Settle your body into a posture of calmness and ease.
Let your eyes gently close.
Take a few moments to be aware of your body. If there are areas of tension or tightness, gently relax them.
Be aware of the stillness of your body. Sense the natural rhythm of your breath moving within your body.
With each out-breath, let your mind calm, releasing any reoccupations of busyness.
Reflect for a moment on all the ways you treasure peace. Connect with your own longing to be free from conflict and harm, your longing for safety, acceptance, and understanding.
Consciously invite into your attention a person in your life you are currently struggling with or feel alienated from.
As you hold an image of them in your attention, remembering them as clearly as you can, sense the feelings that may arise in response to that image -- fear, anger, mistrust, resistance....
Hold those feelings gently, without judgment or blame, and sense their pain and heaviness.
Sense how they impact on your body and how they provoke all the old stories of anger or hurt in your mind.
Simply hold that world of tightness and pain in a warm and caring attention.
Ask yourself what would be needed to let go of that pain, resistance, or fear. Would you be need to let go of your stories about that person, your desire for vengeance, or your fear of them?
Would it be possible for you to find in yourself a greater generosity, loving kindness, or forgiveness?
What would it mean to let go of the judgments and to seek to understand the life, heart, and mind of another?
If you find that your mind and heart begin to be overwhelmed by painful emotions, just come back to rest your attention in your breathing and your body for a time.
When you are ready, renew your connection with the person you find difficult and again explore the possibility of that relationship being radically different than it is at this time.
Sometimes it is useful to visualize that person as an infant or as an aged and frail person facing the same life uncertainties that you face, sharing with you the longing for kindness and care.
Again ask yourself what can be released in your own heart so that the difficult person is no longer seen as an enemy.
Let the questions rest softly in your attention, without demanding an answer. Listen to your own heart's response and the wisdom of your own mind.
When you are ready, open your eyes.
As you go into your day, take with you the commitment to make peace with all things, to be at peace with yourself and with all of the people who touch your life.
— Christina Feldman in Heart of Wisdom, Mind of Calm