Love & Kindness Guided Meditation

Yeah,

Get yourself comfortable,

Find a spot.

You could do it lying down but you might fall asleep.

So maybe sit up.

Even if you sit in a chair,

You know that might feel more comfortable for you.

Or just sit up anyway a little bit.

Okay,

So welcome to our Thursday morning session.

It was a full moon yesterday,

A snow moon as they call it.

And we'll continue a little bit from the theme of Monday.

I didn't get much time to practice,

Kind of more the meditative side of things.

So let's do that today,

Okay?

So let's come into a comfortable position,

Sit upright in a place that feels,

You know,

Obviously it probably will be quiet,

Hopefully.

But just a place that's kind of for you,

A place that you can meditate,

A place that you can connect into yourself.

That could be on your bed,

It could be on your cushion.

And set the intention today.

Today close your eyes and set the intention that you are now going to practice compassion today.

Compassion with yourself and with others actually.

And don't analyse that too much.

Just when the word compassion comes into your mind,

Just bring a sense of willingness and maybe ease and a sense of openness when you think about that word.

Especially when you practice compassion for yourself.

And then set your motivation to why you practice and sometimes that can get a little bit,

You know,

What's the word,

Dry or boring or kind of you don't really know what to do in that question.

So just remind yourself why did you sign up for the course.

Remind yourself why do you do this?

Why do you get up in the morning to look at my face?

So just remind yourself why you're here again and give yourself a few moments just to feel that.

Motivate yourself.

And then take a few slow deep breaths into your body.

Now if you're very sleepy this morning,

Which we all could be because it's early,

Really breathe a little bit deeper maybe.

Just kind of expand your inhale a bit more so you're really opening up your lungs kind of almost like an exaggerated breath in.

And if you find closing your eyes just as too conducive to feeling sleepy and all that,

You can open your eyes a little bit.

You can gaze a little bit about a couple of three feet down on the floor if you wish.

Just find a spot just to look at or just keep the eyes closed.

We slowly scan the body so just bring your attention now into your face and into the lips and into your mouth.

And then as you inhale just breathe into the skin of the whole face and then just softening around the back of the eyes into the jawline.

Bring your attention into your shoulders so we move down into the tops of the shoulders and then as if you had kind of x-ray vision just bring yourself deep into those shoulder joints and take a breath in.

Just imagine you're creating space,

It's opening,

Your breath is kind of opening up any areas into the shoulder joints and then exhale,

Soften.

Just letting the shoulders just soften and relax and drop down.

Great ease.

Bring your attention down into your torso now,

Your ribcage and down into your abdomen.

Just invite your breath,

Let your abdomen receive your breathing.

And just being aware then of your pelvic cavity,

Your pelvis,

Both sit bones,

Making contact with the floor or with the cushion you're sitting on or the chair.

And just slowly evening out kind of the balance between left sit bone and right sit bone.

And then feel the weight of your legs supported by the ground,

Your feet,

Maybe making contact with the floor.

Bring your attention to your fingertips and right into the fingertips and just notice any qualities or sensations there in your fingertips.

Sometimes the quality of pulsing or that kind of energy of heat or coolness.

And take this time now just to notice how the legs are in this moment.

So today,

How are your legs?

There's no need to go into a story or anything just just how are the legs today?

Then just move that awareness a little bit up again through the body and how are your arms,

Your elbows,

Your hands,

All of this area that makes up your kind of your arms.

How was your arms today?

How are they?

How are they feeling?

Can you just let your arms just be as they are today,

Not adding anything to them,

Not adding any story to them.

Just letting them be as they are,

Even if they don't feel kind of up to scratch or maybe you feel a certain little bit of discomfort,

But can you just let that be as it is now,

The same way that you let your legs just be as they are today.

Then bring your attention to your breath and can you now attend to your breath?

So when you attend to something,

You know,

Maybe if someone was sick or when you attend to a project,

You know you're caring for it.

So start to just kind of turn inward and bring a sense of care towards your breathing.

And how is your breathing now today?

What's happening and how is the breath?

And remember we're not trying to add any description or storyline or our concept to what we think is going on with our breath.

We just want to just pay attention to how is the breath today?

The breath might be short,

Might feel a bit constricted,

The breath might feel very long,

It might be stopping and starting.

Can you just let your breathing just be as it is,

Just whatever it is,

However it's turning up today now.

And just bring a sense of deep care to attending now to your breath and how your body breathes in your body.

Just rest your attention on your breath without trying to control it or regulate it.

And as we sit here,

There'll be places and moments and maybe your whole experience might have discomfort maybe.

So there might be moments or maybe many moments where you feel a little bit of discomfort in your body or certain parts in your body feels a little bit uncomfortable or they bring up some discomfort for you.

So can you bring your breath into this part?

Just imagine your breath is going directly to that area.

You might have to close your eyes maybe to kind of feel this a bit more.

So it might be a physical sensation.

Now it doesn't have to be just physical,

It could be,

You know,

You could be emotionally troubled by something and that is expressing itself somewhere in your body.

So if you're not too sure,

Maybe it's more of a kind of worry or it's a kind of mental sort of troubling kind of feeling or anger or whatever it is.

See if you can just locate where does that feel in your body.

And just imagine now your breath bringing kind of light,

So light into that area.

So when I say light,

I actually mean kind of like full beams of light and just soothing it.

