Relaxing into Loving Kindness

This practice guides you through the sounds and quiet of the environment inward to the body of sensation, vibration, ultimately opening to the field of being and the warmth of loving kindness.

Transcript

So again we can begin by hearing the sound of the singing bowl three times.

And again as the sound of the bell is fading into the quiet,

Continue to just feel the subtle symphony of sound.

Just the soft hums and vibrations of life around you,

Both within the space and beyond.

And then again you can just feel the support of the earth below.

Really feeling the earth rising up to hold all of your weight,

To hold you exactly as you are.

At the same time feeling a sense of being supported from above.

So really held between earth and sky and again the invitation is here.

You can rest exactly as you are in your whole humanity and in your beautiful essential nature.

Where the well of kindness is really unlimited,

It just gets covered over.

Gently begin to call your attention inward.

Just resting at the center of the heart and lungs and begin to feel open to the life that's living through you right now.

Perhaps the soft vibration of your heart beating,

The sway of your body breathing,

Both the magic and the mystery of life living through you.

And then from here just listening for an intention.

And really from a place of listening and opening.

Is there an intention here arising for your practice?

Something that you would like to remember about your nature?

A quality that you would like to reawaken in yourself?

Maybe it's just meeting yourself as you are.

The lightness of curiosity moment to moment.

Take a moment if there is an intention and very gently acknowledge it and then feel its energetic quality permeating the body.

And then you can go right or wrong way.

Just whatever you feel is what you feel.

And even here you can if there was an intention it's not necessary that something came up.

But if there was you can just kind of let it kind of sit free to the side.

So even this we don't need to grasp onto.

Once we really affirm and feel just trust it's there.

It'll show up when needed.

So let's take a few moments here just to bring forward the feeling quality of safety,

Of ease,

Well-being.

And we can do this by the way of imagery or visualization.

So if there's an image of perhaps a beloved friend,

Mentor,

An animal,

A wisdom figure that really brings these feelings of ease and safety alive in your body.

You might bring that image forward.

It can be the image of a place.

It can be a memory as far back as your childhood where the sense of well-being and ease was really available.

So just open to what might come up.

And you can allow it to become vivid.

Color,

Shape,

Smell,

Taste.

And then begin to just feel the vibration of well-being,

Safety and ease in your body just to the degree that it's available.

We don't need anything more or less.

And the image can even fade if there was one and just feeling sensation across the face,

The heart,

The belly,

The palms,

The legs.

Just the felt sense of ease and well-being.

And this is something you can come back to often even in the midst of practice,

In the midst of your day.

And it's like riding a bike.

The more you explore,

The more it may become available and almost feel like an unbroken feeling quality that you can go back to.

So we'll begin to scan through the body and just feeling sensation.

So even here,

We're not looking to create anything that isn't here.

And there's nothing we need to fix.

You're just meeting sensation as and when it arises.

And even while I'm guiding you,

If the thoughts are full,

Focused or scattered,

Light or heavy,

No worries.

It's totally fine.

The moment you notice,

I've been really kind of captivated to a thought,

A dialogue,

An emotion.

Just kind of notice it.

Explore including it,

So letting it be here.

But then you can bring your attention back into the field of the body.

And you might be doing this over and over again,

So no worries.

We'll begin at the crown of the head.

And you might almost imagine your attention like sugar dissolving in water.

Just attention dissolving through the field of the body,

Just opening to the vibration of sensation.

And then you can feel sensation at the crown of the head.

You can feel sensation across the forehead,

The brow line.

And sensation across the curve of the eyes.

And underneath the eyes,

Like two pools of sensation.

They may be more subtle or prominent,

Or maybe nothing at moments.

And feel your attention widen towards the left ear.

And you're just feeling sensation from the inside out,

Left ear.

You can feel sensation across the front and the back of the ear.

And just gently allowing your attention to scan over to the right and feeling the right ear,

Just from the inside out,

Outside in.

Right front as well as the back of the right ear.

And you can open and feel across the back of the head and then gently descending sensation across the jaw.

Curve of the lips,

And then gently inside the mouth.

Feeling the inside of the mouth,

Just a sensation.

Tip of the tongue to the root,

The hollow spaces above and below the tongue.

And then gently descending further through the throat,

Sensation across the walls of the throat.

And at any moment it can feel more dense or porous,

Light or heavy,

Held or soft,

Expanded.

So just meeting yourself through the simplicity of sensation.

And gently allow your attention to deepen and widen across the shoulders and just the left shoulder for a few moments.

Just feeling sensation from the inside out.

You might even feel the quality or sensation of space around the shoulder.

You might almost feel almost like sugar dissolving again,

The body feeling dissolving into the space around it,

The space dissolving back into the body.

And then your attention just gently descending through the length of the left arm,

Just resting at the center of the left palm.

Again,

Even here,

Still nothing to fix or change,

So perhaps there's a felt sense of ease and just sensation,

Left palm.

