Loving Kindness Meditation
by Sue Benson
This is a gentle, guided practice to cultivate feelings of love, well-being and compassion not only for yourself but for all living beings. Loving Kindness meditation, also called Metta meditation, is a powerful Buddhist meditation technique invoking love and compassion through a series of mantras. Use this meditation to open your heart, and ease into a blissful state of peace, well-being and deep relaxation.
Transcript
Welcome to this loving kindness meditation.
This is an opportunity to cultivate gentleness,
Kindness and compassion towards ourselves and others.
To open our hearts and to bring about feelings of inner peace and deep relaxation.
So settle into a comfortable position that works best for you.
Either sitting or lying down and choose a position where you will feel completely at ease.
Once you are settled allow your body to become still and quiet.
Close your eyes and bring all of your awareness to your physical body.
Take a deep breath in and out and allow the muscles in your face to let go and soften.
Relax your tongue,
Release any tension being held in your jaw,
Allow the shoulders to drop down,
Your arms and hands become heavy,
Your legs and feet are heavy and your belly is soft and completely relaxed.
Now take a deep breath in and release the breath with a big sigh,
Another big breath in and sigh it all out and one more big breath in and let it all go and continue with some deeper breaths now at your own pace.
Feel the sense of release that comes with the out breath,
Letting go of any physical or emotional tension that you may be holding on to.
Now allow your body to settle into its own natural rhythm of breathing and bring your awareness to your heart.
Place one or both of your hands on your heart if that feels right for you,
Otherwise just focus all of your attention at that heart space,
Really tuning in,
Feeling and sensing your heart,
This wonderful heart of yours that is breathing life into your beautiful body and you may like to imagine that you are breathing in and out and out at the heart and we now invite in the inner smile,
So gently lift the corners of your lips,
Allowing your face to soften,
Lift the corners of your eyes and see if you can imagine or feel the corners of your heart and lift these also,
Focus on cultivating this inner smile gently and with ease,
Feeling into the warmth of this inner smile and breathing naturally,
Feeling the heart,
The inner smile and the breath and we use the breath as an anchor to maintain focus,
When thoughts come gently let them go and return to that familiar and safe space of the breath.
We now begin our loving kindness by directing a sense of kindness and compassion towards ourselves and if you feel this may be challenging,
Just take a few moments now to find one thing that you love or even like about yourself,
One thing that you do well or something good that you have done and direct the following loving kindness phrases towards that part of yourself,
Bring an image to mind of yourself as you are right now and silently say to yourself,
May I be filled with loving kindness,
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I be at peace,
May I live with ease,
May I be filled with loving kindness,
May I be filled with loving kindness,
May I be well,
May I be happy,
May I be at peace,
May I live with ease,
May I be filled with loving kindness,
Focus your awareness on your heart once again and fill your heart with a sense of loving kindness on the in-breath and send loving kindness to every part of your being with the out-breath,
Breathing in loving kindness and sending that loving kindness to every part of your being with the out-breath,
Leave the breath now and bring to mind someone that is close to you,
Someone you love,
They may be from the present or the past or a pet and this is a being that warms your heart and makes you smile,
Visualize them in front of you or beside you and get a feeling for them as though they are here with you right now,
Remember the good that they have done for you or their endearing qualities and if no one easily comes to mind,
Direct the loving kindness towards yourself once again,
Repeating these phrases silently,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness and feel that these blessings are coming straight from your heart,
Filling your smiling heart with loving kindness on the in-breath and sending loving kindness to every part of this person's being with the out-breath,
Breathing in,
Filling your heart with loving kindness,
Breathing out,
Sending loving kindness to this special person and leaving the breath,
Bring to mind someone that is neutral,
It's maybe an acquaintance,
A colleague,
Someone you know but don't have an emotional connection with,
It may be the person that makes your coffee,
A bus driver,
Someone you encounter regularly but are detached from,
If no one comes to mind,
Direct the loving kindness towards yourself once again,
Visualize this person in front of you or beside you or even just get a feeling for this person as you offer them loving kindness,
In your mind saying to this person,
This person may you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
Directing this loving kindness to your chosen person,
While your awareness is focused on your heart and again using the in-breath to fill your heart with loving kindness and with the out-breath sending loving kindness to every part of this person's being,
Bringing loving kindness in with the in-breath and sending it out with the out-breath,
And leaving the breath,
The next person to bring to mind is a difficult person,
Someone you find challenging to deal with,
You may find them frustrating and your interaction with them may be exasperating,
It may be someone who has hurt or disappointed you or with whom you struggle,
Choose the first person who comes to mind,
Again this person may be from the present or the past,
Visualize this person in front of you or beside you and start to offer them loving kindness,
Even though we may not see eye to eye with this person and we find them difficult,
Difficult,
We know that this person just like us wants to be happy and again if no one comes to mind direct the loving kindness towards yourself and silently offer these sentiments to your chosen person,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
May you be well,
May you be happy,
May you be at peace,
May you live with ease,
May you be filled with loving kindness,
Once again bring your awareness to your heart and completely fill your heart with loving kindness on the in-breath and if you can send loving kindness to every part of this person with the out-breath or send the loving kindness back to yourself,
Breathing in loving kindness,
Breathing out loving kindness and finally allow your feelings of loving kindness to radiate out from your heart to all beings everywhere,
Saying to yourself,
May all beings be filled with loving kindness,
May all beings be well and happy,
May all beings be at peace and live with ease,
May all beings be filled with loving kindness,
May all beings be filled with loving kindness,
May all beings be well and happy,
May all beings be at peace and live with ease,
May all beings be filled with loving kindness and again fill your beautiful smiling heart with loving kindness on the in-breath and send loving kindness to every part of all beings on the out-breath,
Breathing in,
Filling the heart with loving kindness and sending loving kindness out to all beings everywhere with the out-breath and now slowly bring your awareness back to your whole body,
Remembering that you have a physical body,
This beautiful body,
Still,
Peaceful and relaxed,
Heart open and filled with loving kindness,
Taking time to remember where you are and the time of day and when you are ready,
Gently stretching and moving in any way that feels good for you,
Taking your time to re-enter the world with the knowledge that you take this heart opening practice of loving kindness with you out into the day.
Thank you so much for opening your heart with me today and this practice of loving kindness is now complete.
4.8 (89)
Recent Reviews
Judy
January 21, 2025
Feeling and sharing the love on holiday in Apollo Bay, Australia. Thanks y ou! Namaste 🌺🙏🌺
Amy
October 5, 2024
Another beautiful meditation! Thanks, Sue!!! 🙏💚☀️
Clare
January 17, 2024
My heart is full and smiling after this beautiful meditation. Thank you Sue
Karen
November 25, 2023
Best loving kindness meditation I’ve experienced. Thankyou 💚🙏🏼💜