Find a comfortable position in which to sit for this period.
As you allow your eyes to gently close,
Tune into the body and make any adjustments with the way that you sit.
It can be helpful to remember our intentions of both ease and awareness.
Sit in a way that feels comfortable to you.
Or if you prefer lying down,
Go ahead and adjust your position.
We'll start with a few moments of concentration practice just to help our minds settle and arrive in our present time experience.
As you allow the body to resume its natural breathing,
See where in the body you can feel the breath.
It may be in the stomach where you can feel the rise and fall of your breath.
It may be in the chest where you may notice the expansion and contraction as the body inhales and exhales.
Perhaps it's at the nostrils where you can feel a slight tickle as the air comes in and the subtle warmth as the breath moves out.
Choose one spot to stick with for this meditation practice.
As you feel the body breathing,
Try to stay with the breath all the way through.
Stick with it from the beginning of the inhale all the way through the end of the exhale.
Today's practice is on Metta meditation.
Metta means loving kindness.
It is a centuries old practice that originally comes from the Buddhist tradition.
It involves repeating a set of phrases,
Sending out your wish that you and all beings be happy,
Be peaceful and healthy and free of suffering.
I'd like to share what one of the leading meditation teachers,
Sharon Salzberg,
Said about this practice.
In reality,
The practice of loving kindness is about cultivating love as a strength,
A muscle,
A tool that challenges our tendency to see people,
Including ourselves,
As disconnected,
Statically and rigidly isolated from one another.
Loving kindness is about opening ourselves up to others with compassion and equanimity,
Which is a challenging exercise requiring us to push back against assumptions,
Prejudices and labels that most of us have internalized.
In the aspects of yoga,
Of its essence,
It's only when we get on our mat and practice with both intention and attention that we're able to experience what true yoga is about,
That feeling of oneness,
Of interconnectedness,
That we are not separate from others.
But in fact,
There is that energy and frequency of community and collaboration in order for all of us to thrive.
And so we meditate on that.
You may have noticed the mind wandering.
When the mind wanders,
It really offers us an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and concentration or focus.
Each time we notice the mind wandering,
We're strengthening our ability to recognize our experience.
Each time we bring the mind back to the breath,
We're strengthening our ability to focus on an object.
Treat it as an opportunity rather than a problem and return to the breath.
You can begin the practice by bringing to mind yourself as you sit here right now.
Try to connect with your own deepest intentions for happiness,
Ease and safety.
You don't need to dive into stories of what will make you happy but connect with that natural desire you have.
What does it feel like in your body when you experience happiness?
When you experience a sense of safety?
Where you have the freedom to be free from disease or suffering?
How does that look?
How does that feel?
You can cultivate this intention to open the heart to your own well-being by silently offering yourself some phrases of metta or loving meditation.
In your head,
Slowly offer yourself the phrases,
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be at ease.
You can offer these phrases silently in your head or saying them slowly enough that you can connect with their meaning and the intention behind them.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be at ease.
You can now bring to mind a good friend.
This may be a loved one,
A friend,
A mentor,
Or someone that has just popped into your head.
You can connect with your natural desire to see this person happy and at ease.
Just like you.
This person wants to be happy,
Wants to feel safe,
And to be healthy.
In an effort to cultivate this intention of kindness,
You can offer this person a few phrases of metta.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
You can let this person go from your mind now and bring to mind a neutral person.
This person you see maybe regularly but don't know very well.
It may be somebody who works somewhere you go to a lot,
A coworker or maybe a neighbor.
Although you don't know this person well,
You can recognize that this person wants to be happy as well.
You don't need to know what their happiness looks like necessarily.
Again,
Offer this person the phrases of loving kindness,
Connecting with the intention to care about their well-being.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
And as you let this neutral person go,
You can bring to mind somebody who you find difficult.
You may not want to pick the most difficult person in your life,
But instead you can choose someone who is a little bit difficult.
Maybe it's someone you find yourself agitated with or annoyed by.
But if you prefer to pick the most difficult person in your life,
Then go ahead.
Go ahead as you find,
No matter how challenging it can seem,
To find that natural desire to feel safe,
For us to send our well wishes,
For that person to find happiness,
To feel safe,
To be healthy,
To be free from suffering,
To be free from ignorance.
You can offer the phrases recognizing that this is connecting with our intention to care for this person.
Although we may not mean it wholeheartedly every time we offer a phrase,
We can make an effort when we say to them and whisper,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you be safe.
May you be at ease.
If you are called to use other words or phrases that speak to you,
Statements that are more personal,
Then go ahead and repeat them.
May you be happy.
May you be peaceful.
May you be well.
May you live with ease.
May you find deep joy.
May you be free of pain.
May you be free from harm.
May you be free from suffering.
May you feel safe.
Comments are powerful.
They hold immense magic to manifest the reality that we desire.
I wish nothing for you but a life filled with happiness,
With immense joy,
With abundance,
And free from suffering.
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti
