Tara Brach - Meditation: Embodied Metta (19:37 min.)

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Lovingkindness becomes full when it is energetically experienced in our bodies. This meditation guides us in awakening the receptivity, warmth and openness of metta through our body, and then invites us to rest in the space of loving presence, as we open to whatever arises.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. The title of this meditation is Embodying Meta, which is Loving Kindness, really bringing the felt sense of loving kindness alive in our bodies. So if you'd like to adjust how you're sitting in any way that allows you to be comfortable, and some of you might choose to be lying down or to be standing whatever best serves. Closing your eyes. Taking a few full breaths.

Let these breaths gather your attention, collect you, bring you right here. Nice deep, in full, out completely. Filling the lungs with the in-breath. Releasing with the out-breath. And you might begin by visualizing. a wide open sky, a big blue sky, and imagining the curved impression of a smile just spreading through the skies, the receptivity of a smile, the openness of a smile. And then imagine your mind can merge with that wide open sky. So your mind is filled with the curve of a smile. And with that

openness and that receptivity. And then gently bringing the attention to your eyes and sensing the smile spreading through your eyes, letting the outer corners of your eyes lift, letting the eyes soften and the brow be smooth. Your eyes are smiling. And you might feel a smile at the lips, a slight smile, what Ticknodhang calls Smile Yoga, because it sends a message to your entire nervous system to relax. It helps you get in touch with a sense of benevolence and ease. See if you can feel the inside of your mouth smiling. Eyes are smiling, the mouth is smiling, letting all the little muscles of the face relax. You might visualize and visualize and feel the sense of a smile at the throat, that curve of a smile there.

And sense the openness it creates. You might sense your throat filling your neck, space, openness, receptivity, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck so that ease is spreading now. Feeling the length, the volume of the arms and letting the hands be soft. You might soften the hands again, let them rest. in a very easy, effortless way. And still feeling the eyes are smiling. The mouth is smiling.

Smile at the throat. And then smiling into the heart. Visualizing and feeling the spread of a smile through the heart in the chest area and sensing the space it creates. The space that has room for whatever's here. and letting that sense of a smile, the heart, just radiate outward, further relaxing the shoulders, the arms, feeling it radiating and relaxing the upper back, midback, lower back, a receptive,

open presence. The eyes are smiling in the mouth, the throat, and the heart. And now letting this next breath be received and a soft. softening belly, this breath. And now this one, relaxing through the lower torso and you might visualize and have the felt sense of a smile spreading through the belly. And sense how that openness of a smile makes room for whatever's here, feeling the aliveness, the space in the belly. And continuing to scan down the body with this image of a smile, this openness and receptivity of a smile, you might visualize and sense a smile spreading through the pelvic region. And again, sense the openness, the aliveness that's there, letting that receptivity and

openness spread through the legs, the feet, so that if you widen the attention now, you can sense the atmosphere of a smile spreading, permeating, and expressing through your entire body, sensing the space around you filling with a smile, allowing a further expansion, openness, ease. You might deepen your attention and notice if there's any part of your body sensations or your emotional body that is asking for a healing attention that there's something calling for acceptance, for openness, for healing,

to sense the spirit of a smile spreading through that area. So if you could smile into any place that feels wounded or blocked or tight, letting that space and part of your being be held in the loving kindness of a smile. And just notice what happens. Continuing in presence now,

you might sense in the foreground, the gentle movement of the breath, hearing the sounds and the space around you, and feeling the aliveness of the body moment to moment, and sensing in the background the tender presence that holds this life. And if anything arises, it calls your attention, sense that you can bring the spirit of a smile, that loving kindness and care, offering space,

gentleness, warmth to the life that's here. You might notice where your attention is right now. And if the mind is drifted, you can find the image and felt sense of a smile is a pathway back to an embodied and kind presence. Again, sensing the smile spreading through the eyes and softening the eyes. Slight smile at the mouth, feeling the inside of the mouth smiling. Visualized and sense the curve of the smile at the throat. And then smiling into the heart.

Just imagine and sense that curve of a smile spreading through the heart in the chest. And sensing the space it creates for the heart. the life that's right here. Soft and open, tender. It's breathing with whatever you're experiencing, relaxing, with whatever you're experiencing. Letting this moment be held with a gentle and kind presence. You can start fresh in any moment, inviting the spirit of a smile that fundamental friendliness towards life into your body. As a way of closing, you might sense the heart space that's here, the space of a smile, holding your own human heart, your own being.

And sense from that heart space, whatever message of care, whatever offering or prayer you'd like to offer to yourself in this moment, what's your wish for yourself? And sensing this heart space is our shared and loving awareness, the field of loving awareness that holds ourselves in our world. We close together with our shared prayer, that all beings everywhere feel held in loving kindness, filled with loving kindness.

That all beings everywhere live their lives from this awake, heart of loving kindness.