Hello and welcome to the session,
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish and take some slow,
Calm breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth,
And with each breath allow yourself to acknowledge and release any physical,
Mental or energetic blockages along with anything else that may distract you from this session.
For the next few minutes all you need to do is breathe and be here to receive the session.
Now,
As your body calms and your mind begins to settle,
Take a moment to set an intention for this session.
May this session ground me in presence,
Focus my mind and open me to the guidance,
Clarity and insight this practice holds for me today.
May it bring me closer to embodying my highest self.
Ok,
Well done,
In today's session we are going to be looking at the internal family systems quality of compassion,
And we are going to be doing that through the practice of metta,
Or loving kindness.
So,
With awareness,
With presence,
Comes the need to hold what arises with love,
Both internally,
The different parts of ourselves,
But also externally.
When we are compassionate to ourselves,
We start to see the different parts of us,
The different aspects of ourself,
Our shadow,
Our exiles,
Our wounded inner child,
With a new light,
With a light of forgiveness,
Of understanding,
With the same energy that you would give to a newborn baby,
Or a young child,
Or a pet.
It helps us to reconnect,
And to forgive,
And to let go,
And to just be with in a place of love,
Compassion,
Kindness,
Connection,
Metta,
Karuna,
There's many different words for this,
But there's a space that opens up the more you begin to practice metta,
Or loving kindness,
The more compassionate you are.
It's very hard to be lost in the past,
Or in the future,
Or in some sort of overwhelming emotion,
Or memory,
Or thought.
It's very hard to not be in a sense of self,
If you are feeling a deep sense of compassion.
The more I practice loving kindness,
The practice that I'm going to give to you today,
The better I feel about myself,
It's like I start to loosen,
And release,
And let go of all of the expectations of myself,
And of other people,
The more I start to wish that myself,
And others,
And the world,
And everyone,
Is happy,
Free of ill will,
Full of loving kindness,
The better I feel,
The more genuine connections I have,
And just,
It's just nice.
I would like to be able to more artistically,
Or poetically describe this,
But there's just a lived experience that comes with opening your heart through a loving kindness practice,
So much so that I add one minute of metta,
Or loving kindness,
As I'll introduce to you today,
To the end of my daily practices.
Just a little bit,
I typically do mindfulness,
Or introspective practices,
Or sit in the sense of self,
As we're doing from the internal family systems work here,
But I always end it with a compassion,
A metta,
A loving kindness practice,
Because I find that sitting in openness allows me to connect better to my family,
To my friends,
To my colleagues,
To everyone else.
We sit with presence,
We sit with connection,
And we just wish ourselves,
And the world well.
And there's a couple of different ways that we can approach this,
And I invite you to use the way that works for you.
The intention to give loving kindness,
To give compassion,
Is more important than the structure,
Or the way,
But there are two things that I do,
And I do them simultaneously,
But you can do one,
Or the other,
Or just sit with that intentionality.
What I do is,
I imagine there is a connection between myself,
And someone else,
A physical sort of energy,
A light beam,
Love connecting my heart space to theirs.
And I allow that energy to just sort of flow towards them,
And through that channel,
Through that energy,
I say the following words,
And I intend them,
I do my best to mean them.
I say,
May you be free of ill will,
May you be free of suffering,
May you be full of loving kindness,
May you be happy.
Now,
Starting out with this practice,
And even sometimes to this day,
It can feel a little bit forced,
Or a little bit contrived,
But that's okay,
You push through,
And you give that energy,
To try,
And you really intend it,
Because you probably do wish that this person was free of ill will,
And free of suffering,
And full of loving kindness,
And was happy.
Now,
Once again,
If you're just starting out,
I recommend you try this meta practice,
By choosing someone,
Or something,
That is easy to love,
That you do truly wish,
Was all of those things that you have compassion for.
But the more advanced you get,
Or the more expanded you get on this,
You will want to expand this practice,
You can hold yourself in this space of loving kindness,
Offering yourself that love,
And saying,
May I be free of ill will,
May I be free of suffering,
May I be full of loving kindness,
May I be happy.
Some people struggle with that,
And that's understandable,
That's okay,
Like I said,
This is a practice.
From there,
You can move on to strangers,
You can move on to workmates,
To family,
To friends,
To potentially challenging people,
To people that have hurt you.
That's a more advanced practice,
And one that I encourage you to try at some later stage,
If this is your first look at loving kindness,
But it's something you can build towards.
Some people practice loving kindness,
Or meta meditation,
By focusing on all living creatures.
You might say something like,
May all living creatures be free of ill will,
Be free of suffering,
Full of loving kindness,
And be happy.
The point of this practice,
The visualization,
The sending of the love,
Isn't one that,
By your force of manifestation,
Or by the nature of prayer,
Or some other sort of metaphysical practice,
Actually makes their life better.
That's not the claim of this meta practice,
I'm not saying that if you were to do this meta practice,
That someone else's life will actually improve tangibly.
I can wish and send all of the love to my sons,
But I don't believe that their life will necessarily change because I'm wishing it.
But what I do believe is that the practice of practicing loving kindness will help me to soften,
Will help me to open,
Will help me to be around them in a way that is more loving and more kind,
And thus that will improve their life.
It is a self-practice,
One but one that involves us opening love and sending it outward.
But if you are of the belief that there is a manifestation,
Power,
And thoughts,
And,
Or,
That you can connect to a deep,
Interconnected spirituality,
Perhaps through some sort of access to the divine,
Then I encourage you to add that practice to this as well.
Our goal is to sit with the intention to send love.
So with all that said,
Let's attempt to get into this state of compassion.
Pick someone,
Someone that's easy to love,
Easy to send compassion to,
Be it yourself,
A friend,
Family member,
A partner,
A pet,
And just visualize them,
Visualize a connection from your heart space to them,
And send them love,
And say the words with full intention,
May you be free of ill will,
May you be free of suffering,
May you be full of loving kindness,
May you be happy,
May you be free of ill will,
May you be free of suffering,
May you be full of loving kindness,
May you be happy,
May you be free of ill will,
May you be free of suffering,
May you be full of loving kindness,
May you be happy,
May you be free of ill will,
May you be free of suffering,
May you be full of loving kindness,
May you be happy.
Okay,
So how'd you go?
Now you can take this practice into your day,
You can repeat those words in your head whenever you see someone else,
You can visualize a connection between your heart space and anyone else's that you meet,
Offering them love,
Because really,
Most likely you do wish that everyone you meet is free of ill will,
And free of suffering,
Full of loving kindness,
And happy.
Through this practice,
You can step into a state of compassion,
And thus sit in the sense of the self.
So I invite you to open your eyes,
And return back to your body.
As we come to the end of the session,
I just want to remind you that if you have any questions about compassion,
Or about a loving kindness meditation,
Or about internal family systems in general,
To ask them in the classroom.
I'll be there daily to answer any questions,
And I'll see you in the next session.
This track was taken from the course,
Sitting in the Self,
Exploring the Eight C's of Internal Family Systems.
It's out now,
And available on my InsightTimer profile.
I encourage you to check it out.
See you there.
