Welcome to a loving kindness meditation.
I would like to take a brief moment before we begin just to give you a brief explanation of loving kindness.
Loving kindness,
We are accessing different levels to apply the loving kindness.
Loving kindness aids in building your self-esteem,
Confidence,
Self-love,
Self-forgiveness,
As well as that being applied to other people,
Meaning it can help you work on forgiveness,
It can help you increase,
Enhance your relationship with others.
It's a very beautiful,
Beautiful meditation.
And so we'll begin with ourself.
We will go to somebody we love,
Somebody neutral,
Somebody of difficulty,
And then we will broaden it more globally,
If you will.
So let's begin by finding ourselves a comfortable position,
Seated or lying down,
Feet planted on the floor if you're sitting,
Unless you're sitting crossed on the floor,
That's okay too.
Go ahead and close your eyes,
Make any adjustments you need to,
And let's begin settling in to the space.
Settling in to ourself,
Within ourself.
Simply begin by focusing on the breath.
Try to follow your breath,
Inhale through exhale,
Beginning to end,
Attaching your attention to your breath and your breath alone.
I often say it's one of the easiest things to do and yet one of the hardest.
We're not altering the breath,
We're not changing the breath,
We're just taking a moment or two to settle in and to begin our focusing process and turning inward.
I want you to begin by picturing yourself.
Hold a picture of yourself in your mind and sometimes these statements can be difficult depending on where our self-love is at,
But I want you to repeat these statements in your mind with as much genuineness as you possibly can.
We begin by embracing ourself,
Which I also think is a beautiful lesson that we must give to ourself before we give to others.
And so repeat these statements in your mind.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.
And we repeat a third time.
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.
Now we're going to picture someone we love and care about very much and we're gonna hold an image of them in our mind.
Take a moment and identify that person and hold an image of them in your mind.
And now we're going to say to them the same statements,
But we're saying it to them.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
Once more.
May you be safe,
We say to our loved one.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
And now we identify somebody of more of a neutral nature.
Maybe somebody we just don't know as well or as much.
Maybe somebody we see,
We pass by,
We don't have a whole lot of interaction with them.
Maybe it's a clerk at a store,
A cashier at a store.
Maybe it's somebody we see on our route to work often,
But we don't know who they are.
We're just in a commute,
Cross paths.
I want you to hold that person's image in your mind.
Get a picture in your mind for a moment.
And even though we don't know them very well,
We're going to say to them with the same genuine loving kindness that we did our loved one.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live in ease.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live in ease.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
It's kind of nice in between to take a moment and let it just kind of wash over you.
We're going to move to the next level,
Which can be a tough one.
And so we're going to select somebody that we've had some sort of hardship with.
Whether it be current,
In the past,
Whether it be a big hardship or a small hardship.
Some sort of conflict.
Maybe they did something to harm you,
To hurt you in some way.
This is a great process of letting go and practicing forgiveness,
Which is for ourselves,
Right?
And so we want to hold this person's image in our mind.
And it can be tough,
Okay?
And that's okay.
You can handle this.
Pull up a picture of them in your mind.
And again,
We're going to,
With our very best effort,
Say to them these statements with as much genuine loving-kindness as we are capable.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live in ease.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
And may you live with ease.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
Taking a nice,
Slow inhale in through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
Very good.
We're going to go to the last level of loving-kindness,
Which is more global.
It doesn't have to be literally the globe.
So we're picturing a larger group of people,
If you will.
It can be your immediate family,
Your extended family,
Your community,
Your city,
Your state,
Your country.
You can even picture the whole world,
If you like.
And if you're picturing a smaller group,
I kind of like to picture them almost in a snow globe.
And I'm holding it out in front of me.
And I can see them all in it,
In this beautiful,
Crystal-clear globe.
And they're all being held and protected in it,
Nestled in it.
You can picture a light of protection around your family,
Community,
City,
State,
Country,
The world.
But take a moment and pull up that image in your mind.
Hold that space.
As we say,
May they be safe.
May they be happy.
May they be healthy.
May they live with ease.
May they be safe.
May they be happy.
May they be healthy.
May they live with ease.
May they be safe.
May they be happy.
May they be healthy.
And may they live with ease.
Let that loving-kindness just wash over your body for a moment.
Maybe even take a hand to your heart and allow yourself to really,
Truly feel that loving-kindness that you extended towards yourself,
Someone you love,
Someone neutral,
Someone of difficulty as an act of forgiveness,
And more global.
Where do you feel it in your body?
What do you feel in your body?
Go ahead and take in a slow breath in through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
Once more,
In through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
Let's begin slowly waking the body.
Begin by moving the toes and fingers.
You can begin rolling the ankles or paddling the feet,
Rolling the wrists,
Small movements as we wake the body back up and graduate into bigger movements.
Maybe give yourself a stretch or two.
And before we close,
Offer yourself some affirmation or encouragement for doing this meditation.
Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you return sometime.
