Hello,
I'm Sammy Swain and welcome to this loving kindness meditation.
Please find a comfortable posture sitting down on a cushion or a chair and begin to lower your eyes to a close or if that's not comfortable right away,
You can lower your eyelids down to allow just a slither of light in.
It can help to place a hand over your heart to feel into this particular space in your body but it's not for everybody.
Bring your awareness to your breath and begin to connect to your rhythm of breathing.
In and out.
In and out.
See if you're able to slow your breathing down just a little bit on both your inhales and your exhales.
In and out.
In and out.
Now lightly shift your attention from your breath to your heart space as we're going to send loving kindness from our hearts.
Now to begin,
I suggest imagining you're sitting with someone or something who brings you a good amount of warmth and joy.
It could be a pet,
I use Tilly my golden retriever,
Or it could be a favourite person,
A warm light or even a favourite tree.
With each person we send loving kindness to,
We can visualise them sitting in front of us throughout this practice.
Now with this favourite thing or person in mind repeat after me.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and at peace.
May you be well and healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and at peace.
May you be well and healthy.
Now let's try shifting that love we have fostered for this favourite thing to send some love towards ourselves.
It may feel strange to foster feelings of love towards ourselves and that's totally normal because we rarely do it.
See if you can visualise yourself sitting in front of you and repeat the following phrases after me.
May I be happy.
May I be safe and at peace.
May I be well and healthy.
May I be happy.
May I be safe and at peace.
May I be well and healthy.
Now let's transition this love we have fostered towards ourselves and let's transition it to something or someone that is neutral to us.
Perhaps it's the local barista or a tree that we walk past every day.
Bring them to your mind or picture them sitting in front of you and repeat after me.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and at peace.
May you be well and healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and at peace.
May you be well and healthy.
Now for the most challenging part,
Let's try send this love towards someone that we don't have the best feelings about or we might have had an argument with lately.
Be sure not to pick someone where the feelings are too strong,
Try to find someone who sits around a 3 or 4 out of 10.
Again speak as though they are sitting in front of you and you are speaking directly to them and repeat after me.
May you be happy.
May you be safe and at peace.
May you be well and healthy.
Now bring your attention back to yourself and you can feel the weight of your body on the cushion or the seat to help ground yourself after this difficult exercise.
Now we will send love to all beings.
You can expand your awareness and imagine your family and all your family friends and then all the family's friends' friends.
Think about the people you might meet one day and all of the people of the world and repeat after me.
May we be happy.
May we be safe and at peace.
May we be well and healthy.
May we be happy.
May we be safe and at peace.
May we be well and healthy.
Let's finish this exercise by bringing our awareness back to our body sitting down.
Feel the weight of our body.
We can gently wiggle the toes,
Wiggle the fingers and can slowly blink the eyes open.
Thank you very much for joining me for this meditation.
If you enjoyed it please leave a review and follow me on Insight Timer for more to come.
Take care.
