MIDL 19/36: Insight Meditation: Loving-Kindness - Loved One

Stephen Procter guides you in the insight meditation skill of conditioning the natural tendency of love and kindness within your mind and heart. In this meditation you will develop insight into the intimacy of your relationship with yourself by cultivating the feeling of loving kindness on yourself and someone you love, sharing the feeling between both of you. As insight develops your relationship of love and kindness with yourself will deepen and your heart will begin to open to others within your life. Support articles and instructions for this guided meditation can be found in the Free Online MIDL Insight Meditation Course by checking Stephens Procter's teacher profile.

Transcript

During this mindfulness training,

We'll be using a technique to cultivate and grow the heart's response of love and kindness,

Meta,

Towards ourself.

Start out by taking a meditation posture.

Now just before we start,

Choose to love one or someone you respect,

A person you naturally feel love and kindness towards for the purpose of the meditation.

Now close your eyes over lightly.

And start to be aware of what it feels like just to be here.

Becoming aware of any sounds around you.

Allowing the change within the sound to hold your attention.

Now close your eyes.

Now bringing your awareness to your body just sitting here.

Aware of the experience of warmth or coolness within your body.

Allowing the chair or the floor to take the full weight of your body.

Giving up all effort in your body.

Now picture yourself in a happy state of mind.

Make a half smile on your face and picture yourself smiling back at you.

And gently repeating these phrases and really mean the emotion behind them.

Of the wish for happiness and peace within your life.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I have peace within my life.

Keep repeating these phrases.

May I be happy.

May I be happy.

May I be happy.

May I be happy.

Now gently bring to mind someone you deeply love or respect.

Make a half smile on your face and picture them smiling back at you.

Now gently repeat these phrases and really mean the emotion behind them.

Of the wish for happiness and peace within their life.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be peaceful.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you be peaceful.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you have peace within your life.

Keep repeating these phrases.

Encourage the feeling of love and kindness to grow in the gap between the phrases.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

Now picture yourself breathing out love and kindness with each out-breath.

Allowing the feeling of love to flow out into the area around you.

Flowing out like a blanket.

Comforting and warm.

And gently send out thoughts of love and kindness to all beings.

May all beings around me be well.

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful.

May all beings around me be well.

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful.

May all beings around me be well.

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful.

Encourage the feeling of love and kindness to grow in the gap between the phrases.

May they be happy.

May they be happy.

May they be happy.

May they be happy.

Now bring your awareness back into your body.

Noticing what it feels like just to be here.

Impeach yourself in a happy state of mind.

Make a half smile on your face and picture yourself smiling back at you.

Now gently repeat these phrases and really mean the emotion behind them.

Of the wish for happiness and peace within your life.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful.

May I be well.

May I be happy.

May I have peace within my life.

Encourage the feeling of love and kindness to grow in the gap between the phrases.

May they be happy.

Now gently breathe the feeling of love and kindness into every cell of your body.

Allowing it to fill the whole of your body with each breath.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

Now picture the door of your heart opening up.

Allowing the feeling of love and kindness to go back inside.

Like a soothing balm healing any pain inside.

Making you feel whole and complete again.

Now picture your heart gently close around the feelings of love and kindness.

Love and kindness held deeply within you.

And knowing these feelings of love and kindness will always be there whenever you need them.

May you be happy.

May you be happy.

Now start to be aware of the feeling of just being here.

The feeling of warmth,

Of coolness within your body.

And the touch of your body as it rests on the chair on the floor.

Now opening your awareness start to be aware of any sounds around you.

And allow those sounds to come into you.

And when you are ready you can gently open your eyes.

Thank you for spending this time meditating with me.

Take care of yourself.

Have a wonderful day and goodbye.

Reviews

Today’s meditation was powerful and challenging. I’ve done loving kindness practices but never experienced this. It cracked open something in me and I sobbed at times. Thank you for these practices. I will continue.

Thank you Stephen. Just what I needed on this Easter morning.

Very nice guided metta meditation. I really find your guided practices to be effective and easy to follow. Thanks Stephen.

Wonderful. Really helped me to tap into love and peace for everything and myself. Thanks.

Loved this practice! These just keep getting better! Thank you for this course!

It is a wonderful meditation which really helps to develop this loving kindness within you. I have been doing several times and it’s amazing to feel this warm feeling grow. Thank you so much for that 🙏💗🙏

Dear Stephen,
Following MIDL training since more than a year now, even thoughi am doing this in my own pace which i hope is ok, this meditation is another of many in this program which seem to stick out and eork very well for me. Thank you for sharing.

Very good and gentle loving kindness meditation: self, loved one, self, all beings.

Very solid metta meditation by a very good teacher.

Dear Stephen, thanks a lot for helping all of us to heal gradually from deep rooted scars in our mind.

Beautiful! Thank you Stephen. Question though, in the Meditation you indicate to encourage the feeling of love and kindness to grow in-between the phrases. Can you recommend some tips on how I can do that? How do I encourage it to grow and to make the phrases more meaningful.

Thanks
Ed...

I felt the warmth of loving kindness

May you be well. May you be happy. May you be peaceful.

May I be well. May I be happy. May I be peaceful.

May all be well. May all be happy. May all be peaceful.

Thank you for this gift of loving kindness.

I love lovingkindness meditation 🧘🏻‍♀️

I will come back often. Thank you for this guided meditation!

This entire series is life changing. Thank you, Stephen.

Thank you so much Stephen...🌹

All of Stephen’s guided meditations are wonderful. And getting back to this one, after doing it on my own, is so fulfilling. Like a beautiful flower that has become even more resplendent when you see it several days later. Thank you so much, Stephen.

Wonderful! Thank you