Loving Kindness - Wishing (yourself) well
Sit quietly and take a few moments to settle in. Relax while noticing your natural breathing pattern. Focus on the in breath and out breath.
Visualize someone you love dearly, that brings you deep joy. (For me, it was my son that I adore)
Take some time to let yourself really feel the love and appreciation you have for them.
With that feeling, turn to an image of yourself as if you are looking in the mirror.
When I did this, I felt the corners of my mouth dip down from a grin to a flat expression. As I noticed what happened when I turned to my own image, it became obvious that it is an important practice for me.
Next she used Sharon Salzberg's Loving Kindness Meditation series of simple invitations that we silently repeated to ourselves in our own language:
May I be safe and protected
May I be physically and mentally well
May my heart be open
May I be at peace.
Repeat the above invitations for an amount of time that you can commit to each day. I'm not sure who said it, but I love this quote about setting aside time for meditation:
If you have 30 minutes, meditate for 30 minutes. If you don't have 30 minutes, meditate for an hour.
In the past, I've done versions of this meditation in a series of repetitions starting at myself then out to others, including friends, family and even those I'm not fond of. Staying with these invitations for myself was particularly healing. I know that practicing this regularly will create the basis of peace working within first so that radiating that out to others will be more authentic, thus more powerful.
Try it yourself and find out what other jewels Micki might have waiting for you.
https://livingmindfully.net
Grace in, peace out,
Brooke