Let's make ourselves comfortable Putting our feet on the floor Somewhere where our legs can be comfortable the joints at ease Noticing the ground beneath our feet Let's allow our arms to rest,
Our hands Comfortable maybe in our lap or somewhere they can rest And we'll take a deeper breath Become a tiny bit taller as we inhale And a little more relaxed as we exhale.
Let's do that again with our breath Inhaling getting a little bit taller and exhaling Becoming a little more relaxed settling into our seat We'd like to be a little bit alert and a little bit relaxed.
I'm just taking a few deeper breaths As we settle Taking our attention from the external world To our internal world.
How do I feel today?
Physically Just noticing how you feel And seeing if we can accept that Just in this moment Notice if your ego suggests,
Oh,
I don't want to do that forever just for now Mentally Can we accept how we find ourselves mentally?
Maybe offer ourselves some kindness Some love if it's difficult.
We don't have to love the difficulties.
We love the one who is experiencing the difficulties Emotionally noticing accepting offering love So let's use a very simple breathing technique to center ourselves today So we can use either hand.
Let's bring our attention to one of our hands And we're going to place our thumb on the top joint of our first finger and we're going to take a relaxed in breath and out breath with our thumb On that first joint When we've completed that out breath we can move to the next joint of that finger Again,
When we finish that out breath,
We move to the third lowest joint of that finger and so on Until we've gone through all the joints of our fingers That is 12 breaths relaxed breath So hopefully you should be coming to the end nearing the last joint of your little finger If you're there already just resting with a relaxed body comfortable breath so that technique's a good way of bringing focus to our breath for a short time making our breath more conscious so Today we're going to create to cultivate love and kindness and I want you to just Be aware that this is not something that just stays inside your own head So it's when we create loving kindness we fill ourselves with loving kindness It's not just for you Because although it is start it starts with you Certainly your loved ones will feel it directly But in a wider sense We are all connected physics tells us that There is we are not separate We are all energy and that energy moves and is All that all that everything is entangled We're all connected So don't think this is just stays inside your head this spreads out from you You become the center of a Concentration of loving-kindness So we start with you And just let the words Wash over you or you can repeat them in your head if that is your wish May I be filled with loving-kindness?
May I be healthy and happy And happy May I live in abundance trust and gratitude?
May I love be loved and have joyful service noticing how that feels and That can it can be difficult sometimes To create the sensation of loving-kindness And if that's the case There's no blame.
No shame We can get some help from someone we love very much So,
Please bring to mind Someone for who you care deeply past or present It doesn't matter Who they are?
Someone for whom it's very easy to create this wish of loving-kindness May this person be filled with loving-kindness May they be healthy and happy May they live in abundance trust and gratitude May they love be loved and have joyful service And if you would like you can imagine them receiving those good wishes so let's spread That good feeling a little further May my family friends loved ones Be filled with loving-kindness May they be healthy and happy May they live in abundance trust and gratitude May they love Be loved and have joyful service So we might choose to offer these good wishes to someone who challenges us and To see how it feels to do that mindfully observing our own reactions honestly And it might be one of those same people That we're close to So may this person Who I have a more difficult relationship with Be filled with loving-kindness May they be healthy and happy May they live in abundance Trust and gratitude May they love Be loved and have joyful service Just noticing however that feels And seeing if we can accept However that feels so spreading out these loving-kindness wishes to all the corners of the world every person Every person every person May every person be filled with loving-kindness May we all be healthy and happy May we all live in abundance trust and gratitude May we all love Be loved and have joyful service I'm pausing for a moment to dream that in To imagine that future noticing if it's difficult for us And of course There is more than just people on this earth.
There's many animals Plants,
The soil,
The water,
The air Mother Earth herself May the earth be filled with loving-kindness May she be healthy and happy May we all live in her abundance in peace May she love Be loved And have joyful service Pause for a moment for you And offering our thanks to the buddhist tradition for the practice of loving-kindness And taking one or two deeper breaths And allowing it to energize us allowing it To bring movement into our bodies Slowly There's no hurry Starting to move our body Having a little stretch That's for you And coming back when you're ready Thank you for practicing with me
