Morning Friendly Meta Meditation

This is a meta or love and kindness meditation for all times of the day but best done first thing in the morning. During and after practice you will feel a sense of calm and love towards the space you share with others and in your own beautiful body.

Transcript

Okay,

So we'll start our meditation together.

Palms facing up or down,

Whatever feels comfortable.

Nice tall spine,

But a soft spine.

Sometimes it feels nice to press the sit bones into the ground or the cushion wherever we're seated,

And you feel this root to rise happening in your spine.

And then once you kind of lengthen and you might find that there's stiffness,

Then soften into your body,

Softening into the spine.

And then almost feels like this homecoming,

Coming back to ourself.

If you have moved this morning,

Wonderful.

If you've just kind of rolled out of bed and you've started your day with meditation,

You might like to rock your spine from side to side,

Forwards and back.

Little seated cat,

Cows might feel nice,

Arching the back and rounding the back.

Might feel nice to move our head up and down,

Up and down,

Or from side to side.

And then shaking out your hands,

Wrists,

Fingers,

And arriving just as you are.

So for today's practice,

I thought we can work with metta meditation.

Metta meaning love and kindness.

So metta comes from Pali word maitra,

Maitra,

And maitra means friendliness,

Or being friendly with someone,

Or sitting in a state of friendliness.

So arrive here,

Just thinking about,

Hmm,

This idea of friendliness,

Thinking about our friends maybe in life we've had as adults and maybe university and college and high school,

Elementary school,

Our first friend.

Thinking about those moments or even memories of joy,

Belly laughs,

Curiosity.

You might find your way into those moments of being silly maybe,

Being completely yourself without feeling judged or confined to kind of social norm,

Whatever that is.

If you are somewhere in memory,

We'll just bring that into a feeling,

Memory inside the body.

So it might not be memory in the brain or head.

It's mostly a feeling you might feel in your elbows,

For example,

And soles of your feet,

For example.

Those feelings of goofiness or silliness,

Joy,

Being happy,

Being a child again might linger in our physical body.

We'll invite the state of metta or maitra into this presence,

And presence is our physical body.

It is the sounds we hear,

The place we're occupying in the body,

In our home or place of practice,

In the city,

The town,

The village,

The state we're in,

The country we're in.

If we could,

Just spreading it outwards a little bit,

Almost like a ripple effect through this out-breath,

Through this out-breath,

Through this out-breath.

You don't have to think of much.

We're just sending this feeling or energy that your skin has picked up,

Your frequency has picked up maybe.

And this might feel like wind,

It might feel like light,

Might feel like sound,

Might feel like smell that we're slowly,

Slowly sending outwards.

And as you send outwards,

You're gonna come across loved ones,

People you know,

People you knew,

People that are here present with us,

People that have passed on maybe.

And it doesn't have to be people,

Human beings,

It could be any beings,

Pets even.

So metta or maitra,

Love and kindness or love and kindness,

Or this feeling of friendliness,

Living with friendliness.

Frequency is getting sent out and it almost feels like ripple effect.

And I always think of a hose,

A hose kind of watering the garden.

The hose brings the water from the source and then kind of spreads it to the garden.

But meanwhile,

Within the hose gets wet as well,

Kind of nourished as well.

And as we're spreading love and kindness outwards,

As we are kind of bringing those feelings within the body,

Within the mind,

Nourishing ourself and sending it outwards,

It almost feels like we're kind of getting double nourished.

At the same time,

Once we send it outwards,

We're gonna bring it back into the body,

Bring it back into the body.

And if we were this hose,

It almost feels like before we kind of put the hose back on its holder,

We kind of give it a little bit of a rinse,

Just a bit of a rinse.

So spreading love and kindness or sitting with friendliness towards ourself as well.

If you're in a state of discomfort,

For example,

Your seat feels uncomfortable,

Your body feels uncomfortable,

Please make changes.

Might feel nice to have some sort of a weight on your body when you're meditating.

It could be a shawl maybe,

It could be a sweater.

Some people lying down place a bit of a maybe rice bag or a little bit of a weight on their chest area,

A pelvis area.

Some people place it on their hips or kind of thighs.

So that kind of brings the weight from the mind,

Especially if it's a curious mind,

Lots of thoughts coming and going downwards to the body into that state of grounding ourself.

I bring this to our attention.

Love and kindness starts from birth.

Usually when we are in the womb and our mother is touching us,

Is feeding us,

Is nourishing us through sound,

Through smells,

Through tastes,

Through storytelling,

Through music.

