Hello and welcome.
This practice will be one of Metta,
Loving kindness,
Working specifically with ourselves and the possibility,
Even if today that feels remote,
Of breaking down our barriers to self-love.
Thank you for choosing to be here with me this time and space and for the simple gift of care you offer to yourself in this moment by being here.
As you begin your practice,
Finding whatever looks like a comfortable seat,
Perhaps on a meditation cushion,
In a chair,
Perhaps as I am sitting upright in your bed with the cuddles of a chair.
Let's begin this practice today by taking a few deep and conscious breaths,
Inhaling and feeling the wash of cool air into the nostrils,
The body expand,
And exhaling with a soft sigh,
That subtle intention of letting go.
In these first few breaths of practice,
Letting your inhales gather the tendrils of attention from all the spaces you've already been and your exhales that invitation to drip,
To melt into body and breath,
Into the aliveness that's right here.
Inviting your breath to relax back into its own soft rhythm.
And inviting the body to begin settling.
Unfurrowing any tension in the brow.
The heaviness we often find here from the energy of thinking.
Relaxing the cheekbones as if from inside out.
Softening through the jaw,
Maybe inviting the tongue to gently rest at the roof,
The soft palate of the mouth.
Just having that sense of being awake and seeing even with eyes closed.
Inviting the shoulders to become soft.
Dripping with heaviness down towards the earth away from the ears.
Letting these next breaths move in a softening heart and belly.
And as we begin to work with loving kindness,
This unconditional warm and caring attitude.
Turning our gaze towards ourselves.
It can be helpful just to begin with a sense of kindness,
Of openness.
So maybe beginning by inviting the faintest smile to begin curling up at the corners of the mouth.
Perhaps even feeling the subtlety of smiling of kindness into the eyes.
As if the corners of the eyes could also lift in the shape of a smile.
And as well bringing that shape of a smile into the space of the heart.
And in no way covering up what's here.
But rather creating space and openness for whatever comes and goes.
A willingness to be here.
With gentleness,
Kindness and the subtlety of joy that comes with equanimity.
Lifting in the powerful capacity of awareness.
To be both spacious and narrow.
You can invite yourself here to hold the aliveness in the body.
All the visceral and tactile sensations.
Letting these be the backdrop of experience.
Narrowing the spotlight of attention into the heart space.
And if it feels good to you for this practice,
Perhaps placing one or both hands right here in contact with the heart.
And just beginning by feeling what's alive.
As we have often found in our Western world,
The practice of loving kindness toward ourselves can sometimes be a difficult one.
So today we'll begin in a gentle way by calling to mind a being for whom it feels easy to love.
And perhaps one in which there's a sense of love returned.
This can be a person,
A pet.
Could even be a place or a singular moment in time.
Calling to mind and heart something that incites that feeling of love and of being loved.
We'll begin by offering the wishes of loving kindness from our heart towards whatever it is that cultivates these feelings of love today.
Now offer these words out loud and leave space for you to offer them silently.
Perhaps as a radiance from your own heart.
From your heart to the other.
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you live with ease.
And just taking a few breaths here to notice your own experience in your heart space.
As you offer these wishes of love and well being to another.
Thank you.
And offering one more time,
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
And may you live with ease.
And in these next few breaths,
Imagining this being that you've just reflected so much love toward,
Turning to face you.
And we'll play here with the curiosity of experience of receiving love from this being,
Imagining them sending the words of loving kindness back to you.
Hearing them offer to you,
May you be safe.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
And may you live with ease.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
And without any judgment,
Just noticing how it feels right here to receive those wishes of loving kindness.
You may find that the heart is tender.
You may find fear or reservation.
And there is no right or wrong.
Just for today,
For this moment,
This is simply the practice of coming to know yourself in this moment more deeply.
And being here with love for whatever you find.
We'll open to receiving these wishes a few more times.
Again,
Imagining this being by whom you feel loved,
Offering you the words of loving kindness.
May you be safe.
May be imagining what you may look or feel like to truly and deeply experience safety.
May you be healthy.
Seeing yourself here,
Embodying strength and health.
May you be happy.
Seeing and feeling the experience of joy in your body and heart.
May you be peaceful.
And may you live with ease.
Imagine at your level what life experience is.
And I'll leave some space here.
For you to continue receiving this reflection of loving kindness.
Hearing and receiving the words of safety,
Health,
Happiness,
Peace and ease.
From this being offering you these words of love.
And just staying present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
Receiving these words,
The energy of love.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And just being present and curious as to the evolution,
The shifting and dancing of experience as you rest.
And as is the nature of the mind,
You'll likely at some point find yourself lost from the words.
The repetition and the heart space of this practice.
When you find yourself in that moment of having traveled into the mind and to thought.
Letting this be the most beautiful moment of practice,
Of inviting yourself back home to your own heart,
Body and breath.
Resoftening any tension in the muscles of the face,
The shoulders.
Maybe taking a deep and conscious breath into the space of your heart.
And settling back in.
To receiving the wishes of loving kindness.
Maybe healthy.
Maybe happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you live with ease.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
May you be peaceful.
And as you feel ready from here.
Inviting the light of awareness to diffuse back out into the whole body.
Feeling all the aliveness that's right here.
From the crown of the head.
Through the torso.
The palms of the hands.
Your seat as you root to the earth.
And all the way into the soles of the feet.
Recontacting the shape of the body and space.
And ending our practice together today.
Perhaps with a gentle bow.
Of mind to heart.
Tucking the chin softly towards the chest.
And just resting in the gratitude of this act of being here today.
Regardless of what this practice looked like.
Thank you,
Dear one,
For simply arriving.
Namaste.
