In many ways, your heart is like a balloon. You can inflate it with kindness and love, and it expands. But if you get angry or upset, it deflates. It takes a lot of effort to expand the heart.
When we feel stressed, we tend to get small. This meditation will help you expand your heart.
Start by inviting your awareness to the heart. Find a comfortable sitting posture and close your eyes.
Become aware of the sensation of the body breathing. If you are having difficulty doing this, you may want to just focus on the breathing for a few minutes.
Now notice the body.
Bring to mind an emotion you are feeling. Maybe you are feeling irritated or impatient, or maybe it’s more complex.
Notice the feeling, allowing it to arise, fade, and then come back.
After a few minutes, bring to mind a person you love. Think of someone you love deeply, or you can even choose someone you admire.
Think of the qualities you appreciate about this person and the love that you feel for him or her. Just be with the appreciation.
Now expand your awareness to include an emotion you do not like about this person. Maybe you feel jealous or afraid.
With each of these emotions, allow them to arise, fade, and come back.
When you are ready, expand your awareness to include a feeling you would like to hold in your heart.
Imagine the feeling of being filled with compassion. Imagine your heart filled with love and care.
If you like, you can imagine the heart expanding to hold these feelings. Let yourself sink into this meditation, becoming absorbed in the thought that your heart is expanding.
Bring your awareness back to the sensation of the body breathing.
After several minutes of working with the breath, open your eyes.
The practice of loving kindness is based on ancient teachings from India, the Middle East, and Tibet. It’s also called metta or “friendship” meditation.
It involves cultivating love and goodwill toward yourself, toward others, and toward all living beings. This practice helps you to connect with the best part of yourself, others, and life.
There are two ways to offer loving kindness: the “benevolent intent” and the “compassionate action” approach. In the benevolent intent approach, you focus on sending loving thoughts to someone who is suffering. In the compassionate action approach, you send loving actions toward another.
In the benevolent intent approach, you imagine yourself meeting someone who is suffering and sending them a feeling of deep warmth and compassion. In the compassionate action approach, you actually do something for the other person.
To begin practicing loving kindness, find a comfortable posture in which to sit. Bring your attention to the breath and the sensations of the body. As you breathe, imagine the air you inhale as a gift of kindness, entering into the body.
Bring your awareness to the breath, pausing between breaths. Think of yourself as a loving being, and use your breath as the energy to bring about kindness.
As you inhale, imagine you are offering a feeling of caring, kindness, and support. As you exhale, envision you are sending your kindness to the other person. You can think of this person as someone who needs a little bit of kindness and support.
Imagine that your breath is a warm, tender energy that flows into their body, bringing them a sense of peace and ease.
Continue to repeat these phrases, using your breath to bring about kindness and compassion. Each time you inhale, visualize this energy flowing in. Each time you exhale, imagine you are sending this kindness and compassion to the other person.
As you continue to breathe, return your awareness to the breath. Notice how you feel. You may find it helpful to keep in mind that this practice is about kindness and compassion, rather than about gaining merit or avoiding guilt.
When you are ready, close your eyes and invite more kindness into the heart. Bring your awareness to your breath and the sensations of your body.
After a few breaths, you can open your eyes. Stay with the experience of kindness for a few moments, noticing how you feel. You may experience gratitude for the practice and the people you met.
When we practice loving kindness meditation, we bring compassion to ourselves. We offer a simple prayer for our friends, family, and the world.
By the end of this exercise, you can connect to the people in your life. You can offer them some of your love, warmth, and concern, too.
It’s easy to offer compassion to someone else. You can do this while eating, showering, working, and even doing household chores.
In the beginning, you can focus on people who are close to you. Later, you can expand your circle to include people in your community and in the world.
You can practice loving kindness meditation in three ways.
Choose a single object that brings you peace. You can focus on your breath, or you can focus on a picture of a person you love, a flower, or a color.
You can also select a different person from your family, your coworkers, or your community.
For this exercise, choose a single object to focus on.
Sit comfortably and breathe gently. Bring your attention to the feeling of the breath in your body.
Let go of any distractions and focus on your chosen object. It can be large or small. The size doesn’t matter, but it does affect how you see it.
Bring to mind the qualities you like about the object. Think about the physical and emotional characteristics you appreciate.
Inhale deeply and imagine this quality inside your heart. As you exhale, send the quality of this object to others.
Repeat this action for each of the qualities you like about this object. You may focus on the object’s physical attributes, like its shape or color. You may focus on the object’s emotions, like happiness or sadness.
Your mind may be distracted by thoughts or memories about the person. When this happens, just notice it and return your attention to the object.
Repeat the process with each of the qualities you like about the object. Continue this for a few minutes.
After a few minutes, shift your focus to the people in your life. Choose one person who is important to you, one person in your community, and one person in the world.
Once you have a clear picture of who you’d like to offer kindness to, begin expanding your circle of compassion.
Inhale and exhale, breathing with awareness.
Take a few deep breaths to anchor your energy.
Bring to mind the qualities you like about each person. Imagine that you can feel their happiness or sadness, or you can sense their physical characteristics, like a certain smell or color.
As you inhale, imagine that this feeling flows to the person. Imagine that this quality expands to all the people who are important to you.
As you exhale, send the quality of this person to all of the people
Back to the list of loving kindness meditations>>
CLOSE X
Enter your details then hit
"Let me know when it's out"
And you'll be notified as soon as the video series is released.
We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
CLOSE X
Cognitive healing is a natural process that allows your brain to heal and repair itself, leading to improved self-esteem, self-confidence, happiness, and a higher quality of life.
Click GRAB IT to enter your email address to receive the free mini e-book: Cognitive Healing. You'll be caught red handed.
GRAB ITWe won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.