One of the challenges that many beginners (and seasoned practitioners!) find in meditation is the volume of thoughts that come up when we try to sit still without distraction. So - we're not going to do nothing to start out. You'll practice a metta, or lovingkindness meditation, where instead of trying to focus on your breath or sound, we try to focus on repeated phrases that evoke a sense of warm-heartedness towards ourselves and others. It takes practice, but the phrases provide structure to keep going back to.

I wanted to share you with you a simple one that I've used for a few years, and one that I wrote a few weeks ago that feels a little more in tune with everything going on right now, that I adapted from Anna Guest-Jelley, a founder of a body-positive yoga school called Curvy Yoga. They both follow a general structure - in the first cycle, we send lovingkindness towards ourselves; next, towards someone else (a stranger, a friend...if you're up for a challenge, someone you're at odds with); then, towards all beings.

Find a quiet place to sit or lie down. You can say each phrase aloud, or silently in your mind. It's ok if you forget the words - maybe you'll create phrases that feel more meaningful to you. You can focus on just one stanza, repeating the lines a few times, or move through them at your own pace.

 - A familiar version:

May I be happy

May I be safe

May I be at peace

May I live with ease

May you be happy

May you be safe

May you be at peace

May you live with ease

May all beings be happy

May all beings be safe

May all beings be at peace

May all beings live with ease

...and the more recent one I've been using:

May I greet myself with gentleness

May I soften when life invites me to harden

May I pause to find perspective

May I trust my own resilience

May you greet yourself with gentleness

May you soften when life invites you to harden

May you pause to find perspective

May you trust your own resilience

May we greet each other with gentleness

May we soften when life invites us to harden

May we pause to find perspective

May we trust our shared resilience

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