Practice Loving Kindness
This is a mindfulness meditation that has many benefits such as building your empathy and compassion as well as helping you recognise that we are all human, we all have struggles and we are all in this together.
It’s important to say you don’t need to feel loving when practicing this meditation, you might experience different feelings and sensations in your body as you wish kindness to everyone and that’s okay. There’s really no wrong way to practice this meditation.
This and other mindfulness practices are about being aware of your feelings and not trying to change them or judge them in any way. Noticing difficult feelings is a step towards healing.
Based on research from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (USA) there are physical and emotional benefits to practicing Loving-Kindness including:
Reduced stress response
Reduced self-criticism
Increased empathy
Improved social connection and interpersonal relationships
Increased positive emotions and decreased negative emotions
Decreased migraines and chronic pain
Decreased bias towards others
Not bad for a 10 minutes a day practice right?
The Loving- Kindness meditation.
Sit in a comfortable place and set a timer for 10 mins. Close your eyes.
Focus your attention on your breathing for a few seconds. Allow yourself to settle.
Bring to your mind someone for whom you have deep feelings of love.
Notice how these feelings manifest in your body: it could be a smile, a sense of warmth on your chest, a tingling sensation
However they do. Allow yourself to feel them.
Then let go of this person in your imagination but stay aware of those feelings as you go onto the next steps.
Bring to your attention different individuals and see if you can direct those loving feelings towards them. Offer them the following loving-kindness phrase:
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live in peace.
Start by offering this loving-kindness to yourself.
2. After a few breaths, continue with a friend or someone you care for.
3. Keep that person in mind for a few breaths, when you are ready, bring to your attention a stranger.
4. Now, someone you find difficult or brings up feelings of irritation or annoyance. Stay there for a few breaths and notice any feelings and sensations that might arise within you..
5. Then bring to your mind your broader community - this could be your work colleagues, your extended family, etc. And extend this loving kindness to all living creatures.
Notice your feelings and sit with them for a few moments.
Take 2 more deep breaths.
Open your eyes.