#51 Loving Kindness Meditation

100+ways
Written By Heal The Planet

Loving Kindness Meditation is a practice in opening one’s heart toward others. Did you know loving kindness practice can increase your health, cultivate deeper connections with others, as well as connect you deeper to our mother earth and our planet? How would it feel to be completely open and compassionate for all beings? By connecting ourselves deeper into the lives of others and our planet, we can better maneuver as stewards.

What is Loving Kindness:

Loving kindness is a way to develop feelings of good will, warmth, compassion and kindness to others. Cultivating loving kindness can; enhance your overall well-being, improve your relationship with yourself and others, enhance emotional intelligence and increase your immunity. There are many ways to cultivate loving kindness, but the most common is through meditation. Loving kindness meditation is based on four main wishes for all beings. They include: May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be healthy, and may you be at ease. This can easily reverberate throughout all of nature, beginning with ourselves. The more we cultivate loving kindness for ourselves, the more we can share with the world. Take a look at some of the benefits of loving kindness.

Loving Kindness Facts:

  • A 2012 study found that those participants in loving kindness meditation interventions report experiencing more positive emotions and more gains in perception of social connection as well.

  1. Loving kindness meditation has been shown to activate and strengthen areas of the brain responsible for empathy.

  2. A 2014 study showed 6 weeks of Loving Kindness Meditation training decreases implicit bias against minorities.

  3. One study showed loving kindness increased participants’ empathic responses to the distress of others,

  4. Loving kindness practice increases grey matter in the brain.

  5. Loving kindness practice has been shown to decrease chronic pain, as well as PTSD.

  6. A study found that practicing seven weeks of loving kindness meditation increased multiple positive emotions including love, joy, contentment, gratitude and hope.

 

How Can I Make An Impact ?

Action 1: Global Goodness

  • Start slow. Many people when taking on new habits do too much too soon. Start slow with this practice and let it cultivate within. Commit to a few minutes daily and watch it grow. 

  • Sit quietly in a comfortable position and focus on cultivating the four wishes above to different people you know, and may not know, including yourself.  

  • After you have completed your wishes for others, sit quietly for a few moments to let the energy settle.

Action 2: Planet Protector

  • All of Action 1

  • Work toward spending more time each week meditating in loving kindness.  

  • Focus on all beings, not just humans. Many sentient beings are currently suffering from human activities. Spread love to them so they may be well.

  • Share with you friends and family. The more people that practice loving kindness, the higher our vibratory energy will rise.

Action 3: Earth Angel

  • All of Action 1 & 2

  • Start a group for loving kindness meditations in your area. Research more about the techniques and gather friends, family and community members to come together in raising the collective consciousness by practicing loving kindness.

  • Choose to be an Ambassador for Change, and always Spread Love and Spread Light.

  • “Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have. We can lead our life so as to become more awake to who we are and what we’re doing rather than trying to improve or change or get rid of who we are or what we’re doing. The key is to wake up, to become more alert, more inquisitive and curious about ourselves.”– Pema Chodron

 
 
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