Loving Kindness - A Meditation

The practice of meditating on loving-kindness may be over two thousand years old. Although it may feel a bit mechanical at first, many who have used it experience greater feelings of compassion and love towards both themselves and others. Here's how you do it:

Sit comfortably wherever you normally do your meditating. Relax and let your mind quiet down a little. Start repeating the following in your mind:

May I be at peace with myself...

May I know joy...

May I be relaxed and well...

May I know love...

Picture yourself as a child in the arms of a loved one, or just let feelings of kindness and love arise in you. Repeat the lines for fifteen to twenty minutes, allowing the good feelings to permeate your body and mind. Do this meditation for several weeks, until you notice a sense of loving kindness growing for yourself.

Then you can expand your meditation focus to include others, replacing "I" with "he" or "she" as you repeat the words. Hold a picture of the person in your mind. Try focusing on even the most difficult people in your life.

Begin this method as a meditation. Once you can easily recite the words, you can use them as a loving-kindness exercise while driving, or waiting for an appointment, or wherever. Why not try it today?

Related Links:

What is meditation?

Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.
Meditation as a form of alternative medicine brings about mental calmness and physical relaxation by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one's mood.
A discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. Employed since ancient times in various forms by all religions, the practice gained greater notice in the post war US as interest in Zen Buddhism rose. Meditation is now used by many nonreligious adherents as a method of stress reduction; known to lower levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Enhances recuperation and improves the body’s resistance to disease.
Meditation is an easy and simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. It is easily learned and has been used as an aid in treating stress, anxiety, pain management, and as part of an overall treatment for other conditions including hypertension and heart disease. Research shows that meditation decreases the heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption, and even decreases blood pressure.