Our Weekly Tip: Use Loving Kindness Meditation to Find Comfort When You’re GrievingOur Tip of the Week: When you are in the midst of deep grief, the intensity of your emotions can make it seem that life will never be OK again. Negative feelings may easily become overwhelming, leaving you feeling disconnected from others and terribly alone. At these times, directing loving kindness to yourself and those around is a simple way to reconnect with others and open your heart to receive their love.
Credit: meditationmag.com
How-to Suggestion: Also known as “metta,” loving kindness meditation is a simple practice that helps cultivate connection, acceptance and self love. To begin, simply close your eyes and sit quietly for a few moments, taking slow, deep breaths. Place your left hand over your heart: This helps direct the healing energy of your thoughts to the fourth chakra, or anahata. Also called the “heart chakra,” anahata is Sanskrit for “unhurt, unstruck and unbeaten.”
Now slowly speak these words aloud, or say them quietly to yourself:
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be safe.
May I be loved.
Next, direct your thoughts to someone you love — perhaps someone to whom you are grateful for the kindness they have shown you during this difficult time in your life, and say:
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be safe.
May you be loved.
Do this again three more times. First, direct your thoughts and words towards someone you don’t know well — perhaps a coworker or a person you see occasionally at church. Next, direct them to someone for whom you have negative feelings, someone who has hurt you or made you feel angry or afraid.
Finally, direct your thoughts to all of humanity, wishing the entirety of the human race love and kindness, safety and health.
This simple practice takes only about five minutes to complete, but can bring hours of solace to a grieving heart.
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