Loving Kindness Meditation

Loving-kindness meditation originated from Buddhist meditation. The word “metta” means positive energy and kindness toward others.

The goal of metta meditation is to cultivate kindness for all beings, including yourself and:

family
friends
neighbors
acquaintances
difficult people in your life
animals

The main technique of metta meditation involves reciting the positive phrase

Transcript

Loving kindness meditation today we will be practicing on loving kindness let's take a moment to allow your body to settle find a comfortable position that allows your spine to be long but with a natural curve in the lower back you may want to close your eyes or partially close your eyes looking forward in a few feet so that there will be minimum distraction to help us focus or gain some initial stability let's bring our attention and awareness to the breath at the belly in here noticing the sensation of your breath as here noticing the sensation of the breath notice the belly rises and falls there's nothing else that you need to do just observe the sensation of the breath now let the belly and your shoulders relax relax your face relax your neck your arms hands let it loosen the muscles relax your legs loosen the muscles at your legs now bring the attention back to your breath we are going to generate a wish for well-being for ourselves and others in this practice before we start take a full breath in and a long breath out allow the breath to settle the body and settle the mind let's begin with the loving kindness practice i will provide a few phases that you can use to offer loving kindness to yourself and others you may repeat this phrase silently or just follow along you may also replace these phrases with the ones that work well for you may i be happy may i be healthy may i be safe from suffering may i live in ease see what it is like as you keep repeating these words what does it mean for you how do you feel if it is uncomfortable to wish yourself well try releasing a little bit of resistance just letting the phrase be here around you now let's try again i want you to visualize yourself the image of yourself sitting in front of you and you are here to wish yourself well may i be happy may i be healthy may i be safe from sufferings may i live in ease now visualize yourself receiving these well wishes and your face brighten up radiating with happiness and you feel much better much more calm as these well wishes radiate around you now visualize your family members the one that was the most important to you they are in front of you they are sitting down and you like to wish them well and happy may you be happy may you be healthy may you be free from sufferings may you live in ease so and see that your family members your face brighten up from your well wishes and they thank you and they were delighted now visualize your teachers or mentors or coaches or guru or anyone who has guided you in this life visualize them sitting down looking at you gently and you like to wish them well may you be happy may you be healthy may you be free from sufferings may you live in ease and your teachers or mentors or coaches their face will fill with delight that you wish them well and happy your sincere wishes your positive vibes has given them strength and hope now visualize your close friends sitting near you or in front of you and similarly you like to wish them well may all of you be happy may all of you be healthy may all of you be healthy may all of you be safe from sufferings may all of you live in ease and your friends face shine with delighted happiness and peace from your well wishes and they thank you for it now send your well wishes to anyone in this house or this apartment or this building that they are well and happy may all of you be happy may all of you be healthy may all of you be free from sufferings may all of you live in ease and see everyone in this apartment or buildings they are happy from your well wishes their face brighten up for the rest of the day because of these wishes now let's extend this well wish further let's extend to the people of this country regardless of values or religions or race or languages let's extend our well wishes to the residents of this country may all of you be happy may all of you be healthy may all of you be free from suffering may all of you live in ease and visualize the residents of these countries they were smiling and happy from your well wishes the positive vibes that you have extended across the streets to different people let's extend our well wishes much further to all beings on this planet whether it is humans, Animals or insects let's extend our well wishes to them may all of you be happy may all of you be healthy may all of you be free from sufferings may all of you live in ease now think of all the beings on this planet and they are well and happy and they are glad for your kindness the well wishes that has been extended to them now how do you feel in this moment what are the sensations of your body what is the quality of your mind now bring that large circle of loving kindness back towards yourself and visualize everyone those you have sent the loving kindness that they wish you well may I be happy may I be healthy may I be free from suffering may I live in ease allow the loving kindness to flow through your bodies like a sun radiating imagine the sun radiating from your heart and the source of energy is the loving kindness visualize the energy of loving kindness flowing through your legs your arms your doormen your back your neck and flowing through your face and the head bring awareness to your whole body that the loving kindness is radiating around your body, Inside your body towards outside how are you feeling now what are the sensations that you're observing now breathing in and out allow yourself to be fully present with whatever there is now let's finish this loving kindness by taking a full breath in and a full breath out