This is a loving kindness meditation practice.
Please take a comfortable seat.
And this practice is traditionally done with eyes closed,
But if you're more comfortable leaving them open,
You can simply just soften your gaze.
Inviting yourself to get comfortable.
Take a deep inhalation.
And a long,
Slow,
Deep exhalation.
We'll take just a couple more clearing breaths together.
Inhaling.
And exhaling.
And once again,
Inhaling.
Exhaling.
This practice of loving kindness meditation is a practice for offering compassion to yourself and to those around you.
Traditionally,
The practice has the following phrases that we'll use.
May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be at ease.
And we have this recognition that as we lean into our common humanity,
We recognize that every single human being on this planet wants these same things to feel safe and free from harm,
To feel happy and contented,
To be healthy and free of disease,
And to be at ease and at peace.
And in this practice,
We will send this loving kindness blessing out to ourselves and to various people within our circle and even beyond.
Let's begin.
Coming back to the awareness of your breath,
We'll begin with ourselves.
As a practice of self-compassion,
We send this blessing to ourselves.
And if you want to,
You can even just give yourself supportive touch,
Hand to your heart,
Hand at your belly,
Or if it feels fine,
Just to have your hands on your lap or alongside your body,
That's fine.
And holding yourself tenderly with an awareness of all that you're going through in your own life,
Any vulnerability,
Any vulnerabilities or challenges you may be having,
Holding yourself in your heart and repeating to yourself on the inside,
May I be safe.
And just breathing into that.
And may I be happy.
Breathing into this desire that you may feel contented and happy in your life.
May I be healthy,
Breathing onto yourself a blessing for your health and wellbeing.
And may I be at ease,
Breathing onto yourself a prayer for your peace of mind and ease in your life.
And taking another moment here,
Just to hold yourself in your own heart,
Offering yourself this prayer and blessing.
And now we'll continue bringing our attention to someone in our close circle.
And whether this is a good friend,
A family member,
A dear colleague or coworker,
Invite this person into the space of your heart and holding this person in your mind's eye.
And we'll continue to be in your heart and holding this person in your mind's eye.
We'll offer this blessing to them.
May this person be safe and free from harm.
May this person be happy and contented in their life.
May this person be healthy and free from illness.
May this person be at ease and at peace in their life.
And holding this person once more in your heart and in your mind's eye,
Offering them this blessing.
And now we'll continue to be in your heart and holding this person in your mind's eye.
And now we bring our attention to someone else that we know,
But someone perhaps who is not in our closest circle.
Maybe it's a friend you haven't seen for a while.
It might be an acquaintance.
It might be someone in your neighborhood that just comes to mind.
Could benefit from this prayer of loving kindness.
And holding this person in your heart and in your mind's eye,
We'll begin.
May this person be safe.
Be safe.
May this person be happy.
May this person be healthy.
And may this person be at ease.
And taking one more breath cycle is to hold this person in your heart and in your mind and to offer them this blessing.
And now traditionally,
This practice is then we extend this prayer and blessing out to someone else with whom we may have difficulty.
And sometimes this is somebody who still is in our close circle,
But perhaps we've had a misunderstanding or a challenge or an argument.
And it's also possible that this person could be in the public sphere and we find this person's perspective or politics or actions challenging for us.
And yet,
It's also possible that this person could be in the public sphere and yet at the same time,
We recognize that this is another human on this planet who also wants these same things to feel safe,
Happy,
Healthy and at ease.
And choosing someone to whom we feel as though we can authentically offer this blessing,
In our mind and heart as best we can.
And we offer them this.
May this person be safe.
May this person be happy.
May this person be healthy.
And may this person be at peace.
And holding this person once more in our heart and mind and offering them this blessing.
This blessing.
This meditation can be offered to many kinds of people and even groups of people to whom you feel you'd like to increase your connection or you'd like to offer them support or kindness.
And traditionally,
This practice concludes with sending this blessing out to all human beings.
So taking a moment and just imagining the sea of humans on this planet at this time,
All of them experiencing their own struggles in their own lives and yet the recognition that every human being shares the same desires.
And so sending this blessing out for peace for all human beings.
May all human beings be safe.
May all humans on this planet experience happiness.
May all humans on this planet be free from illness and experience health and well-being.
May all human beings on this planet experience peace.
And offering from your heart out into the world your blessing for peace and well-being.
And taking another moment here to ground yourself with your breath.
Take a couple clearing cleansing breaths here.
Deep inhalation.
Long,
Slow,
Complete exhale.
Again,
Inhaling.
Releasing the breath.
As you're ready,
Wiggling your fingers and toes.
Becoming aware of the space that you're sitting in.
And finally,
Blinking your eyes open and coming back.
I hope that you enjoyed this practice and that it may benefit you and those around you.
Thanks for tuning in.