Some of us were brought up by our birth mother,

Some not.

And we're just gonna bring this kind of motherly feeling into the practice,

This motherly feeling into the practice.

Metta again comes from the word maitra,

Pali word maitra,

Sanskrit word metta,

Love and kindness.

The root of the word is ma as well,

Ma,

Maitra,

Ma,

Mothering herself.

It doesn't have to be a female figure.

It could be a male figure,

Could be kind of no sex at all.

Just this feeling,

This feeling of being nourished,

Cared for,

This friendly feeling.

So starting with the root chakra,

Starting with the roots of the body,

The tailbone,

The sacrum,

The pubic bone area,

The area in between,

All the way down into our legs and to our toes.

And then again,

If our legs were roots,

We're taking in the nourishment inwards,

Kind of percolates or bubbles or marinates around the womb,

Around the belly,

The stomach,

Spleen,

Our bladder,

Our gallbladder,

Kidneys,

Coming into the liver,

The digestive system,

The large intestine,

Small intestine.

We'll move the energy upwards into the diaphragm,

Into the diaphragm,

Moving the energy upwards into the lungs,

The little sacs in the lungs,

The alveoli,

Into the bronchial tubes,

All around the lungs,

Finding our way into the heart area,

That thudding sound of the heart.

From the heart,

We'll come into the thymus gland,

The center of the chest area,

Behind the sternum,

Right above the manubrium bone.

I like to come all into your glands,

Your chest glands,

Breast glands,

Into the armpits,

Glands here,

And to the back body around the shoulder blades.

And moving with the arms,

Finding our way into the upper arms,

Forearms,

Palms,

Into the fingers,

Fingertips.

And then coming back into the forearms,

Upper arms,

Into the shoulders,

Collarbones,

To the base of the neck,

Into our throat area.

You might find your way into the uvula,

The little tongue at the back of the throat,

And then dropping into the tongue itself in our mouth,

Into the belly of the tongue,

The tip of the tongue,

The sides of the tongue,

Bottom of the tongue,

Into our gums,

Lower,

Upper,

Into our teeth.

You might feel the back of the lips,

Into the softness of your lips.

We'll move with our facial muscles,

The skin of our face,

Into our ears,

Our cheeks.

We'll move upwards into the temples,

The forehead.

We'll find our way into the eyes,

Maybe,

To the eyelids,

Behind the eyelids,

Our eyeballs.

We'll move backwards,

We'll soften the muscles of the eyes.

We'll find our way into the cranium,

Into the cranium.

So this kind of liquid world inside the skull,

Our brain,

The right hemisphere,

The left hemisphere,

The white matter of the brain,

The corpus callosum,

The 10 centimeters that attaches the right and left hemisphere of the brain.

Billions of nerve endings here.

And then slowly finding our way into air,

And that could be the breath.

Breathing in and breathing out,

Breathing in and breathing out.

We are sitting with friendliness,

We are sitting with love and kindness,

Like a hose spreading water through the garden.

We sent out this love and kindness to begin with,

To whoever that came to mind,

Loved ones,

Friends,

Family,

Coworkers,

To our community,

Through the state,

Province,

To the country,

To this side of the world,

To the entire world,

Maybe.

And this ripple effect went outwards,

And then slowly,

Slowly coming back home.

We started with the root chakra,

Sending energy downwards,

Kind of this idea of root to rise,

Or the sucking energy from the tips of our toes all the way into the legs,

And then we moved through the body into our belly,

Our ribcage,

Our chest,

Our arms,

Throat,

Neck,

Head,

And then back into breath,

Connecting with air again.

So as we were breathing in and out,

In and out,

If you've had the,

Maybe,

Luxury or the honor to sit with a newborn baby,

Could be yours or somebody else's,

Just bring in that feeling to mind,

A newborn baby,

Maybe just a very young child.

If not,

You can think of a bird,

You can think of a puppy,

A kitten,

Some sort of an animal,

Maybe,

That tender,

Tender love that you might have towards them,

And it's just through your gaze,

Or maybe it's through your breath.

It almost feels like we would be breathing a little bit shallow,

Even the breath not to harm them,

Or even our breath not to,

Not necessarily harm,

But be too invasive,

Maybe,

For them.

So quieter breaths,

Maybe softer or shallower breaths towards this new baby,

Or little animal,

Maybe.

