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Important Note: the Library is still being stocked and will soon be full of great resources! Please be patient as we continue adding new content.
In the meantime, here is a guided meditation, written by Maureen Smith.
Loving Kindness Meditation Practice for End of Life
By Maureen Smith, MSW, RCSW, Counsellor, Meditation Teacher and Clear Sky Resident
Begin by bringing awareness to your posture and sit upright and straight, so you are encouraging your body and mind to be alert, awake and relaxed. Bring your awareness to the present moment, letting go of everything that has happened up until now, this moment. And let go of thoughts about anything that may happen after this meditation is over.
Focus on the present by feeling your body in the chair you are in, by noticing the pressure on your body where it is in contact with the chair. Feel the soles of your feet on the floor. Notice the rise and fall of your abdomen as you breathe in and breathe out. Slowly allow and encourage the body and mind to slow down and be present in this moment, just as it is. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing to do. Just notice this moment of touch – feet on the floor. Body in the chair. Rise and fall of the abdomen. Breath by breath.
Now bring your attention to the place in your body in the middle of your chest between the breasts, in your heart center. Start to allow your attention to gently focus on the heart center of the body, in the middle of the chest. Notice any sensation that you may notice there.
In your heart center, start to imagine a small light in the shape of a globe, a rose, or a lotus flower. Imagine the light is the colour of a beautiful peachy-rose coloured flower petal. Let the light glow and illuminate within your heart center. Let it slowly gain strength and brightness as you breathe in. Allow your breath to flow normally.
As you exhale, notice how the lit-up rose, lotus flower, ball of light gets bigger. Now it grows to the size of a golf ball. As you breathe in, the light glows brighter, and as you breathe out, the size gets larger. A beautiful rosy-peachy coloured light expands and grows and begins to fill your chest area. Breathe in – brighter, exhale – larger. Breathe in brighter and exhale larger. As you increase the amount of light, see in your mind’s eye how the light starts to fill up your entire torso.
The light glows and grows and spreads. It moves and flows through your entire torso and down into your legs, filling them up. The light expands and flows into your feet and even to the tips of your toes. The light continues to expand and flows out into your arms filling up your hands and even into the very ends of your fingertips.
Breathe in, and as you exhale, the warm light expands and flows up through your neck filling your shoulders, neck, head, face, and right up to the top of the crown of your head.
Now you are completely full of beautiful, warm, and glowing light. Gentle, warm, and peachy-rose coloured light fills your body. Nourishing, soothing, and gracing you with loving kindness. You can say silently to yourself:
May I be free of fear and enmity.
May I be comfortable.
May I be well.
May I be at peace.
You may feel like it is all you can do to feel the loving kindness towards yourself. And if so, just stop right here and take it in. Feel the loving kindness completely envelop you, from head to toe.
But maybe you feel that you are completely filled up with bright, glowing loving kindness, and there is more energy still to share. If so, you can allow the warm nourishing light to spread beyond your body. Direct it to someone you care about and feel close to. Maybe to the person you are with who is dying. You can let the light travel from you at your heart center and imagine it flowing into them and into their heart center and filling up their body much the way the light spread and filled you up. Easefully and gently. You can wish them the same thoughts of loving kindness you wished for yourself. Silently and gently with loving kindness. You can say silently to yourself:
May you be free of fear and enmity.
May you be comfortable.
May you be well.
May you be at peace.
Allow the light and warm wishes to flow on your breath into the space around you. Allow the warm nourishing light to spread beyond your body once again. Direct it to others around you. Maybe to the people around the dying person. These may be people you get along with well, or not. Maybe you know them well, or maybe you have just met. Regardless how you feel about them, realize that sharing loving kindness with them is easy and beneficial to the dying person. Again, let the light travel from you at your heart center and imagine it flowing into the dying person, and then also into the others around. Let it flow into their heart centers and bodies. Easefully and gently. You can wish them the same thoughts of loving kindness. Silently and gently share the loving kindness. You can say silently to yourself:
May you be free of fear and enmity.
May you be comfortable.
May you be well.
May you be at peace.
When you feel it is time, allow the light to start to recede back into your body like waves on an ocean shore receding back into the ocean. Allow the loving kindness words to cease. Allow the light to come back from all people, back from the space around you. Gently and easefully bring the light back from your extremities and back into your torso. Back into your heart center. Allow the light to get smaller and smaller, dimmer and dimmer. Until there is only a tiny spark of light left. And in your heart center let that little spark of light vanish. Know that at any time you can again develop and grow this light of loving kindness within yourself. Ready to be shared with yourself and others.