And then as you breathe out,

This is a little bit of visualization today,

Visualize kind of like almost like a black smoke,

Kind of all that's not beneficial you could say,

Just slowly leaving you on your out breath.

So just breathing out through your mouth.

And that black smoke is slowly coming out of that area.

Kind of just exiting your skin,

Exiting your cells and your pores.

And it's dissolving,

That's when it leaves your out when you exhale,

It dissolves out into the space around you.

Kind of freeing you up a little bit.

And if you are very much in discomfort,

You know,

This is challenging if you've quite a bit of pain going on in your body.

Or work with the kind of the worry of the pain or the feeling it brings up in you.

So maybe even locate where does that feel in your body.

So if you have a pain in your lower back all the time,

But then maybe in your chest you're always like worrying about it and the fear of it coming up.

See if you can bring your attention into your chest.

Just keep it natural,

You don't have to force this,

You don't have to push out hard on the exhale.

You can go to another place then that has a bit of discomfort or it might even be again an emotional sort of troubling aspect to what's on your mind.

See if you can locate that somewhere in your body today.

And then you breathe in a kind of beam of white light into the area.

And then when you exhale a kind of a dark smoke releasing.

And then you have a sense of care when you go through this process.

Now let that dissolve.

And in your mind's eyes,

So kind of in your mind or if you don't mind saying this,

You can also whisper this if you're alone in your home there if you wish to whisper.

Just softly in your mind,

May I be happy today.

So kind of like a genuine wish,

You know the way you'd have a genuine wish for someone else to have a good old day.

Just wishing yourself well now today.

May I be happy.

May I be peaceful today and let go of agitation or anxiety,

Worries,

Frustrations that unfold or maybe even sadness or anger.

May I be peaceful and cultivate just a willingness to bring a sense of ease,

A sense of calm into myself.

May I be peaceful.

May I be healthy.

So may I cultivate kind of a healthy mindset today just about myself,

Maybe about others.

May I be healthy in my lifestyle so maybe just look after myself from a physical point of view today.

And may I be at ease in my life today.

So taking care of whatever jobs that need to be done but also cultivating some time and space for myself maybe just if I need that.

Now let that dissolve kind of almost like before,

Let it kind of dissolve out into the space around you and now bring someone into your mind,

Someone you care about,

Someone who you have a deep connection with.

There's a little bond there you know.

Now it could be someone also that is your pet,

Brings a lot of love into your life or it could be a very distant relative.

It could be even someone you don't know but someone who inspires you.

It could be someone who's past,

Who means so much to you.

It's so important to connect in with those who have passed and our ancestors even.

So just choose maybe someone or some being that comes into your mind now and wherever pops in maybe just now wish them well.

May you be happy.

May they be peaceful.

May they be healthy wherever they are.

And may they live their life with ease today.

And if someone else pops in then just kind of move to the next person or the next being.

You don't have to do everyone at once and if a whole load of people are popping in just kind of choose one person at a time.

There's no right way or wrong way to do this.

You just allow yourself some space and time and if you find it difficult to connect in just come back to your breath.

Now let all of that dissolve.

Come back to sitting here and just feeling the sit bones making contact with the chair or the cushion.

Your hands resting on your legs or your knees or in your lap.

And a sense of vitality maybe in your spine now starting to grow a little bit because you're waking up a little bit more.

Now bring to mind someone who may not be your favorite person and don't pick the person that maybe you've fallen out with or that you have not a great relationship with.

Just pick someone in your mind that maybe just slightly irritates you,

Kind of agitates you,

Maybe pushes your buttons a little bit.

Maybe it's just something that they say or do just kind of slightly annoying.

Or could even be someone that you saw recently maybe it was on the news or maybe it was someone in the street that kind of just annoyed you a little bit,

Kind of brought up some irritation.

And just like you and your loved ones let's just see if we can just send a little bit of loving kindness to them today.

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful today.

May they be healthy.

And just hopefully they'll have some ease in their life today.

Now let that energy of the practice spread out a little bit more into your community,

Maybe your friends,

Maybe more people you're connected with,

Maybe your neighbors,

Maybe people living a little further afield,

You know maybe around Ireland,

So people you know.

And then you can go a little bit further too,

You can even go maybe you family abroad,

Maybe you have family in the country that you're connecting with.

Maybe it's in Europe or somewhere else.

And then wishing them well today on this Thursday morning,

May they be happy.

May they be peaceful.

May they be healthy.

And may they live their day with ease and calm.

Sending a little bit of compassion maybe also to any places,

Maybe around the world that is going through some conflict where there's a lot of anger,

Where there's a lot of disruption and places maybe like Ukraine or places where there's protests or places also that have gotten forgotten about too.

Now bring yourself back to your breath.

Now start coming back to the breath and attend to your breath.

You might notice the breath around your nostrils or your mouth or perhaps a little bit more down into your body around your abdomen.

Whichever place you feel a little bit more drawn to.

See if you can open up that a little bit and just expand now your awareness to the whole body that's breathing.

Ah.

And as we close our practice today now,

Just come back to that intention to have a little bit of willingness and a bit of openness and ease to start your day.

Take care of yourself in the process.

Just show a little bit of compassion to anyone who meets your way to today because we don't know what's really going on with most people.

Okay so thank you so much for joining me today and I hope you have a great day.

You can give yourself a bit of a stretch there now if you need it because it was quite a long sit.