Love and Kindness Meditation
As the sun starts to break through the clouds, the days become longer and the sweet smell of flowers start filling our lungs. Connections Counseling is hoping to provide a kind reminder to be kind to yourself.
Today’s blog is here to help guide you in a love and kindness meditation. You can enjoy it on your own, practice with a friend (socially distanced) or ask your therapist to guide you.
The purpose of the practice is in the pursuit for loving kindness. We all have this within us, this natural capacity for loving kindness. Or…friendship that is unconditional and open…gentle…supportive. Loving kindness is a natural opening for our heart.
The Meditation
Become comfortable in your chair or cushion, sitting with a relaxed but straight, posture, with your shoulders relaxed.… Allow your hands to rest comfortably in your lap. Settling into awareness of the body…and the breath. Feeling into your body right now…noticing what’s here. Open to whatever is to be experienced in the body in this moment. Connecting to the breath…noticing the wave-like movements of the belly…
We begin with developing loving kindness toward ourselves…allowing our hearts to open with tenderness,
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 may recall the unconditional love you felt from a beloved pet… It may help to use the imagination and to picture yourself as a young child standing before you…perhaps 4 or 5 years of age… if that allows tender feelings of kindness to flow more easily… And, as you experience this love…notice how you feel in your body. Maybe you feel some warmth…or heat in the face. A smile…a sense of expansiveness. This is lovingkindness, a natural feeling that is accessible to all of us…always. Resting with this feeling of open, unconditional love for a few minutes …
…breathing it in…and breathing it out…
inviting feelings of peace and acceptance or whatever feelings arise.
Saying out loud or in your mind.
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 repeating in the mind 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 by bringing 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 what it is in particular that you love about them. 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 lovingkindness…
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, bringing this practice to a close by coming back to extend kindness to yourself. Sitting for a while and basking in the energy of loving kindness that may have been generated here.
From all of us at Connections Counseling we hope you find some moments of peace, love and kindness.
Translated and adjusted from fresno.gov with work and research adapted from Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer