Ringing In 2019 Day Two: Be Good To Me (Metta I)

How can we expect to have a peaceful world if we're not peaceful within our own heart? How can we learn to sit in meditation or formal mindfulness practice with ourselves if we can't bear to be alone with ourself without distractions? Having a subconscious that is not at ease with oneself is a barrier to practice. Today's practice teaches us several ways to practice gentleness and loving-kindness (metta) towards ourselves so we can feel at greater ease within ourselves and in the world.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to day two of seven days of guided meditation to kick off 2019.

Happy New Year again.

This is Salima and I am so happy that you're joining me today.

I would like to build on our practice over the last couple of days and introduce a practice that I find is extremely important and very underrated in terms of mindfulness and in terms of meditation.

And that can also help set the stage for an ability to be at ease in our own skin.

So I talked a little bit about this yesterday that it's really important for us to allow ourselves to feel at ease in our own skin.

When we begin practicing,

We may notice a lot of things come up during our practice.

We might have agitation,

We might have sleepiness,

We might have frustrations or worrisome thoughts that come up and this is all very natural.

However,

When we begin our practice,

If we can at least start off on the right foot and if we have a bit of a short practice,

We'll at least be able to get through our required time.

We're going to start with a practice that will help us feel more comfortable in our own skin and this is called Meta.

This is a Pali word,

But the word essentially means loving kindness or friendliness.

And this is something that is sorely lacking in the world today.

We find that people are happier being upset or angry or having opinions or disagreements with each other than they are putting aside their differences just for the purposes of allowing ourselves to exist and coexist in the world with whomever else is here sharing this planet with us.

So in order for us to develop the kind of mindset that allows us to be okay with others,

We have to first of all be okay with ourselves at least to a certain degree.

And so this practice of Meta can be used for ourselves and for others.

Today I'd like to use this practice of Meta to develop more of a kindness,

A friendliness,

A gentleness within ourselves.

So to begin,

Allow yourself to sit comfortably,

However comfortably you'd like to be right now.

Remember to keep your back upright or straight,

Not in an uncomfortable and natural way,

But just in a way that doesn't lead to sleepiness.

Feel free to take a deep breath and if you want,

You can bring your shoulders all the way up towards the ceiling or the sky,

Lengthening the spine and then on the exhale,

Release the shoulders back and down,

Just feeling them come to rest a little closer to the ground.

And if that felt good,

You can do it a second time,

Taking a deep breath in and on the exhale,

Releasing and allowing the body to come to rest.

So sensing into this body,

Just feeling the support,

Feeling how this body feels to be sitting,

However it's sitting.

Feel the support underneath the body,

Feel the hands resting where they're resting.

If the eyes are open,

Gently allow them to rest,

To rest their gaze somewhere just in front of you,

Maybe in your lap or on the table or floor in front of you.

Coming into noticing that this body is breathing.

So there's a few ways to practice metta or loving kindness.

Most of them involve a mantra or some words that are repeated.

So we can gently begin with trying this out and seeing how it feels,

Remembering that not every practice is going to be right for everyone.

So I'm going to give us a few different ways.

The first way is to bring in the words,

May I be happy.

And the focus of this is on the word happy.

May I be happy.

And when I say focus,

I mean to really feel the word,

Feel what the word happy means.

How does it feel to be happy?

Yesterday we brought in an image or a memory of something that made us feel very good about ourselves.

It could have been something that felt supportive,

Like a memory of being in a place that felt comfortable where we didn't have any issues or responsibilities,

Or it could be a memory or thought about someone that made us feel very happy,

Perhaps a child,

Or it could have been a memory of something that we did or said to someone that was kind or helpful.

And so if we need the assistance of that kind of device,

We can use that just at the beginning of our practice.

May I be happy.

Bringing in the happiness,

Really feeling that sense of deserving to be happy.

Just your intention to be here today,

To listen to this guided meditation warrants you're deserving to be happy.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

Feeling the peacefulness in that word.

May I be free from suffering.

May I be happy,

Peaceful,

And free from suffering.

So there's no asking anyone to grant us happiness or give us happiness.

This is more of an intention.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be free from suffering.

Feeling happiness with the utterance of the word happy.

Feeling peaceful with the utterance of the word peaceful.

And feeling free when we say the word free.

May I be happy.

Really feel that happiness.

May I be peaceful.

May I be free from suffering.

