Loving Kindness Meditation Script: A Journey Into the Heart

Let’s start by settling—not just into the body, but mentally, emotionally, and energetically. Wherever you are, let yourself fully land here. Find a way to sit that allows you to be both alert and at ease. You may sit on a cushion, in a chair, or lie down if you need to. Allow your spine to be long, your shoulders to be soft, your hands resting lightly in your lap or at your side. There is nowhere else to go. Nothing else to do. Just this.

Now take a slow, deep breath in through your nose… and exhale gently through your mouth. With each inhale, imagine drawing in calm, and with each exhale, feel yourself releasing whatever tension the day has left behind. Take a few more breaths at your own pace, letting your breath be an anchor—something steady, something kind.

As we start this loving-kindness meditation, or Metta, we are sowing seeds of goodwill—not only for others, but for ourselves. We are cultivating opening the heart, exercising it like a soft muscle that becomes stronger with attention, patience, and love.

This is not a practice of pretending or forcing emotions. It’s a practice of making space—for compassion, for understanding, for healing. Even when it doesn’t feel comfortable. Even when it doesn’t feel easy. Especially when it doesn’t feel easy.

Let’s begin where we tend to forget to search: with us. Bring awareness to your heart center, the area in the center of your chest. Don’t visualize something or try to make something happen. Simply tune in to how it feels to be you, in this exact moment. No judgment. Simple presence.

Repeat silently the following lines, sharing them with yourself in the same loving kindness you might share with a close friend. If the words come across as remote or unfamiliar, that’s fine. Allow them to wash over you nonetheless. Allow them to settle in your heart like a quiet prayer.

Loving Kindness Meditation

May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.

Let the words emerge on the breath. If that feels comfortable, put a hand on your heart. Sense the heat of your own hand. You are not here to repair yourself. You are here to love yourself.

May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live with ease.

Say it as if you mean it. And if you don’t yet mean it, say it as if someday you will.

Now, recall someone who puts a smile in your heart. This may be a friend, a partner, a precious pet, or even a teacher who has always been kind to you. Imagine this person being in your mind’s eye. Visualize them. Visualize their face, their smile, the way they make you feel.

Also Read: Heart Chakra Meditation: A Path to Inner Healing and Connection

Hold them softly in your heart and extend to them the same loving-kindness you extended to yourself.

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.

Let your breath take these words like a gift. You are offering love not through effort, but through openness.

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.

You are opening the limits of your heart.

Now bring to mind softly a person you remain neutral about—someone you pass in the hallway but do not know very well. Perhaps it is the barista who makes your coffee. The mailman. A neighbor you don’t talk to frequently. A person who leads a life as multifaceted, as holy as yours, yet to which you will perhaps never be privy.

Visualize them in your head. Visualize them when they were a child. Visualize them as a being who also wishes to be safe, to be loved, to be free from pain. And provide:

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.

Notice the subtle adjustment that occurs when you practice kindness towards those who are not familiar to you. You are dismantling the invisible barriers between us.

May you be safe.
May you be at peace.
May you be well.
May you live with ease.

Now, if you are ready, recall someone with whom you struggle. It might be someone who hurt you, someone who triggers you, or just someone who tests your patience. Don’t pick the most hurtful person—pick someone bearable for the time being. This is an exercise, not an examination.

Imagine this person. Do you feel any tension that comes up. You don’t have to agree with what they did or act like there was no harm. You’re just being open to seeing their humanity.

You might want to start with a gentler sentence: Just as I want to be free from suffering, you do too.

And then, as you feel comfortable, extend:

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.

If this is impossible to you, that’s alright. You’re showing up. You’re attempting. That is enough.

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live at ease.

Source:- https://www.mindful.org/

Now let your heart open again. Visualize all the individuals you’ve considered today—you, your loved one, the neutral, the challenging one. Visualize them all seated together in a large circle. Each of them simply trying to survive, to love, to navigate.

Now expand that circle. Include everyone in your city. In your nation. On this earth. Imagine strangers, friends, and foes. Imagine celebrants and mourners. Prisoners and hospital patients. The newly born and the soon to die.

Take a breath as vast as the sea and speak this blessing for all beings everywhere:

May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be joyful.
May all beings be well.
May all beings live with ease.

Rest here for a moment. Let your heart breathe.

May all beings be safe.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be healthy.
May all beings live with ease.

You are included in that wish. You are not isolated. You are a strand in the grand web of life.

Now, gradually bring your awareness back into your body. Notice the support underneath you. The movement of your breath rising and falling. The air around you. Start to wiggle your fingers and toes. Gently open your eyes if they’ve been closed.

Pause a moment to pay attention to how you feel. There can be peace. There can be resistance. There can be nothing. All of these are welcome. The seeds have been sown. Trust that.

And recall: loving-kindness is not something you do once. It is a manner of being. A manner of moving through the world. A manner of touching life—and being touched by life.

Carry this kindness forward with you. Into your next breath. Into your next exchange. Into your next decision. Let it overflow outward in all directions, perhaps in ways that you will never notice. The world needs your love—not always perfect, nor performative, but simply real.

May you be safe.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.