Find a comfortable spot and grab a comfy blanket if you need, because this episode of Yoga Inspiration is a metta meditation practice designed to help you cultivate love, peace, and kindness, both within yourself and in the energy around you.

I hear too often from my yoga students and other yogis out in the world that they are intimidated by metta practice. How can we be intimidated by this loving, warm, and kind energy? Because life is hard, and living as a human being is very overwhelming. We can end up feeling caught up in the negativity and just stuck in it.

How can we be worthy of cultivating metta with all this anger and ugly feelings?

You ARE worthy. Love cannot exist without the balance of its opposite, more angry energy. Your shadow side makes you whole, and embracing your shadow self is a major part of this metta practice.

For me, I woke up in a yucky mood after not getting a good night's sleep. I'm starting today's meditation with very negative emotions from the tiredness and frustration of fitful sleep. That doesn't mean I'm not worthy of the loving energy I'm about to share with you.

You aren't being fair to yourself if you're denying yourself this practice simply because you feel mad, hurt, or anxious. If you feel that way, it's even more reason to sit here with me today and join this metta meditation.

Every being sitting here will be a part of this vibration in our hearts. You will feel a palpable increase of energy as all of us connect, and listen, and meditate on our metta practice. Whatever you're feeling today, I want you to sit with it and take these few minutes to redirect your attention inward and into your heart space.

In our metta meditation, we will be focusing on the three points of mindfulness so that you may anchor an awareness of yourself. It will help to relieve some of these negative emotions we're carrying with us.

These three points of mindfulness cultivate a seat of equanimity with us that stops us from passing judgment on ourselves or our thoughts. Take a moment to read over these before you start this meditation so that you can prepare yourself to let go of the ego and truly embrace the path of metta:

1. First, become aware of your breath.
2. Second, become aware of your body.
3. Third, notice the quality of your thoughts and your emotions.

I will be going more in-depth with our mindfulness as we meditate, but this is just the beginning of what is a lifelong practice designed to train the mind to operate beyond the ego and beyond the material. No matter how you're feeling today, this metta meditation practice will help you embrace and overcome the ego and its negative emotions.

Please share some of the lessons you've learned on the yoga mat with me and my listeners. Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me - what does yoga mean to you? You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast with Kino MacGregor.

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