Practise Loving Kindness.
| Listen to our 11 minute Loving Kindness exercise: |
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Loving Kindness Meditation.
Become comfortable in your chair or on your cushion. Sitting with a relaxed but straight posture with your shoulders, relaxed. Allow your hands to rest comfortably on your lap and gently close your eyes. Settle into awareness of the body and observe your breath.
Feeling into your body, notice what is here, what is going on within your body and what is going on without. Open to whatever is to be experienced in the body at this moment. Connecting to your breath, notice the wavelike movements of the belly.
In this practice we'll be cultivating Loving Kindness with all within us. This natural capacity for Loving Kindness, we will be experiencing unconditional kindness, friendship, in a gentle supportive way with ourselves and with everything we experience in life. Loving Kindness is a natural opening of a compassionate heart to ourselves and others. It is a wish that everyone is happy.
We begin with developing, Loving Kindness towards ourselves, allowing our hearts to open with tenderness. Now allow yourself to remember and open up to your basic goodness. You might remember times you have been kind or generous. You might recall your natural desire to be happy and not to suffer.
If acknowledging your own goodness is difficult. Look at yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you. What does that person love about you. Or you can recall the unconditional love that you have felt from a beloved pet. It might be helpful to use the imagination and to picture yourself as a young child standing before you perhaps four or five years of age and allow tender feelings of kindness to flow to this child. And as you experience this love, notice how you feel in your body. Maybe you feel some warmth, some heat in your face. Maybe you can feel the stirrings of a smile or a sensation of expansiveness. This is Loving Kindness, a natural feeling that is accessible to all of us, always. Rest with this feeling of open unconditional love for a few minutes. Letting yourself bask in the energy of Loving Kindness, breathing it all in, and then breathing it out. Invite feelings of peace and acceptance.
Now wish yourself well by extending words of Loving Kindness to yourself.
May I be filled with Loving Kindness. May I be held in Loving Kindness. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I be happy. May I know the natural joy of being alive.
And now repeat these words of friendship and kindness to yourself, once again.
May I be filled with Loving Kindness. May I be held in Loving Kindness. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I be happy. May I know the natural joy of being alive.
Now you can open the circle of Loving Kindness to bring to mind someone who is dear to you, someone whom you care about and who has always been supportive. Reflect on this person's basic goodness sensing in a particular, what you love about him or her. In your heart feel your appreciation for this dear one and begin your simple offering.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know the natural joy of being alive.
Now bring your mind to a neutral person. This is someone you might see regularly, but you don't know well. It could be a neighbor, a grocery store clerk, a colleague, or anyone you would like to wish well. Bring this person to your mind now and repeat the words of Loving Kindness.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now, may you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know the natural joy of being alive.
And now, if it's possible for you, bring to mind someone with whom you've had a difficult relationship. Perhaps it's someone you don't like to feel sympathy or compassion for. See if it's possible to let go of feelings of resentment and dislike for this person. Remind yourself to see this person as a whole being deserving of love and kindness. As someone who feels pain and anxiety, and someone who suffers. Extend to this person, the words of Loving Kindness.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know, the natural joy of being alive.
And now allow your awareness to open out in all directions, including yourself, your dear ones, the neutral people in your life and the difficult ones. And to all beings, humans and animals living everywhere, whether they're living in richness, poverty, war or peace, hunger or abundance, be aware of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience and wish them Loving Kindness.
May all beings be filled with Loving Kindness. May all beings be happy. May all beings awaken and be free.
And now bring this practice to a close by coming back to extend kindness to yourself, sit for a while and bask in the energy of Loving Kindness that's been generated.
And you can end by giving yourself a hug.
Become comfortable in your chair or on your cushion. Sitting with a relaxed but straight posture with your shoulders, relaxed. Allow your hands to rest comfortably on your lap and gently close your eyes. Settle into awareness of the body and observe your breath.
Feeling into your body, notice what is here, what is going on within your body and what is going on without. Open to whatever is to be experienced in the body at this moment. Connecting to your breath, notice the wavelike movements of the belly.
In this practice we'll be cultivating Loving Kindness with all within us. This natural capacity for Loving Kindness, we will be experiencing unconditional kindness, friendship, in a gentle supportive way with ourselves and with everything we experience in life. Loving Kindness is a natural opening of a compassionate heart to ourselves and others. It is a wish that everyone is happy.
We begin with developing, Loving Kindness towards ourselves, allowing our hearts to open with tenderness. Now allow yourself to remember and open up to your basic goodness. You might remember times you have been kind or generous. You might recall your natural desire to be happy and not to suffer.
If acknowledging your own goodness is difficult. Look at yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you. What does that person love about you. Or you can recall the unconditional love that you have felt from a beloved pet. It might be helpful to use the imagination and to picture yourself as a young child standing before you perhaps four or five years of age and allow tender feelings of kindness to flow to this child. And as you experience this love, notice how you feel in your body. Maybe you feel some warmth, some heat in your face. Maybe you can feel the stirrings of a smile or a sensation of expansiveness. This is Loving Kindness, a natural feeling that is accessible to all of us, always. Rest with this feeling of open unconditional love for a few minutes. Letting yourself bask in the energy of Loving Kindness, breathing it all in, and then breathing it out. Invite feelings of peace and acceptance.
Now wish yourself well by extending words of Loving Kindness to yourself.
May I be filled with Loving Kindness. May I be held in Loving Kindness. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I be happy. May I know the natural joy of being alive.
And now repeat these words of friendship and kindness to yourself, once again.
May I be filled with Loving Kindness. May I be held in Loving Kindness. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I be happy. May I know the natural joy of being alive.
Now you can open the circle of Loving Kindness to bring to mind someone who is dear to you, someone whom you care about and who has always been supportive. Reflect on this person's basic goodness sensing in a particular, what you love about him or her. In your heart feel your appreciation for this dear one and begin your simple offering.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know the natural joy of being alive.
Now bring your mind to a neutral person. This is someone you might see regularly, but you don't know well. It could be a neighbor, a grocery store clerk, a colleague, or anyone you would like to wish well. Bring this person to your mind now and repeat the words of Loving Kindness.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now, may you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know the natural joy of being alive.
And now, if it's possible for you, bring to mind someone with whom you've had a difficult relationship. Perhaps it's someone you don't like to feel sympathy or compassion for. See if it's possible to let go of feelings of resentment and dislike for this person. Remind yourself to see this person as a whole being deserving of love and kindness. As someone who feels pain and anxiety, and someone who suffers. Extend to this person, the words of Loving Kindness.
May you be filled with Loving Kindness. May you be held in Loving Kindness. May you feel my love now. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you be happy. May you know, the natural joy of being alive.
And now allow your awareness to open out in all directions, including yourself, your dear ones, the neutral people in your life and the difficult ones. And to all beings, humans and animals living everywhere, whether they're living in richness, poverty, war or peace, hunger or abundance, be aware of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience and wish them Loving Kindness.
May all beings be filled with Loving Kindness. May all beings be happy. May all beings awaken and be free.
And now bring this practice to a close by coming back to extend kindness to yourself, sit for a while and bask in the energy of Loving Kindness that's been generated.
And you can end by giving yourself a hug.
