Amplify Love For Self & The World During Covid-19

Warm greetings,

Stacey Iris Soll here to guide you through another short meditation.

Find yourself in a comfortable seat.

Take a moment to adjust your posture,

Lengthen the spine,

Straighten your back,

Just allowing yourself to show up a little more alert,

A little more present,

And a little more intentional for our practice.

When you're ready,

Softly and gently close your eyes as you settle into that position,

As you settle into stillness,

As you settle into your seat.

With your eyes softly closed,

Just allowing that awareness to travel inward as you feel into your body.

Settling into your body and connecting with those subtle sensations of your breath.

Feeling the air moving up through the full length of your nostrils,

Feeling the breath softly falling away from your face,

Feeling the body gently rising and gently falling each time you breathe in and breathe out.

With each breath,

Each exhale,

Feel your body unclenching,

Softening,

And falling into a deeper state of relaxation.

Softening the belly,

Softening the chest,

Unclenching the jaw,

And releasing the shoulders.

Taking a nice,

Long,

Slow,

Deep breath into the lower abdomen,

And as you breathe out,

Let the whole body become a little more soft,

A little heavier in your seat.

I'm inviting you to join me for this practice to invite some loving kindness into our hearts.

Taking a moment to connect with your heart space,

Placing your attention to that area around your chest.

If it feels right,

Perhaps placing one palm or stacking both hands over the heart space as a way to anchor and connect.

Taking a moment pause to really tune in,

Either feeling beneath the palms of your hand or just feeling into the center of your chest to find the sensations of your own beating heart.

Taking a moment here to just feel into each pulse,

Each beat,

Connecting with your body's natural rhythm,

That constant flow,

That gentle pace.

As the mind may drift and wander,

Just gently bringing the awareness back to the heart space,

Feeling into those sensations of your heartbeat,

Connecting with the heart,

Bringing coherence to the heart,

To the brain.

As we invite loving kindness into our practice by repeating these phrases after me and directing each phrase towards your own heart,

Towards yourself,

Repeating in your mind.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be loved.

May I be at peace.

May I feel happy.

May I feel healthy.

May I feel loved.

May I feel at peace.

Just taking a moment to observe how it feels to send yourself those phrases of loving kindness,

Noticing if there is any resistance,

Feeling into the ease without judgement there's no right or wrong.

We'll continue to repeat these phrases,

Directing them inward towards ourselves.

You may repeat them in whichever way feels the most authentic to you,

Repeating may I be or may I feel.

So again,

After me.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be loved.

May I be at peace.

One more time,

May I feel happy.

May I feel healthy.

May I feel loved.

May I feel at peace.

Just sitting with however that feels,

Knowing that at the root of all of our desires,

Our wants,

Needs,

At the root of all of it is simply the goal to achieve these feelings of happiness,

Of health,

Of love,

Of peace.

No matter what we want in this world,

It always comes back to those roots.

And now I'd like to invite you to bring to mind somebody in your life that you love,

That you care deeply for,

That you only ever want the best for.

Just inviting this person into your awareness,

Just taking a moment to see who shows up.

Just imagining or seeing their face in your mind's eye or just thinking of their name,

Allowing this person to rest in your awareness as we again repeat these phrases of loving kindness,

This time sending them outwards towards this person that we love and care about wherever they may be in the world right now.

Again,

Gently repeating after me.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be loved.

May you be at peace.

May you feel happy.

May you feel healthy.

May you feel loved.

May you feel at peace.

Again repeating in whichever way feels right for you.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be loved.

May you be at peace.

Again one more time just holding this person in our awareness,

This person that you love and care about.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be loved.

May you be at peace.

Just sitting with that for a moment,

Feeling in with yourself how it feels to send those positive intentions of loving kindness out towards that person you love and care about.

And knowing that the wants,

The desires and needs of others,

No matter what race or religion or age or gender will always be rooted back into their simple desires to be happy,

Healthy,

Loved and at peace.

And now just taking a moment to think about all beings on this planet.

Everyone,

Everywhere.

And we'll repeat these phrases again this time sending this loving kindness out across the globe to all beings.

Gently repeating again after me.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be healthy.

May all beings be loved.

May all beings be at peace.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be healthy.

May all beings be loved.

May all beings be at peace.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be healthy.

May all beings be loved.

May all beings be at peace.

Again,

Just taking a moment to feel into that positive intention blasting out from your heart to all beings across the globe.

To everyone,

Everywhere.

Those we know.

Those we don't.

To all sentient beings.

And finally,

Bringing that awareness back into the heart space.

Coming back into your own heart as we repeat this mantra,

These intentions of loving kindness one more time and again directing them inward towards yourself.

May I be happy.

May I be healthy.

May I be loved.

May I be at peace.

Feeling into that loving kindness from yourself to yourself as we slowly begin to deepen our breath again now.

Taking these few deeper breaths to shift our awareness back to our physical bodies,

To our seats.

Gently expanding that awareness back out into our surroundings.

Coming back into the room,

Keeping your eyes softly closed as we finish again with a great big smile,

Holding onto that smile,

Keeping your eyes closed and noticing how that smile feels all throughout the body.

Feeling those happy hormones and neuropeptides being released.

And as you hold that smile a moment longer,

Ending with a moment of gratitude together as you first say thank you and acknowledge yourself for showing up,

Making this time to be here in stillness and also bringing to mind anything or anyone else that you may have to be grateful for today.

So we continue to cultivate that attitude of gratitude through our thoughts.

And when you're done with that moment of acknowledgement and appreciation in your own time,

You can softly and gently open your eyes.

Welcome back.

Thank you for joining me and have a beautiful day.