Hello beautiful souls,
Welcome to today's meditation on kindness.
So just coming into a comfortable seated position,
You can lie down as well if you want to.
It's your practice so take whatever position best suits you in this moment.
If you are seated,
Making sure that your spine is long,
Your shoulders are relaxed,
Your chin is slightly tucked,
And your eyes can be closed or gently open,
Gazing at the floor in front of you.
Your hands placed on your knees or one palm in the other in your lap.
And just coming into this moment,
Arriving here fully,
Becoming aware of whatever it is that's in contact with the floor or the mat,
Cushion or mattress,
Noticing the areas of contact and beginning to ground into your body.
And just taking stock of how your body feels in this moment,
As the heaviness,
Lightness,
Heat,
Coolness,
Tingling,
Numbness,
Any pain,
Areas of tension.
Just witnessing how your body is in this moment,
Without attaching any labels to how you feel or making up any stories about your body,
Just allowing everything to be as it is.
And now expanding your awareness to your breath,
Noticing how your breath is in this moment.
Whether it's shallow or deep,
Fast or slow,
Just noticing the quality of your breath.
And now letting go of awareness of the breath and paying attention to any emotions that you're experiencing right now.
And again,
With no attachment and no aversion to whatever you find,
Just allowing yourself to feel whatever it is you might be feeling in this moment.
And letting go of the awareness of your emotions and bringing your awareness to your mind and your thoughts.
Just allowing whatever thoughts arise to come and go like clouds passing in the sky,
Trying to not get lost in the story.
Just witnessing whatever thoughts are there,
Whatever comes and goes.
And letting go of the awareness of your thoughts and just resting here for a moment.
Being totally present in this moment,
The only one that we ever truly have.
And before we begin our meditation,
I'd like to read you a quote by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real,
Unconditional love.
You can find it in a simple act of kindness towards someone who needs help.
There is no mistake in love.
It is the common fibre of our life.
The flame that heats our soul,
Energises our spirit and supplies passion to our lives.
I would like you to bring to mind a time when someone has shown you kindness.
Maybe it was something very small,
But because you were having a difficult time in life at that moment,
It touched you even more.
Think about the kindness that you are shown on a daily basis.
Acts of kindness you may not even think of.
You may take them for granted.
The student stacking the shelves in the supermarket so you can buy what you need.
The person who designs street lights so that you can see when you're out in the dark.
The road sweeper who keeps the streets clean.
There are so many moments of kindness throughout our days.
Contemplate times when you have been shown kindness from your fellow humans.
Allow the feelings to engulf you.
Feel how it feels to be shown kindness when you need it.
Now recall to mind times where you have shown kindness to others and how that's made you feel.
We never know what the impact of a smile or a kind word does for somebody's day,
For a stranger's life.
We are constantly impacting each other's lives.
Think how it makes you feel to put a smile on somebody's face.
Feel the warmth in your body and in your heart that being kind to others gives you.
And think about the difference between when you're kind to others and when you're kind to others.
And think about the difference between when you're kind to yourself and you're holding yourself with love and compassion and not judgement.
When you're not berating yourself or feeling guilt or shame.
When you're holding yourself with love and kindness.
And contemplate what the world might look like if we were all kind to ourselves and to each other.
What kind of world might we live in?
What kind of world might we live in?
I'd like you to do two things today.
Ideally we would all do these every day for our entire lives.
And so you can choose if this is something you'd like to incorporate into your day to day activities.
And what I would like you to do today is I would like you to do one act of kindness for yourself.
Whatever that means to you and however that looks.
Put at least one act of kindness to yourself today and preferably every day.
And I would like you to do one act of kindness for another.
Again,
How that manifests is entirely up to you and whether it is done to someone you know or a stranger,
Again,
Is entirely up to you.
But one act of kindness,
At least one act,
Preferably more.
But a commitment.
For at least one act of kindness for yourself today and for another.
Bringing your awareness back to your breath.
Back to your body seated or laid on the ground.
Or a cushion or mattress.
Noticing what you can hear.
And gently opening your eyes and noticing what you can see.
Coming back into the present moment and thanking yourself for giving yourself this time.
And I'd like to leave you with another quote.
This quote is by Jane Goodall.
What you do makes a difference.
And you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
Thank you for joining me,
Beautiful souls.
I wish you a magical day filled with kindness and love.
Take care.
Namaste.
