The loving kindness meditation,
Beginning by choosing your posture.
You might like to do this practice seated or upright,
So you're alert and awake but still comfortable and relaxed.
And starting to settle down into our posture,
Noticing the points of contact in touch with the chair or the floor or the cushion.
Settling down through the points of contact,
Allowing the weight of the body to be given up to gravity,
To receive the support and becoming aware of the body sitting here.
Perhaps briefly gently scanning the body,
Noticing any areas of tension or tightness and seeing if any of those areas want to let go just a little.
Just softening and becoming aware of the breath,
Natural rhythm of the breath,
Inflow and the outflow and seeing if we can soften in the body just a little more with each out breath.
Starting the practice by sending some loving kindness to ourselves.
If you haven't done this practice before this might feel a little strange at first and that's okay,
We're not trying to manufacture any specific type of feeling,
We're just noticing what comes up for us and sending ourselves some well-wishing.
And one of the ways to do this is using some short phrases.
Those phrases might include something like may I be well,
Silently repeating the phrase to yourself and allowing your awareness to focus on the phrase.
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live with ease.
And you can change the words here to something that perhaps resonates more with you.
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live with ease.
And repeating the phrases silently to yourself for the next few moments and noticing if you've got carried away on a train of thought,
That's okay,
Our minds love to wander.
Just noticing when this has happened and gently with kindness coming back to the phrases may I be well,
May I be happy,
May I live with ease.
And now beginning to broaden our awareness,
Staying grounded in our experience and bringing to mind a friend or a loved one,
Someone with whom it's easy to have feelings of love and care.
So whoever comes forward,
Bringing that person into your awareness,
That maybe you have a visual of them or maybe just a sense of them.
And imagine your friend sitting next to you,
Perhaps you can see their smile or hear their laughter,
Noticing how that feels in the body.
How does it feel to have your friend or loved one sitting beside you,
Happy,
Joyful.
And now extending our loving kindness,
Our well-wishing to our friend.
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live with ease.
You might imagine your friend receiving this well-wishing.
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you live with ease.
You might like to experiment here,
Explore using imagery,
Perhaps the image of the sun,
A warm sun at the end of a warm day,
Pleasant warmth radiating,
Radiating from your heart center,
Heart center.
Perhaps you can feel that warmth slowly spreading from the heart center outward towards your friend and perhaps imagining that same warmth,
Same care,
Compassion,
Radiating from your friend's heart center towards you.
And now gently allowing our friend,
Our loved one to fade.
Again staying grounded in our experience and expanding our awareness even further now.
You might imagine that heat or warmth or perhaps it's light spreading,
Growing,
Expanding to include all beings.
May all beings be well,
May all beings be happy,
May all beings live with ease.
I'm beginning to bring this practice to a close,
Becoming aware of the body sitting here.
You might introduce some small movements,
Opening the eyes if you've had them closed and noticing how you feel now.