So again,

There might be a remembering in your breath,

And there might be a remembering in your eyes,

Your gaze,

Your gaze might soften,

Even if your eyes are closed,

You might feel there's this softness in the muscles of your eyes.

You might feel there's this tenderness in the muscles of your face,

A gentle smile might arrive,

There might be this parting of your lips,

Or your teeth,

Maybe,

A gentleness in the jaw joints.

A chest might soften.

If the ribcage was holding itself high above the belly,

You might find that the ribcage ever so gently softens on your belly.

There might be a tilt to your head,

Or there might be a tilt to your spine,

Forwards or sideways,

Being confronted with purity,

With a place of no judgment,

With softness.

And so if we could take that infant,

Or that little puppy or kitten,

Or whatever it is that you've imagined,

If you could bring it inwards within yourself,

And be that,

So this embodiment of this beautiful being that you are sitting with,

We're gonna invite it inwards.

And if you could have that feeling of love and kindness towards yourself.

My version of the love and kindness,

Or the metta meditation,

Kind of a little prayer for myself is,

It goes this way,

And so you might like to repeat after me,

Out loud if you wish,

Or silently to yourself.

May I be happy and at peace.

May I be healthy in body and in mind.

May I be free from self-inflicted suffering.

And may I know that I am not alone.

And then we'll wish this metta,

Love and kindness,

Or intention for one another.

May you be happy and at peace.

May you be healthy in body and in mind.

May you be free from self-inflicted suffering.

May you know that you are not alone.

And lastly,

A reminder that I am not separate from you,

And you are not separate from me.

Not necessarily I as Sanaz,

I as individuals,

We're all connected to one another somehow,

Again,

That ripple effect.

So a blessing for all of us.

May we be happy and at peace.

May we be healthy in body and in mind.

May we be free from self-inflicted suffering.

And may we know that we are not alone.

I'm gonna give you two minutes of silence.

Just thinking about metta,

Love and kindness,

About the words maybe that were spoken,

And see what comes to the surface.

Just sitting with the feelings that arises.

We are halfway there,

Another minute to go.

Two minutes has come to an end.

So I use the word,

Let's sit and think.

Let's sit and think.

Yeah,

Of course we are alive.

Thoughts come and go,

Come and go.

So the easiest way to meditate is to open that door of thoughts.

Allow thoughts to come,

Not holding onto any thoughts,

Not maybe playing with any thoughts,

Or making stories,

Or not allowing the brain to make any stories,

The mind to make any stories.

But just simply noticing that you're thinking about something,

And then allowing it to pass.

A few more minutes here.

We are thinking about love and kindness.

We are thinking about friendships we've built in our life,

Those cozy moments,

Those friendly moments we've experienced in all our life.

And then as soon as you feel the feeling,

As soon as your chest,

Your heart,

Your body kind of picks up the feeling from each thought,

You'll allow the thought to pass,

And you'll sit with the feeling.

You'll sit with what's happening in your body,

Maybe.

You might have a permanent smile on your lips.

Your neck and shoulders might soften at one point.

You might decide to move or rock yourself a little bit.

And there are some moments of no thought.

You're not trying not to think,

It just happens.

It's our last in-breath together in our meditation pose.

Breathing in and breathing out,

You might like to try about three cleansing breaths,

Breathing in through the nostrils,

Breathing out through the mouth.

And as you breathe in and out,

It might feel nice to flex and point at the fingers or your toes,

Open and close your palms,

Move your wrists,

Bend and straighten at the elbows,

Or shrug your shoulders,

Shoulder rolls might feel nice.

So we slowly will place the right palm facing up on our right thigh or right knee,

And left palm facing down,

Left thigh or left knee.

The right hand symbolizes that we're holding space for one another,

Karmically connected souls practicing together,

Even though we're not in the same place.

But there is a frequency,

A resonance that we feel,

And a left hand symbolizes that there's space being held for us.

From that place of thank you and you're welcome,

From that place of giving and receiving,

We'll open the arms sideways,

Palms move upwards,

We'll bring the palms together at the crown of the head,

The forehead area,

Our lips,

Our throat,

We'll place the hands on our chest,

And Anjali Mudra,

Namaskar Prayer,

Or Peace Mudra,

Bowing our head towards our hands,

Our heart,

Our body,

The sacred grounds beneath us,

The sky above,

And the universe within.

Namaskar,

Thank you so much for joining me.

Reviews

What a wonderful meditation! Thank You dear soul! May you be happy and at peace!