This is a guided meditation to help you cultivate qualities of loving kindness.
When you're ready in your own time I invite you to settle into a comfortable position.
Feet on the floor,
Body upright and shoulders relaxed.
Alternatively you can find a comfortable position laying down on the floor if you prefer,
Offering some support to your back and neck.
Just taking your time to relax back to the floor.
Take a moment to gently close your eyes.
Start by noticing your breath and each breath that you take.
On each new inhalation just seeing if you can make it a little longer than the last.
With each exhalation matching the length of the inhalation.
Now move your attention down into your heart center.
If it feels right at this time have the intention that you're going to bring loving kindness into this moment.
Invite you to breathe into your heart center,
Breathing into your being.
Breathing the quality of peacefulness wherever you think you might be able to get it from.
Perhaps it might help to say to yourself,
I am peace.
As you inhale peace into your heart.
Perhaps imagine it comes from the sky or the stars,
The trees,
The ocean or a color that feels peaceful,
A word.
Maybe from the gentle stillness in the air.
Perhaps someone whom you know loves you unconditionally.
Perhaps just from your own loving breath.
Breathe that into yourself.
Welcome loving kindness to settle within,
Allowing it to fill you.
As you exhale imagine that you're breathing out love from your heart.
The warm embracing acceptance,
Compassion and care.
Allow that warm embrace of love that you're exhaling to surround you in a loving embrace.
As you breathe a love and peace that is within you,
Exhale it out to your immediate surroundings towards those that you love,
Your immediate environment.
Giving it as your gift through the breath of life that connects us all as we breathe the same air,
Living in the same atmosphere.
Now the love and peace within you,
Exhale that out to everyone in the world around you.
Let everyone be part of your breath containing love and peace,
Feeling and embracing everyone.
Breathing love and peace out to your family,
Loved ones.
Allow that part of you that is love and peace,
Come out and fill and embrace them with love.
You have breath,
You have love,
You have peace,
An opportunity to share it.
The more we give it the more we have.
Now breathe out love and peace to all your friends,
Let them arise before your mind's eye.
Let each one share what you have.
Now think of the people you know whom you meet in your daily life.
Breathe love and peace out to them,
Embracing them with the warmth of your care and acceptance,
Filling them with peacefulness.
Share what you have.
Now expand your awareness,
Thinking of anyone whom you don't like or if there's no such person,
Anyone to whom you're quite indifferent or who may have upset you at some time.
Breathe out love and peace to that person,
Those people also.
Gentle,
Effortless breath,
Heartfelt intentions.
Now let your breath carry love and peace to the people in the surrounding area that you're in,
On the street,
Extending it further to the whole suburb,
The whole state and the world.
Let your breath carry love and peace to each one of them,
Letting them share in the best that you can give them,
Sending it to the animals,
To nature,
The oceans,
The earth,
Sun and the moon.
Feel it expanding,
Spacious loving kindness.
Now return your attention back onto yourself,
Breathing in peace with each inhalation,
Filling yourself with peacefulness and breathing out love on each exhalation,
Bathing in loving kindness.
As you're still welcoming the essence that you are,
The love that you are,
The goodness that you are,
Whole loving and complete.
I invite you to bring these qualities into your daily life,
How you relate to others and yourself.
When you're ready,
You might like to arise from the meditation slowly in your own time,
Bringing yourself back into the room that you're in,
Thanking yourself for joining.
