We can easily get trapped in our own emotions and narratives, let alone the ways we can encounter obstacles in society. Here, Jenée Johnson leads a loving-kindness practice, adapted from the work of Dr. Shelly Harrell, that focuses on liberation. Dr. Harrell is a psychologist and a mindfulness teacher. And she has soul-centered phrases for loving-kindness meditation.
A Guided Loving-Kindness Practice
A 3-Minute Loving-Kindness Meditation
1. Invite your body to relax, rolling back your shoulders. Open up your heart space. And allow your breath with every inhale to move through the heart. And every exhale to move back to the heart. I have recently learned that the heart actually sends more messages to the brain and the brain to the heart.
2. Drop your gaze or close your eyes, inviting the body to relax. Please let these phrases wash over you, replenishing, refreshing, and nourishing your soul. May you live in truth and be free. May the light of truth open your eyes and liberate your soul to express its highest calling. May you hear your inner wisdom voice and discern its messages from the illusions, projections, hype, and lies.
3. May any imprisoned part of your being be liberated, unchained, and unshackled from all that keeps you in bondage in any way. May you release and let go of habits, patterns, and behaviors that no longer serve you. May you transcend limitations, those imposed by others and those you have imposed on yourself.
4. May you know that within each moment lives the freedom to choose and to begin again. May you know the divine truth of who you really are, your worth and your value, your gifts and your purpose. May you be free.
Thank you so much for that opportunity to share the words of Dr. Shelly Harrell.
This practice was originally published in November 2020 and is excerpted from the Mindful Live Roundtable on Racial Justice. Watch the full conversation.
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