Loving Kindness (Metta) - Expanding Positive Experiences & Well Being

This practice begins with a mindfulness warm-up to arrive. It follows with finding a personal memory to elicit the experience of happiness and peacefulness in the heart and mind. It continues with finding personal experiences that elicit a felt experience of being capable and strong in the body, safe and protected and then a sense of acceptance. It follows with expanding that positive experience and sense of well-being experienced to all beings.

Transcript

So what we can do is starting the meditation in a similar way as previous meditations.

And I'd like you to bring your awareness to what you can see.

And just checking in with your sense of sight.

Noticing different colors,

Shapes,

Light and shadow.

And then letting your attention rest.

And bringing your awareness to your sense of hearing.

Noticing the sounds of your environment,

Sounds that are far away,

Nearby.

Sounds your own body is making.

And then coming to your body.

Noticing the shape of your body,

Noticing where your arms are,

Hands and fingers are.

Shape of your spine,

Your posture.

Where your legs are and feeling clothing on the body.

Feeling sensation in your feet and legs,

Feeling tingling,

Temperature,

Pressure,

And clothing.

Feeling yourself seated or if you're laying down,

Noticing that.

And then feeling the movement of your body breathing.

Feeling sensations in your hands and fingers,

Your arms and shoulders.

Feeling sensations in your facial muscles,

Around your eyes,

Forehead,

Cheeks,

Jaw,

Lips and chin,

Teeth,

Gums and tongue,

Throat.

Sensions in your stomach,

And coming to an awareness around the heart.

And allowing any emotional feelings to be there or not,

Just noticing what is there.

And just being aware that there's a whole variety of emotional feelings that are beyond our language.

So there's lots of subtle feelings that can be there.

Come and go,

When we talk with loved ones or we,

Friends,

Family,

Think about ourselves,

We might have little emotional feelings that come and go all the time.

So allowing those subtle feelings to be there as well,

Around the heart,

Stomach area.

And as we go through this loving kindness meditation,

I'm going to bring to mind a few things.

So,

And we'll do this through phrases.

And the first phrase is,

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind.

The second phrase is,

May I be healthy and strong in my body.

The third one is,

May I be safe and protected from inner and outer harm.

And lastly,

May I accept myself just the way I am and live my life in ease.

So those are the phrases we're eventually going to land on.

But before we do that,

We might want to do some preparation around this meditation.

So start opening up the heart and you might be able to do that with an experience of forgiveness.

So sort of thinking along with me,

Maybe you've been saying this out loud to yourself or internally.

If I have intentionally or unintentionally,

Knowingly or unknowingly brought harm to someone in my life,

May they forgive me.

Just thinking about what that would be like.

If I have intentionally or unintentionally brought harm to someone else in my life,

May they forgive me.

And if someone has intentionally or unintentionally brought harm or difficulty to my life,

May I freely forgive them.

And if that doesn't feel right to you,

You can also say,

May I aspire to freely forgive them.

And then lastly,

If I have intentionally or unintentionally,

Knowingly or unknowingly brought harm or suffering to my own life,

May I freely forgive myself.

If I have intentionally or unintentionally,

Knowingly or unknowingly brought harm or difficulty to my own life,

May I freely forgive myself.

And then what I'd like to do is come to these phrases and as you go through the phrases,

I'd like you to think about something that is really true.

The first phrase is,

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind.

And what I'd like you to do is think about something,

A time when you really did feel happy and peaceful in your heart and mind or at times when you do.

And as soon as you find one,

As soon as you get a felt experience,

You can say that phrase to yourself,

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind,

Just like that.

More and more in my life.

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind.

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind,

Really allowing that felt experience to be there.

And it's helpful when you think more specifically.

So what exactly,

What did you feel in that situation?

What did somebody say to you?

What was the look on their face?

What was the piece of it that allowed you to feel open,

That allowed you to feel safe,

That allowed you to feel happy in your heart and mind.

And then coming to the next phrase,

Which is,

May I be healthy and strong in my body.

So this might be a different feeling,

Right?

We thrive as individuals in different ways,

Healthy and strong.

When you feel healthy and strong,

Capable in your body,

It's a moment when you feel like that.

And again,

Really embodying that.

Was it during exercise?

Was it just being capable,

Being able to do something in your day to day?

Was it around somebody else?

It's the look somebody gave you,

Something someone said.

Was it a physical sensation?

Can you embody that?

May I be healthy and strong in my body,

Just like that.

