Loving Kindness (No Background Music)

Hello and welcome to the session.

I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.

You can close down your eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Today we're going to be practicing loving-kindness meditation,

Also known as Metta.

This involves fostering of positive feelings towards the self,

The world and all living creatures.

We'll first begin with some slow calm breathing followed by a brief mindful focus and from there we'll move into the fostering of loving-kindness first through the use of words and then through visualization.

I encourage you to repeat this practice daily until your heart naturally opens with soft loving-kindness both towards yourself as well as to all those who you meet and think of.

Loving-kindness has the power to transform your life,

Making your connections deeper and helping you to project and receive love,

Joy and care.

Let's begin.

We are going to start with five slow,

Calm and deep square breaths.

That is,

You'll breathe in for four,

Hold for four,

Breathe out for four and hold for four.

This will help calm you down and prime you for the practice to come.

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

Breathe in,

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

Breathe in,

Breathe out,

Breathe in,

Well done.

Now allow your breathing to flow naturally and just simply observe it as it flows in and out wherever you notice it arising the most.

And for the next minute just simply,

Gently and lovingly return your focus back to the breath.

If your mind wanders into thoughts,

Emotions,

Memories or other sensations,

Simply bring it back to the breath.

This will help you to focus your mind,

Further preparing you for your Metta practice.

Remember,

If your mind wanders,

Gently,

Lovingly and kindly bring it back to your focus on the breath.

Okay,

So now with our bodies calming and our mind becoming more focused,

We're going to move towards our heart space.

I encourage you to feel and foster and grow any feelings of love,

Kindness,

Connection and related feelings that may be arising.

And if you don't know any arising just yet,

That is okay.

Sometimes a loving-kindness practice is challenging and all the more so if you are new to the practice.

But like all practices,

You'll improve with time.

So take another slow,

Deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and bring to mind someone that you find easy to feel love and kindness towards.

This could be a family member,

A friend,

A stranger or even a pet.

We start by choosing someone whom evoking feelings of loving-kindness for is easy,

Because that is the simplest and most reliable way to access the power of the heart space,

Both for them and us and the world.

So hold that person in your heart space and repeat the following words,

Vividly picturing them receiving the feelings conveyed.

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 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 if you like you can choose to stick with this person for the duration of the session,

Or choose to move on to someone else.

Ultimately our aim is to be able to evoke feelings of loving-kindness also towards ourselves,

Strangers and even those who've harmed us.

So if you feel compelled I encourage you to work with who or whatever you choose for the rest of the session.

If you do choose yourself you could change the words to being.

May I be free of ill-will.

May I be free of suffering.

May I be full of loving-kindness.

May I be happy.

Directing the love of yourself towards yourself both now and to who you were and who you will become.

Now some people find self-love particularly hard.

Perhaps they have low self-worth or self-esteem issues or low self-respect or there's some other reason that they're blocked in this regard.

If that is you that is okay.

Send some love towards that block but also send some love to you as you were as a baby.

Sending love to the image of baby you has the added feature of innocence.

You,

No matter what you've done,

No matter who you are,

The baby version of you was innocent.

All babies deserve love and love would most likely result in most babies lives turning out more positive.

So if you are struggling to send love to yourself or towards another particularly those who've harmed you,

Picture them as a baby and send that baby love.

So with all that said let's take another slow deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and return back to our practice.

Picture someone in your heart,

Be it someone easy to love,

Be it yourself or a stranger or someone that's harmed you or perhaps even the entire world and offer them love.

Visualize your heart space opening and then being bathed in it and offer them the words,

May you be free of ill will,

May you be free of suffering,

May you be full of loving-kindness,

May you be happy and really attempt to mean the words as you say them because really if everyone was free of ill will,

Free of suffering,

Full of loving-kindness and happy,

Wouldn't that be a better world?

Don't you really wish that all babies had such a blessing upon them?

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,

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 you can keep that refrain going while we move on to the final part of this loving-kindness meditation.

Keep wishing that person to be free of ill will,

Free of suffering,

Full of loving-kindness and to be happy.

And do that while you visualize a connection between yourself and them,

A connection of energy or light or love that is connecting the two of you.

Picture it as a physical strand that is growing with each breath.

Picture the love you wish for them,

Traveling through this thread and healing them.

The color may change or it may be stable.

There may be imagery or runes or words or other visuals transported.

It's all okay and natural.

Trust your intuition on this and simply maintain the connection.

You may feel warmth or other physical sensations.

This is all to be expected and encouraged.

So keep this visualization going,

Keep this connection and in this space wish them,

Through that connection,

To be free of ill will,

To be free of suffering,

To be full of loving-kindness and to be happy.

Let's sit in this space and sit in this resonance and allow it to grow.

Okay,

So well done.

As we come towards the end of this meditation,

I would like to offer you a final practice,

One you can take to the day,

Something that I'm finding tremendously beneficial in my own personal practice.

Each day,

Every morning,

I do a kind of loving-kindness practice like this one and I encourage you to return to this track daily until you are spontaneously able to foster feelings of loving-kindness for yourself and others.

But what I also encourage you to do is when,

Throughout the day,

You are engaging in the world,

With everyone that you meet with,

Internally offer them those words,

May you be free of ill will,

May be free of suffering,

May you be full of loving-kindness,

May you be happy and or visualize the thread of loving-kindness connecting your heart to theirs and their hearts to yours and each other's hearts to one another in an ever-expanding web of love and connection.

Doing such a practice in real time in the real world has profound benefits.

You'll begin radiating calm,

Loving-kindness,

You will soften in a good way and sooner or later,

The world will see that and that is where the real magic happens.

So,

With all this said,

I encourage you to take another slow,

Deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

You can open your eyes if you wish.

Gently add some movement back to the body if you haven't already and remember to take this practice into the world with you.

And finally,

I want to offer you,

Dear listener,

Loving-kindness.

I truly wish for you to be free of ill will,

To be free of suffering,

To be full of loving-kindness and to be happy.

And in my heart,

In my mind's eye,

I'm picturing a thread of loving-kindness traveling from me to you across space and time.

May you be happy and I'll see you next time.

Namaste.