30 Minute Loving Kindness Meditation | A Deep Return to Love

Hello, this is Dr. Jo from Tool of the Soul. Today I'm going to be leading a loving kindness meditation. For this meditation, you can either sit in a comfortable seat or lie down. And if you are seated, go ahead and find your feet flat on the earth and then sit up tall with a nice spine and imagine that there's a string from the top of your head extending up to the sky. And you may want to close your eyes, or you can find a soft gaze couple feet in front of you. If you're lying down, I suggest that you literally pick up your head and stretch your neck and then place your head down gently. And also make sure that your legs are splayed open with the feet turned out and your arms wide, palms up. So if you're seated, you may wanna place your index finger and your thumb together, and then place your hands palms down on your knees if you want to feel grounded. Or palms up if you want to receive energy. Begin to just drop into your breath, drop into your body. Know that as we meditate, you will have thoughts and your mind will stay busy because that's what our minds are designed to do. So no judgment. Try to just allow the thoughts to come and go. Without attaching to them or creating a narrative around them. Just notice them and let them go. Notice if you can detect a slight pause at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale. You notice the shape change in your body as you breathe. As your body sinks and settles, begin to extend the exhalation just a bit longer than the inhale. We're gonna do a body scan so that we can relax and release tension from all areas of our body. Beginning at the crown center of our head, notice if there's any tension in your scalp, in your brain. On an exhale, allow that to release and melt. Feel the skin around your head soften. Draw your attention to the skin around your face, between the eyebrows, your cheeks, around the lips, your ears. On the exhale, allow that skin to soften and smooth, release— releasing any held tension. Draw your attention to your jaw, the very top by the ears, all the way down to your chin. We hold a lot of tension here, so take a few exhales to really let it go. Release all the tension in the jaw. Draw your attention to your neck, the upper neck, all the way down to the shoulders and the upper back. Another area where we hold a lot of tension. A lot of trauma. Again, on the exhales, feel gravity helping you pull down the shoulders and melt the tension, releasing the grip. Just let it go. You're safe here. Bring your attention to your spine. Long and strong, but held up without your effort as the muscles along the spine relax. Drawing your attention back up to your shoulders and feeling gravity help you release tension from the arms, the upper arms, elbows, lower arms. And also relaxing your thumb, first finger, second finger, third finger, and fourth finger. So your arms hang heavy, yet they feel light, drawing your attention to your heart center, which feels expansive, and you notice it's easy to breathe. And fill your lungs and draw your attention to your belly. Allow room for digestion there, not just digestion of food, but the material of life. Breathe air all the way down to the belly and and feel it expand, allowing for space. Try your attention to your hips, allowing for a release of tension there, feeling solidly supported by the chair that you sit on or the earth that you lay on. And on the exhales, bringing relaxation and release to the muscles of the legs. The upper legs, knees, lower legs, top of the feet, bottom of the feet, big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, pinky toe. Finally, do one scan from the very crown center of your head, your scalp, the skin on your face, jaw, your neck and upper back, your spine strong and long, your arms, hands, your expansive heart center and belly. Your hips, legs, and feet. Notice how your entire body is now relaxed, ready to receive. You can stay in this place and we'll transition into the loving kindness meditation. All of us have a natural capacity to experience loving joy and loving kindness. Think of a time when you felt loved unconditionally. Feel it in your body. Where did you experience it? You might notice a heaviness in your chest. A feeling in your belly, maybe something in your throat, or maybe it's all over. It's okay if you don't notice anything too. There's absolutely no right or wrong. Maybe you can think of one incident where you fell in love. Or taken care of. That's the kind of feeling that we want to generate today. Remember that during this meditation, your mind will still be working and you'll have thoughts and distractions. No judgment. Just come back to your breath and come back to my word. I encourage you to maintain an open and curious mind. Allow yourself grace. Remember a time when you felt your own inherent goodness and loving nature. If you have trouble thinking of a time when you were very loving and kind, imagine how another person who loves you sees you and how they would describe you in a time when they felt your love. Or you can even remember the unconditional love of a pet. You might imagine yourself as an infant, precious and innocent, and generate love for yourself as an infant. Breathe in that glow of loving kindness. Exhale any barriers or any obstacles to experiencing your own loving kindness towards yourself. I'm going to offer some phrases that will help reinforce the feelings of loving kindness towards yourself. You can use these phrases So if you'd like, you can repeat after me silently in your mind. May I be content and at ease. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I give and receive love freely. May I know the natural joy of being alive. Now repeat these words of kindness and friendship to yourself once more. May I be content and at ease. