Choose Love Over Fear

Hello everybody,

My name is Kelly from Yoga Vidya and I'd love to offer you this loving-kindness meditation.

Perhaps you've done this meditation before,

It's one that teachers everywhere use and at some point in their teaching career and the reason that I would love to share this practice with you today,

I think it's mostly obvious that it's a needed practice at the moment but the thing that stands out for me about this practice is whenever I have shared this practice in a group setting,

I have done it when I've been teaching say 16 classes a week and shared it with every single one of those classes over the course of the week and what I found by the end of the week was that I was feeling incredibly energized and like I just had high vibration like what I would call,

I can't really think of another name for it but high vibration really connected to that kind of source of love within me.

So I think it's a really powerful practice,

I think it's a really powerful practice for us to be doing regularly,

I think it's really important for our own systems,

Our nervous system,

Our immune system but I also believe that it's incredibly important that we're not only connecting to the feeling of love like really conjuring it up within us so that we feel the experience of love within our body but then we offer that to others and we'll be going through a number of different people that we offer this practice to but remember you cannot offer an emotion such as love before you are feeling it within your body otherwise it's just an empty act.

So this practice is very much rooted in not just saying the words but in feeling the experience of love within your body and with practice you will be able to conjure it up in a more like a stronger,

More tangible way.

So let's get started,

It's nice if you are sat upright I always really recommend sitting upright for meditation,

It's the way our bodies are designed to be,

All the systems of the body can function more effectively when we are in that upright position but if it's more comfortable for you to lay down to get comfy to sit on a couch or to sit upright in a chair you do what you need to do just get comfortable let's relax and share this practice together.

So get seated if you are in a seat whether that's on a chair on the floor try and align your heart on top of the hips your head on top of the heart we'll close our eyes and we'll begin to breathe deeply and invite the mind to start to calm by bringing your attention away from word forms and into the space of the body so you could start to imagine that you are breathing in and out from the center of your body and the whole body is kind of pulsating with the breath front back and sides let's just take some slow deep breaths together like that.

Start to soften your skin your brow your jaw and get a sense of even really suffering the whole periphery of your body like you're starting to kind of make it so there is less definition between where your body ends and the world begins.

You invite your whole being to become more receptive.

Now I'd like you to think of a situation in which you are feeling or receiving a lot of love or both just any situation any place any person that you can call to mind that starts to bring the felt experience of love within you and this is very much unconditional love not complicated romantic love we want it to be this loving kindness that you might feel for a little puppy or a young child it's uncomplicated it's heartfelt maybe for you it's a sunset or something like that that starts to bring that experience whatever it is we want to start to get a sense of the way that love feels in our body.

Don't worry if you have a hard time conjuring up that experience it's a practice it's not a perfect and so what you can do is say show me show me what love feels like in my body may I experience the feeling of love in my body.

And then once you are starting to feel connected to that I invite you to picture yourself this may be challenging picture yourself in the space of your heart welcome yourself in and offer yourself this loving kindness so you can use whatever imagery feels comfortable for you here or it might just be the felt sense there may be no visual along with it and that's totally fine and as you really envelop yourself in this loving kindness offer yourself these words this heartfelt prayer may I be happy may I be safe may I be healthy may I be peaceful and at ease.

Stay connected to the feeling.

May I be happy may I be safe may I be healthy may I be peaceful and at ease.

And now we move on to somebody who you love dearly you could do more than one person at a time and you welcome this person or people into the space of your heart connecting to the felt experience of loving kindness and then offer them that feeling that quality that Bhavana and offer them this heartfelt prayer may you be happy may you be safe may you be healthy may you be peaceful and at ease.

May you be happy may you be safe may you be healthy and may you be peaceful and at ease.

Now I'd like you to think of somebody with whom you have a neutral relationship so this could be somebody that you don't know very well perhaps somebody that you just see walking down the street or a neighbor or someone that practices at the studio with you and picture this person or people in your heart make sure that you are still connected to the felt experience of loving kindness within you welcome them in embrace them wrap them in this heartfelt loving kindness and offer them the prayer may you be happy may you be safe may you be healthy may you be peaceful and at ease may you be happy may you be safe may may you be peaceful and at ease and it's okay if this practice brings up emotion I often cry when I do this practice but whatever is arising as you start to feel you might feel tightness in the heart that's okay be with it and keep committing to feeling loving kindness and as we keep going now I'd like you to think of somebody with who you have a challenging relationship so this could be somebody with who you have had an argument with somebody perhaps an ex-partner it could even be a politician or a celebrity that you've decided that you don't like because they're a bad person anybody at all somebody that it's a little more difficult for you to offer this practice to and stay connected re-establish that connection to the felt sense of loving kindness within you and wrap this person in that loving kindness so we invite them in and we offer them this heartfelt prayer may you be happy may you be safe may you be healthy and may you be peaceful and at ease may you be happy may you be safe may you be healthy may you be peaceful and at ease and now I'd like you to see if you can invite all of these people into the space of your heart at the same time can you create a loving space where yourself your loved ones a person with whom you don't have any real connection and this person with whom you have a challenging relationship can you allow them to all be in this space simultaneously and offer them loving kindness heartfelt loving kindness may we be happy may we be safe may we be healthy and may we be peaceful and at ease together may we be happy may we be safe may we be healthy and may we be peaceful and at ease and you could now do this with anybody any group of people perhaps a disadvantaged group of people perhaps all the people who may be sick or suffering but for simplicity let's just welcome all of humanity all of humanity and our dear Mother Earth into the space of our heart and obviously this could be a challenging practice can you create room in your heart so connect first to the felt sense of loving kindness within you and however you imagine that to be whether it's visually or just a sense within you that you embrace all of humanity and our dear Mother Earth offering this heartfelt prayer may we be happy may we all be safe may we all be healthy and may we all be peaceful and at ease together as one may we be happy may we be safe may we be healthy and may we be peaceful and at ease and I'd welcome you to stay connected to this feeling for as long as you have the time to do so or revisit this and this sit for a bit longer or will conclude now thank you so much for practicing with me may all beings everywhere be happy healthy and free and may our own words thoughts and actions somehow contribute to that freedom and happiness for all om shanti shanti shanti thank you