How to do a Loving Kindness Meditation – Benefits, Scripts, Guide, and Tips
If you want to be a better person towards yourself and others here is where you should start. Everyone wants more self-love and respect. Look no further than a loving kindness meditation. Depending on how you do this practice, you can even increase positive feelings towards other people.
While this meditation is a bit complicated due to the many different ways it can be done, many benefits are different from other forms of meditation. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know including specific benefits of loving kindness meditation, scripts you can follow, and more!
What is a Loving Kindness Meditation
So, what is a loving kindness meditation (LKM)? This is a form of meditating in which you focus on cultivating positive feelings towards yourself and towards other people. This is because of the way attention is focused throughout the practice.
Benefits
In general, meditation tends to lower stress and increase self-awareness and emotional regulation. Meditation allows people to be more present and increases their overall outlook on life. A habitual practice of meditation has even been found to help manage addiction, reduce mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and alleviate symptoms of chronic pain. Best of all, meditation can truly help you sleep well, and as we all know from this article here, sleep is vital to overall health.
A loving kindness meditation has many benefits that are unique to this specific practice. Because of the mental work you do during a loving kindness meditation, there is an increase in positive emotion. Studies have found that loving kindness meditations increase a person’s ability to give and receive love and affection. Loving kindness meditations also tend to increase emotional intelligence, activate empathy and emotional processing, and may help you become a more compassionate person. Other benefits of loving kindness meditations are an increase in social connection, a decrease in bias against other people, and an increase in helpful behavior.
How to do a Loving Kindness Meditation
There’s a million dollar question, how do you do a loving kindness meditation? This depends on your goal. If you want to grow as a person and increase self-love and respect, you may choose a loving kindness meditation script that is more focused on internal change. If you want a loving kindness meditation that helps you strengthen social connections with other people, and boost empathy and compassion, you may want to choose a loving kindness meditation that is focused on others.
Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s a simple step-by-step guide for any loving kindness meditation. This is how you set it up, though the middle portion of the meditation practice may differ depending on your personal goals.
1. Find a quiet place to sit or lie down.
For any meditation, we need to create a space in which we feel comfortable simply being in. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Take a couple of deep breaths in and out, focusing on the present moments, the sound of your inhalations and exhalations, and the rise and fall of your chest.
2. Either Practice Towards Yourself
Now, if you are practicing loving kindness meditation for yourself, choose a couple of phrases you can focus on. These phrases tend to start with the word may, a word that invokes hope and permission. Make sure this phrase resonates with you in such a way that you feel it emotionally. Think about the words and how they relate to your experience. For example, if you choose the phrase May I be safe, think about how it feels to be safe, your experience with feeling safe, etc. There are some common phrases that you can use for a meditation:
- May I be happy
- May I be peaceful
- May I be safe
- May I love and appreciate others
- May I love and forgive
- May I be joyful
3. Or Towards Others
If you choose to practice loving kindness meditation towards other people, you can skip step two and come right to this step. Many individuals find it helpful to focus on kindness towards oneself and then direct it toward other people such as your friends, family, etc. Just as we did in step two, find a phrase that you relate to and deeply feel. Some common phrases that you can use for this meditation can be found below:
- May you be happy
- May you be safe
- May you achieve all you desire
- May you have health
- May you find joy
4. Close off With Gratitude
Once you’re done with your loving kindness meditation, it’s time to come back to the present moment, taking a few deep breaths to relax and reset your mind. Check in with yourself, observe how you feel, and notice any emotions that arise. Close off the meditation with gratitude, appreciating the fact that you gave yourself the time to experience a mental practice that has nothing but benefits for you and your health.
Script You Can Follow
Here’s a quick script you can follow for a loving kindness meditation. Just substitute your chosen phrase to make the experience more personalized.
I am present in the moment, breathing deeply, and slowly. This is a happy moment. It is time to focus my attention on what I want and what I need. I give myself permission to feel everything I need to feel, to not judge the thoughts that come to mind, and to simply exist in this present moment.
[insert personalized phrases here].
- May I feel peace. May I feel safe, accepted, and loved.
- May I recognize joy and opportunity when it comes my way.
- May I live free and nourish myself every day with positivity.
[insert personalized phrases here].
I see the good in myself and in others. I allow my love and light to radiate from me and fill the world around me.
Quick Tips for Making Meditation a Habit
Here are some quick tips on making meditation a habit that you stick to. No matter what kind of meditation you choose to practice, the benefits that you can experience are limitless, and shown here.
- Make room – it’s important for us to make room in our life to meditate. This can mean physically creating a space in which we want to meditate with candles, a comfortable seat, etc. It can also mean making the time in our busy schedule to meditate.
- Start short – when we’re first starting out, we should start off with short 10-minute meditations. Once we develop the habit, we can more comfortably increase our meditation time without it feeling forced.
- Do it habitually – habit makes practice. If you meditate daily, soon it will feel more natural to you.
- Don’t Force it – some days will be harder than others. On days when your mind wanders more, don’t judge or beat yourself up for it. Allow the meditation to progress naturally.
The Takeaway
Loving kindness meditations can boost our empathy, compassion, respect, and love toward ourselves and other people. This allows us to feel more positive emotions and look at the world with new eyes. Try it out by yourself or follow along with a script or guided video and watch how this meditation can change your life.
Remember that health comes from within. Eat nutritious food, exercise when you can, and take care of your mental health. The small daily habits you cultivate become the basis for overall wellness. Don’t forget about microbiota health too! Gut microbiota affects the entire body, from the skin to muscles, to immune and mental health! Get all the resources you need about microbiota health for free here!