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I give and receive love freely. That I know the natural joy of being alive. Let's expand the circle of loving kindness by calling to mind someone who is dearest to you, someone you care about and who is always supportive. Usually the first person that comes to mind is the right one. Reflect on this person's basic goodness, what you appreciate about them, Repeat these words of gratitude after me, Saint. May you be content and at ease. May you feel connected and calm. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you give and receive love freely. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Call to mind a neutral person, someone you might see on a regular basis but don't know too well. Maybe a cashier at the store or a neighbor. Let's repeat these loving words to this neutral person. May you be content and at ease. May you be connected. And calm. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you give and receive love freely. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Now call to mind someone that you have trouble with. Maybe someone you have a hard time finding sympathy or compassion See if it's possible to let go of just a little bit of the resentment that you have. Remind yourself to see this person as a whole being, someone who also suffers, and someone who wants to be loved and cared for. See if it's possible to extend this person loving kindness and repeat in your mind, May you be content and at ease. May you feel connected and calm. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you give and receive love freely. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Finally, call to mind yourself, a loved one, a neutral person, and a difficult person. Then widen your awareness to include all of humankind, all living beings, Mother Earth, everyone living in richness, poverty, war, peace, hunger, abundance. Aware of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience. Let's extend loving kindness to all beings everywhere. May all beings everywhere be content and at ease. May all beings feel connected and calm. May all beings accept themselves as they are. May all beings give and receive love freely. May all beings know the natural joy of being alive. Spend some moments sealing in this practice by just coming back into your breath and noticing what you feel in your body. If you're lying down, begin to bring some movement in your fingers and toes. Eventually, in your own time, roll onto one side, making a pillow with your arm, and then you can push yourself up to seated. For those of us who are sitting, you can gently lower your chin to your chest and blink open your eyes. And if you want, you can bring your hands to heart center. Thank you so, so much for joining me today, and thank yourselves for making this time for yourself. The teacher and student in me honors the teacher and student in you. Namaste. Thank you. Hello, this is Dr. Jo from Tool of the Soul. Today I'm going to be leading a loving kindness meditation. For this meditation, you can either sit in a comfortable seat or lie down. And if you are seated, go ahead and find your feet flat on the earth and then sit up tall with a nice spine. And imagine that there's a string from the top of your head extending up to the sky, and you may want to close your eyes. Close your eyes, or you can find a soft gaze couple feet in front of you. If you're lying down, I suggest that you literally pick up your head and stretch your neck and then place your head down gently. And also make sure that your legs are splayed open with the feet turned out and your arms Wide, palms up. So if you're seated, you may wanna place your index finger and your thumb together, and then place your hands palms down on your knees if you want to feel grounded, or palms up if you wanna receive energy. Begin to just drop into your breath, drop into your body. Know that as we meditate, you will have thoughts and your mind will stay busy because that's what our minds are designed to do. So no judgment. Try to just allow the thoughts to come and go without attaching to them or creating a narrative around them. Just notice them and let them go. Notice if you can detect a slight pause at the top of the inhale and the bottom of the exhale. You notice the shape change in your body as you breathe. As your body sinks and settles, begin to extend the exhalation. Just a bit longer than the inhale. We're gonna do a body scan so that we can relax and release tension from all areas of our body. Beginning at the crown center of our head, notice if there's any tension in your scalp, in your brain. On an exhale, Allow that to release and melt. Feel the skin around your head soften. Draw your attention to the skin around your face, between the eyebrows, your cheeks, around the lips, your ears. On the exhale, allow that skin to soften and smooth, release— releasing any held tension. Draw your attention to your jaw, the very top by the ears, all the way down to your chin. We hold a lot of tension here, so take a few exhales to really let it go. Release all the tension in the jaw. Draw your attention to your neck, the upper neck, all the way down to the shoulders and the upper back. Another area where we hold a lot of tension, a lot of trauma. Again, on the exhales, feel Gravity helping you pull down the shoulders and melt the tension. Releasing the grip. Just let it go. You're safe here. Bring your attention to your spine. Long and strong. But held up without your effort as the muscles along the spine Relax. Drawing your attention back up to your shoulders and feeling gravity help you release tension from the arms, the upper arms, elbows, lower arms, and also relaxing your thumb, first finger, second finger, third finger, and fourth finger. So your arms hang heavy, yet