Have you ever had one of those days where you are just mad at the world? Nothing seems to be going right and you just can’t help but feel angry, no matter how much you just wish you could be happy? Do you find yourself prone to irritation or restlessness? Is there someone you may fight with a lot and you just wish for nothing more than to have more peace in your life or home?
We all have days where we feel frustrated and angry and may lose sight of the things we love in lieu of focusing on negativity. Unfortunately, the mind has a negativity bias that can make it very difficult to remain optimistic and often filters out good information while remembering the bad.
Fortunately, loving kindness meditation is an option that can allow you to become more focused on peace and love and gratitude rather than finding yourself overwhelmed by the bad things that may be going on in your life.
Loving kindness meditation is simple, it is all about intention. You have to put the time in to really begin embracing yourself and doing things that will help to promote calmness and peace in your life. Loving kindness meditation provides its participants to engage more with feelings of calmness rather than letting the tumultuous waves of negativity control your interactions.
In order to practice loving kindness meditation, the first thing you will need to do is make some time during the day for it. It doesn’t take long to complete this meditation, so begin with just a few minutes set aside for this practice.
The next step is to fake it til you make it. Essentially, what you are going to want to do is to summon thoughts of being surrounded by calm and loving energy. Think of the things that make you the most happy, and bring to mind the memories you may have of feeling those comforting feelings throughout your life. You do not need to think of the people involved, because the key is in learning to summon those loving kindness feelings for yourself no matter what the situation may be. However, if you find that associating someone or something specific helps you, then feel free to do whatever you feel is necessary to bring those good feelings to blanket you as you meditate.
Once you have made yourself comfortable, in a quiet space, with your eyes closed, then you can begin to try and bring those feelings of loving kindness around you until they have surrounded your body like a warm blanket. If you like to use music during your meditation practices, you can also do this. Whatever you need to summon those thoughts of loving kindness.
Next, think of a few phrases you can use as you meditate and focus on those. Something like, “May I find peace,” or “May I receive love,” will help you to program your mind to receive positive energies. Instead of fixating on bad things or feeling overwhelmed by unpleasant emotions, instead you can begin to focus on healing thoughts that are meant to provide you with comfort and support rather than the difficult void that negative feelings can sometimes leave us in.
Rather than feeling suck in things like resentment and anger, using loving kindness meditations we can begin to tune ourselves in to loving energies any time we need them. This can help us to avoid confrontation and deal with issues that arise with an air of compassion and peace rather than combativeness. Everybody deserves to be heard, and if we are angry there is usually a good reason for it and we should be able to express those things. however, doing so in a way that others will be receptive to is very important, which is why loving kindness meditations can be so productive.
This is another meditation that has been proven to help those who have suffered from depression, anxiety, or even post traumatic stress disorder. Being able to disengage from negative energies and actively summon positive energies is an incredibly useful tool. It can make all the difference between a peaceful life and interaction and one that is full of strife and conflict.
The best part about it is that we begin to feel more compassion for ourselves. Many of us are too hard on ourselves for the things we perceive as faults or flaws or wrong doings. That can lead us into vicious cycles of self-hatred and abuse toward ourselves that can be difficult to get out of and can even sometimes lead to addiction.
By practicing the art of showing compassion to everyone and everything, starting from within, we are giving ourselves a chance to heal from old wounds we may not even realize have been festering for years. This can help us to tackle new projects with a renewed sense of initiative and integrity. It can help us to get the bounce back in our step and believe that we are truly capable of achieving the things we set out to do. Say good bye to depression, and hello to a compassionate mindset that can lead to more productivity than you have managed in years!