Now begin to extend goodwill and kind thoughts towards all of those in the world who are suffering,
All of the humans and animals,
All of the nature and ecosystems that are suffering.
May you be happy?
May you be free?
May you be forgiving?
May you know love?
May you know peace?
To close,
You will come back to yourself because this is where it all starts.
It's where we can have the most impact.
So again,
Repeating and feeling all of the sensations of the words as you repeat them.
May I be happy,
Free,
Forgiving,
Loving,
Kind,
Generous,
Patient,
And trusting?
Take five deep breaths in and out.
Finally,
We will do some breathing exercises.
Finally,
We will do some alternate nostril breathing.
Sit up tall.
This is using your right hand.
Fold your index and middle finger in towards your palm.
The ring and pinky fingers can be used to cover your left nostril,
And the thumb will be used to cover your right.
Exhale your breath.
Bend your right elbow,
Cover your right nostril,
And inhale through the left side.
Cover your left nostril and exhale through the right.
Inhale right,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale left,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale left,
Two,
Three,
Into the belly.
Four,
Exhale right,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale right,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale left,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale left,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale right,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale right,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And exhale left,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Now release your hand to your knee,
And with your eyes closed,
Continue to feel the presence of your breath.
Notice the air moving sweetly through both nostrils now.
Check in with how you're feeling now.
Notice the shift that has occurred inside of you.
Notice how possible it is to feel well in this moment,
And notice how real that is.
You might sense that there's a rewiring of your brain,
Your heart,
And your body.
Take some time to familiarize yourself with this feeling of wellness.
It may be profound.
It may feel like a relative wellness compared to how you felt before.
Either way,
Notice the improvement,
Notice the change.
Notice how it feels in your heart to feel loving,
To feel kind,
To feel evolved,
To be forgiving,
To be at peace with yourself and all of your life's challenges.
Notice how that feels.
Rejoice in that,
Take pleasure in that,
Soften to that.
Feel the corners of your mouth and eyes turning upward again.
Take a deep breath in and a deep breath out.
