Loving Kindness Meditation

This is a gentle Loving Kindness meditation, sometimes known as Metta meditation. Bringing awareness to Loving Kindness, extending goodwill to yourself and others, it might help with softening stress and nurture emotional wellbeing. A beautiful practice which softens the heart, leaving you feeling at peace with yourself and the world around you.

Transcript

Welcome to this loving kindness meditation. It's based on the teachings of Buddha, And it specifically retrains our minds to overcome all forms of negativity. And when we practice loving kindness, We train ourselves to accomplish the four sublime abodes. They are friendliness, Compassion, Appreciative joy and equanimity. In this practice, Your aim is to send loving kindness to yourself. To your spiritual friend, To a beloved person. To a neutral person. And also to a person that you perceive as negative. We're trying not to force any images and for some reason sometimes nothing arises and know that that is okay, That it's a valid experience in itself. So for now make yourself comfortable perhaps you're lying on your back using props be comfortable be at ease and just become aware of the weight of your physical body and allowing the earth to just hold on to you. Notice your breath as it ebbs and flows. Steady breath work now, Nothing forced. Observing the breaths as they enter and leave your nostrils. Now bring your focus to your whole physical body from head to toe. Relax your mind. You are completely relaxed by breathing normally and concentrating on the natural flow of the breath in your nostrils. Every exhalation allowing your body to relax a little bit more. I'm trying to turn down the volume of any external noise, Anything that doesn't serve you during this practice. And see if you can turn up the volume on your feelings, Your emotions. See and notice if you can be fully present. Enjoy your breath. Easy, Relaxed, Calm breathing. I'd like you to remember a time that you were happy. You could be in your happy place, A vacation, A celebration or just simply curled up on the sofa with your pet. And when that happy feeling arises, See if you can observe this as a warm glowing feeling right at the centre of your chest. And when you get a hold of that feeling, Let go of the memory but just keep the feeling of happiness. Make a wish for your own happiness. No matter what kind of wish, Just feel the wish. And put that in your heart and surround yourself with that feeling. Thoughts will arise when you realise that you have been distracted. Simply let the thought go, Release any tension, Tightness. And just continue to make that wish for your own happiness and let it resonate within your heart and let it wrap you up like a warm blanket. Now you'll send loving kindness to your spiritual friend. Send loving kindness to a spiritual teacher or a friend, Someone that when you think of them and their good qualities, You deeply respect them and you sincerely wish them well. Let your mind be filled with the image of your spiritual friend. And send loving kindness to your spiritual friend by evoking the following feeling within yourself. I feel this happiness and I wish this for you too. May you feel this happiness too. Visualize your spiritual friend, They are smiling back at you, They are joyous, They are happy. Now it's time to send loving kindness to a dearly loved person. Now send loving kindness to a really loved person, A family member or a dear friend. This one's not really that difficult. It should be the first person that springs up in your mind. Someone that when you think of them, You feel a deep connection. Allow your mind to be filled with the image of this dearly loved person and send loving kindness to him or her. By evoking the following feeling within yourself. I feel this happiness and I wish this for you too. May you feel this happiness too. Visualize your beloved person. They are smiling back at you. They are happy. They are very grateful. It's time to send loving kindness to a neutral person. So try sending loving kindness to a neutral person now, And this person, Somebody you know but you have no special feeling towards. Perhaps it was somebody that served you coffee this morning, Or somebody you just bumped into in the aisle of the supermarket. Nobody in particular. But see if you can bring a person to the forefront of your mind and allow your mind to be filled with the image of this neutral person and send loving kindness to him or her. By evoking the following feeling within yourself. I feel this happiness and I wish this for you too. May you feel this happiness. Visualize now the neutral person they are smiling back at you they are happy they are joyous. It's time to send loving kindness to a hostile person, Perhaps a difficult person. So. . . Try sending loving kindness to a hostile person, Somebody that perhaps you're currently having difficulty with, A disagreement. Try not to overthink this one, You shouldn't be dredging up. Things that are years old. Perhaps you just had crosswords with somebody today. See if you can allow your mind to be filled with the image of this person and you're going to send them loving kindness. You'll evoke the following feeling within yourself. I feel this happiness and I wish this for you too. May you feel the happiness too. It might be quite nice to reflect on the positive qualities of the hostile person, The difficult person, And any acts of kindness that they might have done for you in the past. And then just very simply return to evoking feelings of loving kindness. Send them to the hostile person. See them looking back at you, They are smiling, They are grateful. Now I'd like you to become aware of your capacity to radiate loving kindness all around you. Letting go of the image of any specific person. Just be left with the feeling of loving kindness to all the points of the compass. North, South, East, West, Up, Down, And all around you. Just observe the self. You the observer. Bringing your awareness, Your attention back to your breath. Observing the breath, The movement of the breath. Perhaps allowing the breath to fill your belly, Observing any sensations that you might be feeling. You with the surface of the earth, Bed, Crops beneath you. Start to invite small movements back to your body and there's absolutely no rush. Perhaps you rock your head gently left to right, And you wiggle your fingers and toes. Know that it's okay to stretch, To yawn, And to move however you wish. Perhaps you'd like to spend a few moments in the peace of this moment. Perhaps you'd like to roll over to one side or come to a seat but just allow the peacefulness of just being with you. I wish you nothing but peace. Thank you for joining me. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti. Peace, Peace, Peace.