Loving-Kindness Meditation

So let's practice all our skills now in one loving kindness sit. Now remember, if at any time you become fatigued and tired, it's way better to rest and stop. We don't wanna create a bad taste in the heart for these practices. We wanna maintain a connection with their availability and accessibility. Okie dokie.

So find a comfortable seat. Snuggle in. Big, deliberate inhale. And exhale everything. Soft in the belly.

Do this again, inhale and exhale. Yes. Soft behind the heart, shoulders relaxed back and down, elbows a little heavier and palms open. Let your skull find her alignment. Easy in the jaw.

Eyes closed if helpful or just gentle and softly focused on a spot out in front of you. Tune your attention towards your heart center and begin to feel the movement of the breath. Yes. And then remember, step one, wishing ourselves well. So with a genuine heartfelt sincerity, and we'll be here for about three minutes.

Let yourself inhale, and as you exhale may I be happy, may I be free. At the inhale expand and open and as you exhale, may I be free and happy. Let the mantra be specific and unique to you. Can you truly know how important this is? We need to be friends with ourself on this path.

And this path of loving kindness takes great courage. Huge tenacity. And unless we have a strong relationship with ourselves, a safe relationship with ourselves, we won't make it. May I be well and happy. May I be happy and free for real.

Laugh at the temptation of the mind to know what that means or what that looks like. And just continue to wish for your happiness, your freedom, your needs. Soft in the mouth, soft in the eyes, easy at the base of the skull. Relax the mantra now. And only as you're ready, there's no real rush here, but only as you're ready, let the being for whom today you have easy affection for, the being whom it is not troublesome to wish them well, to wish them freedom, to wish them happiness.

Let this being come into focus and with this being in focus, again we'll be here about three minutes. Inhale and as you exhale may you be well and happy. May you be happy and free. And really doing your best to maintain the wish from the center of the heart. And tuning towards the feeling of it, because we're using the words to help hold the focus, to help hold the mind steady.

While we're trying to become more intimate with the feeling, because it is the feeling that we are training. So that it becomes natural and spontaneous and desirable and our default. So the words are a tool. At a certain point the words may get in the way of your feeling and only you're gonna know when this happens. And if and when that happens you can relax the words.

And stay with the feeling. But for most of us the words act like the heart song and they help us stay in tune. May you be well, may you be free. Ans as we've talked about before if suddenly a different being has pushed his or her way in line, just laugh and let that occur. Open in the hands, kind in the eyes.

Soft in the throat. Okay, gently relax this effort, rest and let yourself just simply spend some time with the feeling of the breath and the heart. And again as I mentioned, if you're feeling fatigued and tired at this point then stop. You've done your good work. If you have the juice, let this neutral person come into frame.

Again, somebody who you might see often. But haven't really considered their happiness. Let them come into frame and same idea. Right from the center of the heart begin to find this genuine wish and we'll be here again about three minutes. If you're feeling strain and it feels like you're really efforting, see if you can let the breast soften, let the person be a little fuzzier like all strain does is train us in strain.

And you might find the mantra just naturally changes. You might find yourself sometimes wishing peace, sometimes wishing wellbeing, sometimes wishing happiness. This is all right. Can we find the sincere, genuine, heartfelt wish for another's happiness? It's not unusual for the mind to find other forms of entertainment as you're attempting to train the heart.

Enjoy her efforts. Be gentle with yourself as you tune back in to the intention of the practice. May you be well, and may you be happy. And again, if the person you first picked has changed, if other people have crowded in, just invite them. This is a family affair really.

May you be free and may you be at peace. Gently relax this effort, thank maybe even thanking the being or beings for helping you practice and spend a few more moments here just resting in your heart. And again if you're feeling fatigued or tired then just stop. If you feel ready and available root through the sit bones, let your heart brighten, find your skull a little lighter and as you're ready and it feels safe to do so, gently invite this difficult, complicated, uncomfortable, disharmonious being into your field. And again, make sure that you feel safe, so only have the being as close or as far as feels okay.

Again, we're gonna be here about three minutes. So as you're ready, same skills, same training. From the center of your heart, as you exhale, may you be well, may you be free. Even though this being might be creating trouble for us, this being also desires the same things we do. Everybody wants to be free.

Everybody wants to be happy, really. Soft in the jaw, kind in the eyes. And if you feel yourself getting quite tense or stressed, come back to the mantra of self care, the may I be happy, may I be at peace, may I be free. And then if and when you feel ready, move your attention back in the direction of this other being. Generally when we feel ourself wandering it's more from a quality up in the mind so, sink back into the heart, let your hands help, let your hands feel open and generous, receptive in offering.

Inhale and as you exhale, may you be well, may you be happy. Softer in the jaw, softer in the belly. What have you got to lose? Excellent, relax the effort. Spend a few moments here now just in your heart with your breath.

Tuning your alignment, root through the sit bones a little bit, feel the skull light. Again, if you're feeling a little disturbed or frustrated, maybe it's just a moment of a chaser before you move into the last phase. Think on the being who brings you easy brightness of heart. And then just as you're ready, and again, the imaginal realm can really help here. So just as you're ready, begin to feel your attention, maybe it's the Earth.

Or maybe it's a place on the Earth. Maybe there's a place on the Earth, like the ocean or the mountains, where you feel the most held. Again, we're gonna be here about three minutes. And it's this willingness to inhale and exhale and genuinely and for real and from the center of you heart, without knowing what should happen next, without knowing how things should go, without knowing what peace on the planet looks like. Wishing the Earth, the planets, well.

May you be happy. May you be free. And while we've started with the Earth, while we've started with the planets, we just kind of got to trust where your imagination goes. You might go out, into the solar system. Or you might find yourself dialing down and deep and very detailed.

It's the request is to find out how to genuinely extend our goodwill in a wider, far-reaching direction than our own personal scenario. And so sometimes it helps too if you really focus in on the three dimensionality of your heart, you can feel the radiation from the back, from the front, from the sides. May you be well. May you be happy. May you be free.

Can we truly wish this? Beautiful work, relax the effort. Soften. Let your heart be sweet. And can we rest in the possibility that these practices make a difference?

Without knowing what that might look like. Most excellent work my Yogi friends. Love.