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Loving Kindness Meditation InstructionsThe practice of loving kindness meditation comes from the Buddhist tradition. Here are two quotes I love from the Dalai Lama that sum up the approach to the practice:"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." Compassion and love - the core principles of loving kindness meditation - clearly align with many other religions and wisdom traditions around the world as well. In addition, psychologists are paying attention to the power of meditation. While most Western psychological research has focused on mindfulness meditation, researcher Barbara Frederickson at UNC has demonstrated the power of loving kindness meditation in cultivating positive emotions (1). In her book Positivity, which overviews her research and its implications, she cites the clear benefits practitioners experience from loving kindness meditation: "Improved abilities to savor and be mindful, having an easier time accepting themselves, finding positive meaning, and trusting others. Practitioners even suffer fewer aches, pains, colds, and flus. . .They become less depressed and more satisfied with life as a whole" (p.117)  All meditation techniques balance your energy field and the energy field around you. But loving kindness meditation in particular promotes energetic balance because your heart produces a large electromagnetic field. In fact, your heart's electronomagnetic field is by far the largest in the body, and it can be measured up to ten feet away.(2) For solid information on Energy Healing and other types of holistic healing practices, here's a great site called Holistic Mindbody Healing. It has lots of free articles and good techniques. In short, for your health, growth, and spiritual development, loving kindness meditation really is a quite powerful practice. Here's how you do it: Preparation: To begin, find somewhere quiet you can remain uninterrupted. Sit in a straight backed chair, or sit on the floor on a meditation cushion or pillow. The most important thing is to sit with spine erect and be comfortable so that you can breath fully and your energy can flow throughout your body easily. Focus on Your Heart: Focus on the area of your heart. (It's actually about two-fingers width to the left of your breast bone, not further over to the left as we typically think.) If it helps you to put your hand over your heart, do so. Once you can focus on your heart, imagine breathing in and out through your heart. Take several deep breaths and feel your heart breathing. Cultivate Gratitude and Love: Once you can breath through your heart, gently cultivate a feeling of gratitude and love for someone or something you love. (At this point, choose something that feels easy and natural to love, not something that's emotionally complicated.) Stay with it until you can feel the feeling of love and gratitude building. If you're stuck, try listing things you're grateful for to get the feelings of gratitude and love flowing. And, try visualizing it as a growing ball of light. From there, focus on gently cultivating the feelings of love, kindness, and compassion. Send Loving-Kindness and Compassion to Yourself: Once you can feel love and compassion, send these feelings throughout your body. Imagine the warm glow of compassion from your heart moving throughout your head, your chest cavity, your arms, your legs. . .Feel it growing throughout you. Send Loving Kindness to Increasing Larger Circles of People: After you send loving kindness to yourself, imagine the loving-kindness radiating in larger and larger circles around you. Send loving kindness to:
Start off with about 10 minutes for practice initially, then move to longer periods up to about 20-30 minutes. As you practice daily, you will literally transform yourself and your world from the inside out. For more information, I'd recommend the Heartmath Solution. They have excellent research and loving kindness meditation techniques. If you've enjoyed this page on loving kindness meditation, you might also want to check out my pages on four great types of meditation and effects of meditation. May you be well happy and peaceful. Enjoy! References (1) Frederickson, Barbara (2009). Positivity. Crown Archetype Publishing. (2) Childre, Doc (1999). The Heartmath Solution. Harper One. Leave Loving Kindness Meditation and Return to Healthy Lifestyle Main Page Leave Loving Kindness Meditation and Return to BPGR Home Related Articles
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