they feel light, drawing your attention to your heart center, which feels expansive, and you notice it's easy to breathe and fill your lungs and draw your attention to your belly. Allow room for digestion there. Not just digestion of food, but the material of life. Breathe air all the way down to the belly and feel it expand, allowing for space. Draw your attention to your hips, allowing for a release of tension there. Feeling solidly supported by the chair that you sit on or the earth that you lay on. And on the exhales, bringing relaxation and release to the muscles of the legs, the upper legs, knees, lower legs, top of the feet. Bottom of the feet, big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe. Pick each. Finally, do one scan from the very crown center of your head, your scalp, the skin on your face, jaw, your neck and upper back. Your spine strong and long, your arms, hands, your expansive heart center and belly, your hips, legs, and feet. Notice how your entire body is now relaxed Ready to receive. You can stay in this place and we'll transition into the loving kindness meditation. All of us have a natural capacity to experience loving joy and loving kindness. Think of a time when you felt loved unconditionally. Feel it in your body. Where did you experience it? You might notice a heaviness in your chest, a feeling in your belly, maybe something in your throat, or maybe It's all over. It's okay if you don't notice anything too. There's absolutely no right or wrong. Maybe you can think of one incident where you felt loved or taken care of. That's the kind of feeling that we want to generate today. Remember that during this meditation, your mind will still be working. And you'll have thoughts and distractions. No judgment. Just come back to your breath and come back to my words. I encourage you to maintain an open and curious mind. Allow yourself grace. Remember a time when you felt your own inherent goodness. And loving nature. If you have trouble thinking of a time when you were very loving and kind, imagine how another person who loves you sees you and how they would describe you and a time when they felt your love. Or you can even remember the unconditional love. Of a pet. You might imagine yourself as an infant, precious and innocent, and generate love for yourself as an infant. Breathe in that glow of loving kindness. Exhale any barriers or any obstacles to experiencing your own loving kindness towards yourself. I'm going to offer some phrases that will help reinforce the feelings of loving kindness towards yourself. You can use these phrases, so if you'd like, you can repeat after me silently in your mind. May I be content and at ease. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I give and receive love freely. May I know the natural joy of being alive. Now repeat these words of kindness and friendship to yourself once more. May I be content and at ease. May I feel connected and calm. May I accept myself just as I am. May I give and receive love freely. May I know the natural joy of being alive. Let's expand the circle of loving kindness by calling to mind someone who is dearest to you. Someone you care about and who is always supportive. Usually the first person that comes to mind is the right one. Reflect on this person's basic goodness, what you appreciate about them. Repeat these words of gratitude after me, saying, May you be content and at ease. May you feel connected and calm. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you give and receive love freely. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Call to mind a neutral person, someone you might see on a regular basis but don't know too well. Maybe a cashier at the store. René Burr. Let's repeat these loving words to this neutral person. May you be content and at ease. May you be connected and calm. May you accept yourself just as you are. May you give and receive love freely. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Now call to mind someone that you have trouble with. Maybe someone you have a hard time finding sympathy or compassion. See if it's possible to let go of just a little bit of the resentment that you have. Remind yourself to see this person as a whole being. Someone who also suffers, and someone who wants to be loved and cared for. See if it's possible to extend this person loving kindness. And repeat in your mind, may you be content and at ease. May you feel connected and calm. May you accept yourself. Just as you are. May you give and receive love. Pray me. May you know the natural joy of being alive. Finally, call to mind yourself, a loved one, a neutral person, and a difficult person. Then widen your awareness to include all of humankind. All living beings, Mother Earth, everyone living in richness, poverty, war, peace, hunger, abundance. Aware of all the joys and sorrows that all beings experience. Let's extend loving kindness to all beings everywhere. May all beings everywhere be content and at ease. May all beings feel connected and calm. May all beings accept themselves as they are. May all beings give and receive love freely. May all beings know the natural joy of being alive. Spend some moments sealing in this practice by just coming back into your breath and noticing what you feel in your body. If you're lying down, begin to bring some movement in your fingers and toes. Eventually, in your own time, roll onto one side, making pillow with your arm, and then you can push yourself up to seated. For those of us who are sitting, you can gently lower your chin to your chest and blink open your eyes. And if you want, you can bring your hands to heart center. Thank you so, so much for joining me today, and thank yourselves for making this time for yourself. The teacher and student in me honors the teacher and student in you. Namaste. Thank you.