Loving kindness meditation.
Metta bhavana.
This beautiful Buddhist practice is one of my favorite meditations.
It's so powerful and loving and it's one that I return to often.
So Metta bhavana,
Metta translated means love in that beautiful non-romantic way but just that compassionate love for another.
And bhavana means to cultivate and develop.
And this meditation can be quite emotive as you go through it but it's hugely powerful and beneficial.
And I love the repetition of the phrases I'm going to guide you through because it allows you to focus your mind and you know prevent your thoughts from taking over.
And it's such a simple structure yet it allows these beautiful loving feelings to flood our bodies.
As we go through this meditation I'm going to ask you to visualize your heart center and really see that space as lit up.
I recommend you doing this particular meditation with your eyes closed and I'm going to guide you through it bringing suggestions to mind of people that we're going to be sending loving kindness to.
And as you think of these people I want you to imagine that light shining from your heart center into the heart center of the person that you're visualizing.
I want us to really feel,
Feel into this process and we're going to be repeating a set set phrases and we're going to go through these three times firstly for ourselves,
Then for someone we love,
Then for someone neutral.
So this could be a colleague,
A neighbor and then someone that you have conflict with or maybe a little bit difficulty with and this could be someone from the past or the present and also don't be surprised if sometimes the person you love and the person you have conflict with are the same person.
Then lastly we're going to bring everyone together the person you love,
The mutual person,
The person you have conflict with and anyone else you wish to add animal,
Pets,
Family members,
The greater community and we're going to repeat the process three times for them as well.
So this is an amazing meditation and one I hope that brings you so much comfort you know as we go through it trying not to judge who comes to mind just allow and yeah let's just go through it with a little bit of awareness really connecting into that heart space and just you know our subconscious knows what's needed let's just trust without judgment what comes to mind.
So the phrases that we will be repeating are may I be happy,
May I be well,
May I be safe,
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Then we will repeat the phrases for others may you be happy,
May you be well,
May you be safe,
May you be peaceful and at ease.
As I say don't worry if you've never done this meditation before I'm going to be going through this meditation in a mantra format so what I mean by that is I will say the phrase I will guide you through the practice and you just repeat it back as we go through that.
So let's begin.
I want you to make yourself comfortable you can be in a seated position if you're sitting on a chair just have your feet gently resting on the floor you might like to sit cross-legged just with your spine straight allowing your eyes to gently close and we're gonna begin with this meditation for ourselves.
So just taking a moment to drop into your breath bringing awareness to that connection as you're breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
I want you now almost as if you're looking in a mirror just to visualize yourself standing across from you see yourself smiling and what we're gonna do is we're gonna shine that love and light from your heart space across to the visualization of you so you're connected through this beautiful heart connection and as you visualize yourself we're gonna begin the phrases and as I said just follow along just repeat it back I'll pause so that you can say them.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Take a breath.
Again we're gonna send it to ourselves.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Last time sending it to yourselves here see that light shining from your heart to your heart opposite really feeling the emotions.
May I be happy.
May I be well.
May I be safe.
May I be peaceful and at ease.
Okay see yourself smiling visualize yourself walking away and then bringing to mind someone you love.
See that person standing across from you visualize that light shining from your heart space into theirs.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Taking a breath.
Again for this person.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Breathing in.
Breathing in.
Last time for this person light shining from your heart into theirs feeling that sensations and emotions.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Pausing to breathe visualize that person smiling see them walking away then bringing to mind someone neutral.
See that person standing across from you smiling light shining from your heart into theirs.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Breathing shining that light from your heart to theirs.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Smiling breathing allowing that person to gently walk away.
Now bringing to mind someone that you maybe have a little bit of difficulty or conflict with.
As I say this to see who comes to mind no judgment.
And again shining that light from your heart space to theirs.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Breathing visualizing.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Last time for this person.
See that light shining from your heart.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Lastly we're gonna bring everyone together.
Yourself,
The person you love,
The neutral person,
The person you've conflict with and anyone else you wish to add.
Animals,
Pets,
The greater community,
Your local area,
A cause.
Just bringing it all to mind and let's repeat it three more times for the whole.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Breathing.
Exhaling.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Breathing.
May you be happy.
May you be well.
May you be safe.
May you be peaceful and at ease.
Just pausing,
Either placing your palms on your knees facing upwards or gently across your heart,
Placing one hand on top of the other and just pausing for this moment being with your breath.
Acknowledging any sensations within the body.
Grinding yourself back into this moment.
Breathing deep play,
Fully breathing up and down the spine to ground and anchor yourself back.
When you feel ready,
Gently placing your palms into prayer position,
Breathing,
Gently bowing.
Namaste.
Thank you for joining me in this practice today and I hope that it's one that really supports you.
We can often struggle with the person we have conflict with,
For example,
But this meditation is an absolutely incredible,
Powerful,
Beautiful way to transform and transmute any energy that doesn't really serve us.
None of us really wish to hold resentment or anger or anything towards another human or being.
So let's use this meditation to support us in cultivating that metta bhavana,
Loving kindness.
So with so much love from my heart to yours,
Namaste.
Thank you.