And allow your attention to float back up to the top of the right shoulder and just subtle shimmering of sensation here,

The right shoulder.

Perhaps widen and open to feel the space around your right shoulder.

And then again,

Like sugar dissolving,

You might feel how the body sensation opens and dissolves into the space around it,

Space permeating the field of the body.

And then descending through the length of the right arm and just resting,

Feeling sensation from the inside of the right palm.

You might feel both palms at the same time.

And even here,

You might just check back in,

Notice how your body is breathing,

The feeling of the heart beating.

And again,

Even if there's any vibration of thought or dialogue,

Kind or unkind,

Just there's a field that can include all of it.

So you can begin to feel from the top of the torso down,

Just feeling across the front half,

The sensation across the front of the heart.

And again,

Tight or loose,

Warm or cool,

And all the way down to the sensation in the low abdomen.

You can feel across the back half,

The upper back,

Gently into the low back,

Sensation.

And you might even feel sensation across both the right side and the left.

Just a feeling of sensation from the center,

Widening,

Perhaps even beyond the periphery of the torso.

Just perhaps the torso is a field,

A sensation opening in all directions.

Sometimes even the feeling of a border or boundary just begins to soften.

The sense of the physical body might begin to soften.

And continue to feel through the hips.

And your attention gently descending through the length of the left leg,

Right thigh,

The knee,

The shin,

The sole of the foot,

And the length of the right leg.

Just the life of sensation across the thigh,

The knee,

Shin,

And the sole of the right foot.

Just feeling the whole body of sensations,

All of these parts and pieces coming together as a whole.

And perhaps the sway of the breathing body.

And even the feeling of the space around the body.

And again,

Almost like sugar dissolving in water,

The body dissolving into the space and space just permeating the field of the body.

And even here,

Right,

Just again,

There may be the vibration of an emotion moving through the sensation of dialogue,

Memory,

Or lists.

But everything felt through the realm of the body.

And you can come back to the felt sense of the space that's holding all of this.

Just the felt sense of a spacious presence.

They can include this exactly as it is.

So just take two or so minutes just kind of held in the space of quiet and stillness.

You can always bring your attention back into the field of the body if it kind of floats away in any moment.

If you want something more specific,

Just bring it back towards the center of the heart and lungs.

Yeah.

And even here,

Just this moment,

You can call yourself back just to the felt sense of being.

The felt sense,

I mean just the direct experience of being here.

Even while the dialogue might be running,

The plans for the afternoon,

But just this moment,

Just the felt sensation of being.

And perhaps just the warmth of your attention.

And if that feels a little less available in this moment,

The warmth of your attention,

You might take a moment to imagine a trusted friend who really has sat with you in various moments of life,

Who's just sat with you and who's met you exactly as you are.

And you might imagine kind of looking at yourself through their eyes,

Through their heart,

Which can really include you exactly as you are.

So the warmth of attention coming from a trusted friend,

Perhaps a wisdom figure.

And just feel your whole body and being kind of bathed in that warm and kind energy.

And you can gently begin to just call your attention back towards the heart,

If it is elsewhere.

And just kind of reacquaint,

Feel the body breathing,

Heart beating.

And just to offer Pema children's words.

And just to rest in what it evokes in you.

Again,

She says meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away to become something better.

It's about befriending who we are already.

The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now,

Just as we are.

That's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

So just take a few moments here as we begin to close and just kind of rest in an open way.

You might notice what might be coming forward now.

It might be nothing.

It may feel spacious.

Sometimes there's a surfacing of something that just wants to be held or seen,

Emotion or dialogue.

It can be very ordinary or something that feels a little more significant.

It can even be a renewed sense of intention that feels right in this moment.

Just take another few seconds.

And if you'd like,

You can feel sensation in your palms and perhaps float your palms to rest above the heart for a moment.

Just taking a moment to really honor our humanity and our full and essential nature.

And really just taking forward whatever has resonated,

Whatever feels true to you.

So practice is really here to support you into the wisdom that's within you.

Thank you so much for exploring with me.

Namaste.

Reviews

Sweet voice and lovely guidance into presence.

Well THIS is a very favorite guided meditation of mine that I will keep near. It would be lovely before bedtime or midday when you need to pause and feel wonderful. Thank you

I feel so relaxed after this meditation

Loving what is meditation. Great.

Beautiful soothing guidance creating awareness of both body and space

More an extended loving body scan than a traditional metta bhavana loving kindness meditation. Very well done. Thanks. Have a great day. Namaste.

Beautiful and peaceful!

Very nice. Peaceful

I need help and respect :(

So sweet, still didn't do it for me though :(

Very relaxing and soothing practice.
Leading to self acceptance and knowledge.
Thank you.

Very restful🙏🏻🦋🌟✨❤️💫

Lovely soothing voice! Beautiful instructions!
Namaste 🙏🏼