9-Minute Guided Meditation with a Mental Health Expert for Loving Kindness

Hello everyone. Today we'll be doing a brief introduction to loving kindness meditation. This practice is useful for everyone, whether a beginner or experienced at meditation. It can have a transformative effect and certainly a very positive impact on well-being. It's kind of one of those things that isn't always easy to do, but we all ought to do. A few pointers here. Number one, it's sometimes not easy to offer loving kindness to those that challenge us, those we may even call our enemies. And there may be resistance to this feeling of trying to do this. The thought may arise they don't deserve our loving kindness. Just remember that ultimately you deserve to offer them loving kindness because offering them loving kindness is a gift to you. And no matter what behaviors they've had, you're ultimately the one harboring ill feelings. And therefore to transform those into feelings of loving kindness is a gift to you. Also remember that offering loving kindness to those that challenge us is not incompatible with assertive behavior when required. So offering loving kindness does not necessarily imply being a so-called doormat that you're walked all over by other people. But this is about how we perceive the world and others around us. And nurturing a sense of loving kindness in our perception is very helpful in our journey towards greater well-being. So we'll guide you through a brief one and I hope that you'll join with a sense of sincerity and earnestness. Let's take a few deep breaths. Just relax into this. Nice deep breaths to begin. I want you to bring your attention to the mid sternum area of your chest. This is often where we can experience a feeling, a sense of loving kindness. The next step is we're going to bring to mind a thought that helps elicit or provoke a feeling of loving kindness. This can be anything of your liking. A puppy wrestling with its brothers and sisters. Someone you care about giving you a big warm smile. A beautiful sunset. A baby laughing. Whatever thought that seems to resonate with you that provokes a feeling of loving kindness in your mid chest sternum area, even if it's just a little bit, bring that to mind and hold that and see if you can create that feeling in your body. Let's do that for a few moments. And now we'll take that feeling from our mid sternum chest area and see ourselves offering it to our whole being. Let's offer the loving kindness energy to ourselves, our mind, body and spirit. You are a beautiful and unique expression of life, deserving of loving kindness. Sincerely offer yourself this energy to your entire being, body, mind and spirit. See yourself giving this energy to yourself sincerely. Let's do that for a few moments. And now the next step, we'll send this loving kindness energy emanating from our chest area to all the people we care about, friends and family and loved ones. Let's envelop them with this loving kindness energy. Bathe them in this energy. See this energy all around them that is emanating from your chest area. This energy of loving kindness. Let's do that for a few moments. And the next step, we will send this energy of loving kindness emanating from our chest to all the people we don't like, specifically the ones that we are challenged the most by. Some might even use the term enemy, although that's generally not a useful term. With as much sincerity and earnestness as you can, send this energy of loving kindness emanating from those that you find the most challenging. They too are beings of this earth, also deserving of loving kindness. Envelop them, bathe them in this energy of loving kindness. And the last step, we'll send this energy of loving kindness to the entire globe, all the people and the creatures and the plants of the earth, the rich and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the old and the young, the kind and the mean. Let's send this loving kindness energy to the entire globe, enveloping it, bathing it in this loving kindness energy emanating from your mid-sternum chest area, heart space. And thank you for joining me in encouraging and fostering an attitude of loving kindness.