And really allowing that felt sense,

Going for that felt sense and not just a thought of it,

Really feeling healthy and strong in my body.

We're getting all those parts of the brain going to have that experience.

Healthy and strong in my body.

And then the next phrase,

Again,

Is another element of thriving as a human being.

May I be safe and protected.

You know,

Who is your tribe?

Who do you feel at ease around?

When do you feel safe?

It could be when you're alone by yourself.

What's a moment when you felt like that?

May I be safe and protected from inner and outer harm.

So when are you kind to yourself as well?

Maybe it was a time you made a decision you felt sure about and you were supported by other people.

Maybe it's when you're in somebody's arms.

Maybe it's when you are in meditation.

When do you feel safe and protected from inner and outer harm?

When's a moment?

It could be in your bed.

Could be in meditation,

Could be with someone.

Could be after a success.

Be working.

Doing something you're good at.

Getting to that felt experience.

Feeling settled.

Like you can let go.

And then the last phrase,

May I accept myself just the way I am and live my life in ease.

Loving yourself just the way you are.

Can this be enough?

Can how you are right now,

Right in this moment be enough?

You don't have to do anything else.

Can this just be enough?

So I'm going to go through these phrases again.

And as I go through,

You can say them to yourself sort of silently and again,

Have that experience.

Think of that moment.

Think of those felt feelings,

That felt experience.

Playing this through,

We're activating those parts of our mind.

Cultivating this feeling of thriving as a person,

Really loving kindness.

Being open to what we need as a person.

May I be happy and peaceful in my heart and mind.

May I be healthy and strong in my body.

May I be safe and protected from inner and outer harm.

And may I accept myself just the way I am and live my life in ease.

Go through again and this time I'm going to shorten the phrases a little bit.

Like it is still come back to that felt experience.

May I be happy and peaceful.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be safe and protected.

May I accept myself.

Happy and peaceful,

Healthy and strong,

Safe and protected,

Accepting myself.

Feeling that sense of thriving as an individual,

As a person,

A sense of well-being.

Can I wish that for myself?

Surround myself with the environment that supports that,

With the people,

The situations,

The actions that bring those feelings to my body,

To my being,

To my mind,

To my heart.

You can just breathe that in,

Soak in that experience of loving kindness.

That to.

.

.

And bringing that to others as well.

So thinking about those close to you,

May they be happy and peaceful in their heart and mind.

People that you want to,

People that you want to wish that towards.

My family,

My friends,

And think about people specifically.

May they be happy,

Peaceful in their heart and mind.

I'd like you to imagine what that would be like for them.

What would be the look on their face?

What might they do differently?

So just picking one person you have a positive relationship with.

May they be happy and peaceful in their heart and mind.

May they be healthy and strong in their body.

Safe and protected.

Accepting themselves.

And really expanding that outward.

So expanding that to people,

Maybe even in your physical location,

Your building,

Your house.

May they be happy and peaceful in their heart and mind,

Healthy and strong.

May they thrive and just this feeling may all come together as one sensation,

Just wishing well.

Wishing other people to thrive,

Other beings.

Allowing that to grow inside of you and breathing it in.

Everybody in my town be happy and peaceful,

Healthy and strong,

Safe and protected.

Accepting themselves just the way that they are.

They thrive as individuals.

As a community.

Like country,

City,

State.

Just letting that expand past the limits of your body.

Letting that feeling expand,

Expand,

Expand.

May all beings be happy and peaceful.

May they thrive.

Doing what they need to do to live and be happy.

Beyond the boundaries of shoulds and shoulds and cultural norms and really wishing well.

All beings savoring that feeling.

Allowing it to continue to grow and burn the breath.

As that feeling grows again you can think about specific people again.

May they be having,

Imagine what that would do if they grew this feeling inside of them.

Seeing them be happy,

Full of understanding and joy,

Grounded,

Thriving.

Truly what needs,

What they need.

A lot of fake happiness,

Truly grounded,

Earthy happiness,

Peacefulness.

Continuing to come back to this feeling.

That well wishing.

It's that action of well wishing for yourself and for others that continues this feeling growing.

This active meditation.

May all beings.

May all beings be happy and peaceful and healthy and strong and safe and protected,

Accepting themselves.

And for the rest of this meditation.

Should continue with this loving kindness feeling,

Well wishing.

Really doing what you need to do to take care of yourself and to thrive in your meditation practice.

And enjoy the rest of your meditation.

Reviews

Lovely practice. Absolutely loved the affirmations