Hello and welcome to today's meditation.
I am your teacher Holly and I shall be guiding you through a loving-kindness meditation.
So this will not only be for yourself but it will be for the people closest to you and those that are also neutral to you within your life.
So when you are ready I invite you to find a comfortable seated position.
I invite you to ensure that your legs are uncrossed,
Your spine is long,
Your shoulders are down the back and away from the ears and your chin is parallel to the ground.
And as we settle into this moment I invite you to release any tension that you've carried with you throughout the day,
Bringing your awareness to your forehead and just relaxing the brows,
Relaxing the cheeks and the eyes,
Relaxing the jaw and unclenching the teeth.
It's comfortable for you to allow the lips to sit open slightly.
And just take a moment to breathe.
Notice where you feel your breath in the body in this moment,
It may be in the chest,
You may feel the breath in the sides of the body and the belly or you may feel a warm air of the breath as it enters the nostrils.
Just observe where the breath is for you in this moment.
And as we observe our breath I invite you to bring loving-kindness and awareness to our breath.
Our breath does for us consciously and unconsciously as it carries us throughout our day and throughout our lives.
It's there in the moments of joy but also in times of uncertainty.
And it's always an anchor that we can return to whenever we need.
And as we take our loving-kindness for our breath,
I invite you to take that into your body and bring some awareness to your body that it does for us.
You may wish to choose a loving word of compassion for your body.
For me today this will be strength.
And you can share my word or I'll give you a moment to think of one that resonates for you today for your practice.
And take a few deep breaths and really relax the body into that word.
Bring your awareness of what that word means for you today and just absorb the energy within that word or that phrase that you have chosen.
And I'd now like you to take that word and that loving-kindness and I invite you to send that word out into the world where it can travel to somebody or a group of people that you love and care about.
And you can share this word with them in the hope it brings the same warmth and comfort for that person as that word has brought for you today.
And as that word travels to that person,
I invite you to bask in the warmth and the compassion in your heart as you say this word silently to yourself.
You may visualize the word leaving your lips as it travels out of your body and your house and it embarks on the journey of where it's heading next before it reaches that person.
And once that word arrives for that person,
You can visualize them absorbing the word just as we're doing in this moment and I'd like you to repeat that word to that person or that group of people and I'd like you to continue to repeat that word along with any other words that come to mind for love and compassion for that person or those people in your lives for a few moments.
And as we share this love and compassion with ourselves,
With people around us and with people that are neutral to us,
It reminds me that we always have a choice.
We always have a choice to choose love over fear in our lives.
Whether this is making a tough decision in our life or choosing the words that leave our mouth that we say to somebody,
Those words and those decisions can come from a place of love or fear and that's something that we always have a choice about and we can lead our lives with love and lead with our hearts.
And as you bask in those words that you have chosen today,
The word within your mind and your body,
In the people around you and the people that surround you,
I'd like you to bring your awareness back to your body and observe how it feels to share that loving kindness with others.
To know that the words that you shared today are sincere and heartfelt in your intentions.
And as you notice the warmth in your body,
I'd like you to bring your awareness back to your breath and when you're ready,
I invite you to flutter your eyes open and take a soft gaze and just notice and observe how your body is feeling after today's practice.
Thank you for meditating with me and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