This is a mantra that we can repeat for a few moments and I'll give us a little time to do this for ourselves just now.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be free from suffering.

And a few moments on your own with these words.

Just a couple more breaths.

Feel this with this.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be free from suffering.

Remember that if the mind goes to wander off,

We can practice mindfulness in that moment just know that the mind is wandered.

Come back to the body.

Come back to this intention or this mantra.

Another way that we can practice metha or loving kindness is to have the intention to be gentle and kind with ourself.

May I be gentle with myself.

May I be kind to myself.

May I be good to me.

May I be kind and gentle to myself.

May I be good to me.

Allow yourself to feel some self compassion here.

Often our inner talk is harmful.

It's painful.

It's difficult.

So this practice is very important in order for us to be able to be with ourself,

Which is what meditation and mindfulness is all about.

It's about not engaging with anybody else,

But being with oneself,

Being able to observe oneself,

Being able to be alone without any outside input or communication or distraction.

May I be gentle and kind with myself.

May I be good to me.

What would it be like to be our best friend,

Our own best friend,

Our biggest cheerleader?

We might have done so when we were children,

But we forget when we get older.

May I be kind and gentle with myself.

May I be good to me.

Take a couple of last breaths with us.

One last way that we can practice metta is to have the feeling that we are loved.

This may be difficult.

It may be difficult to feel kindness towards oneself or gentle with oneself.

We may have to remember what it's like to have kindness,

Gentleness or love be shown to us.

Feel that you are out in the world.

You might be on your way to your day to day activity,

Your work,

School,

Running errands.

You're out in public.

You're in public places.

Allow yourself to feel the words,

Everybody loves me.

Everybody here loves me.

Every single person here loves me.

Even if they're all strangers,

Everybody loves me with each footstep,

Each breath.

Everybody loves me and I love everyone.

Everybody loves me and I love everybody.

Everybody loves me and I love everyone.

If it's hard to imagine from people,

Then all of nature loves me.

This planet loves me.

Everything that I eat,

Ingest,

Breathe comes from this planet and its atmosphere.

The sun loves me.

Feel that love is coming from all directions.

Everybody loves me.

Nature loves me and I love all of nature and all people.

Give yourself some time with this.

Nature's can be kind and we can be kind to them too.

Everybody loves me and I love everyone.

This can be a very powerful practice.

Take a last breath for yourself.

Feel the sensation of the breath coming in and leaving the body.

Feel free to on the next in breath,

Bring your spine all the way up to be extended towards the sky.

Bring your shoulders up towards your ears and on the exhale,

Release back and down.

If you wish to continue practicing,

I invite you to continue.

If you have some more time,

If this was all the time that you had for today,

I invite you to join me in our final intention with your hands together,

Palms together,

Thumbs to your chest.

May we all be happy.

May we all be healthy.

May we all be peaceful and free from suffering.

May all beings be happy,

Healthy,

Peaceful and free from suffering.

May all beings,

Each and every being,

All kinds of beings that exist,

Large,

Small,

Near,

Far,

Known or unknown,

May all beings,

Every being in existence share and benefit from the merits of our practice today.

Thank you and Namaste.

I look forward to having you join again tomorrow.

Reviews

Such sweet and exceptional guidance and practice. 🙏🌈🕊

A great way to engage with loving myself. Thank you Salima for rocking this!

Thank you! I love you!🙏

I liked the first set. Placing emphasis on the words you suggested kept a smile on my face throughout which rarely happens in meditation and is much needed. Second series was so so. Third series was extremely powerful and floods of tears rolled down my cheeks after the first two stanzas. Although this meditation is especially painful for me, it is also the one needed most. Thank-you so very much for your contribution to IT. I will seek out your course.

Exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you

Helpful practical tips for really embodying loving kindness prayer!

Beautiful support to self love and compassion
Thank you

Such a lovely practice! I'm familiar with Metra mediation and you've just made it even more powerful. Thank you 🌷🔆💜

Thank you , this is such a lovely way to start the day, “Everyone loves me and I love everyone.” 🙌🙌🙌 so very helpful🙏💗

I very much appreciate the three ways to practice Metta. Clear, concise and positive! 🙏

I am grateful for the peace-filled way in which you guided this meditation, and for your gracious heart. Thank you for sharing this blessing with us. I am grateful.

Thank you 🙏🌸🌺🦋