Can loving-kindness help humanity? Explore the origins of this beautiful practice, hear what it means to host Sarahlynn, and learn how to incorporate it into your life.

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In this episode, I discuss:

• 00:54 - Definitions
• 01:44 - Why I love Maitrī and how we can use it
• 02:41 - What a loving-kindness meditation might look like
• 03:21 - Using loving-kindness in the 'real world'
• 04:28 - How I use loving-kindness in my teaching and massage
• 06:19 - The ripple effects of a loving-kindness practice
• 07:45 - A sample loving-kindness meditation!

Episode 1 Transcript:

"I want to chat a little bit today about what exactly is the meaning of Maitrī, how does that relate to what I do, what I offer, and also how I want to live my own life, and see us move forward as humanity. The word itself, its a Sanskrit word, its usually translated as loving-kindness or unconditional loving-kindness. Some of you may be familiar with the equivlaent Pali work 'metta,' if you're heard "metta" meditation instead of "loving-kindness" meditation. Other translations may include words like acceptance, friendliness, benevolence, goodwill. Anything that sort of includes that really radically inclusive love of ourselves and love of others. The practice itself actually comes to us from Buddhism. It's one of the four immeasurables. And the four immeasurables are: loving-kindness, and then also compassion, joy for others, and equanimity. and I personally love, love, love the practice of Metta or Maitrī meditation and how we can use it both in a more specific meditative context to sort of learn, develop the skills and then also how we can start to take that out into the world. So at the end here, I'll offer a really short little lovig-kindness meridation that you can do any time, but I like to start out my morning with it to kind of set my tone for the day. Because I love how it sets me up to remember both that compassionate forgiveness toward myself as I move through my day and the errors that I might make in the troubles I may encounter and then also the reminder to always extend that to others because we never know what others are going through in that moment. So the specific practice is really about imagining or visualizing or calling to mind people who are maybe easier for us to generate happy feelings toward and then moving toward people who are a little more neutral and a little more difficult for us to generate loving feelings toward. And as we sit through that in meditation we learn to sort of tune in to how that show up in our bodies, how that shows up in our nervous systems, and then consciously, oinmtentionally chose the feleing of unconditional love even in the face of that difficulty or resistance and then the hope is again as we practice that regularly on the mat or on the cushion so to speak then we learn to better and better be able to take that out into the world and even continue to generate those feelings of compassion, of forgiveness, of that unconditional loving kindness and acceptance even when somebody cuts us off in traffic or says something that we find really frustrating. And additionally the way that I really like to use it or think about it in the context of what I like to offer to the world is that I really feel like we can get a lot done in the realm of self-care, of doing the deep work, taking care of our minds our bodies and our Spirits, even while continuing to be gentle and offer that loving kindness. So as an example of an experience an example as my yoga practice and yoga teaching has evolved over the years it has come around to much more of an experience of learning to love being in your body and love moving body rather than as a way to achieve some certain goal in the way that your body looks or what your body can achieve. And that in that process of learning to be in our bodies learning to love being in our bodies and make choices around what feels good we're still going to have all those wonderful outcomes we're still moving our bodies we're still gaining those benefits but we sort of shifted the perspective a little bit. Similarly as my massage practice has evolved over the years, and there's some related things to like I've also really gotten into the science of how much pushing on someone else's body can actually change the tissue - spoiler alert it can't - but that is an episode for another day and coming more into this idea of massage as a practice that invites the nervous system and that relationship between the nervous system and the tissues to start to soften and when there is that experience of comfort and ease and safety we see that some of those holding patterns and pain patterns in the body actually start to melt away without doing anything that might be seen as deep or aggressive and those types of body work. And then for me personally you know as I mentioned sort of this idea if we practice on the mat and then we try to take it out into the world it really just highlights how I want to try to show up and the more that I can cultivate this sense of unconditional loving-kindness, acceptance, compassion, forgiveness... As I move out into the world and meet people in that space, that then there's hopefully an invitation, or it creates a little bit of interest in curiosity in others. And then there's that ripple effect and hopefully then we move toward a space where we're all showing up in the world as more compassionate people, as more accepting of others, more accepting of differences, and different opinions. And I definitely don't want to fall into the realm of toxic positivity. I know that me showing up in the world as a forgiving person is not going to fix everything all the time and we still have a lot of work to do as a society and as a planet but I do feel that my personal conduct does start to make a change at will start to ripple out and I hope that it can feel the same for you.

So I want to move into a little bit of a practice now a little bit of a meditation. And it's pretty short, pretty simple just a nice little intro to metta, or maitrī, or loving-kindness meditation. And then I'll be offering some longer practices in the future, so stay tuned for that. So to get started I want you to just get really really comfy cozy. And that could be seated it could be lying down or you can even walk really slowly through a familiar area. And whatever you're choosing - gentle seat, comfy lying down, nice slow walk through a familiar area, I want you to first just bring a little awareness to whatever is connected to the Earth or to the floor. So noticing your feet in your shoes and your shoes on the earth, or noticing parts of your back body or your seat wherever you're resting, feeling into those points of connection your foundation. And then take a moment to notice your breath just feel one natural inhale as it arrives and enters and one natural exhale as it goes. And if you aren seated or lying down and it's comfortable for you go ahead and allow your eyelids to grow a little heavy, soft gaze or maybe eyelids close all the way down. And then I'd like you to bring an awareness to this space just behind your sternum, your heart center. Maybe you have a sense of your heartbeat in this area. I'd like you to place one or both hands on your sternum and then just gently say, you can say it allowed if you like, or you can think it to yourself: "may I be safe from harm, may be I happy just as I am, may I be healthy in mind and body, may I be at peace with whatever happens, may I live joyously, may I live with ease. May I be safe, may I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be at peace, may I live joyously and with ease." And now I would like you to imagine someone in your life who you love very much and who loves you very very much could be someone near or far someone who's still with us or no longer but hold this person in your mind. And I'd like you to direct a sense of unconditional loving kindness and acceptance to this person. And say to this person: "May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at peace, may you live joyously and with ease." And then I'd like you to bring to mind someone someone who is neutral, someone in your life maybe you see fairly regularly, you're not particulary close to, no strong feelings positive or negative. Hokd this neutral person in your mind and say to them: "may you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at peace, may you live joyously and with ease." And then call to mind someone you've had some difficulty with, maybe you're feeling separated or alienated from, maybe there's ongoing tension. And as you bring this person in your body, in your breath, any resistance. Holding this person in your mind as best as you can sending them all your unconditional loving-kindness and acceptance. And as best as you can to this person: "may you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be at peace, may you live joyously and with ease." Bringing your awaress back to the space behind your sternum notice the feeling of an inhale and the feeling of an exhale. Gently bring your hand or hands back to rest wherever is comfortable. Take a moment again to feel again the connection of your body to the Earth or the surface that you're resting on. If you seated or lying down go ahead and start to slowly blink or flutter eyes open take a moment yourself to the space. And then if you'd like you can take a moment to reflect or journal here - how did this feel, what did you notice in your body, notice in your breath? Were there parts that were easier, parts that were more difficult? And then if you'd like also maybe think about how you could carry this into your day, how could you try to show up in this way in those moments that are challenging, that are difficult, to come back to the sense of meeting everyone with this unconditional loving kindness acceptance and forgiveness. So again more practices coming later. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime please reach out if you have any questions or comments and I will see you next time."