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Episode Summary
Dacher guides us in a meditation that has been practiced over thousands of years. Together, we will mentally extend goodwill, kindness, and warmth towards others and ourselves, in a series of mantras.
How To Do This Practice
- Find a comfortable position, you may lie down or be seated.
- Bring your attention and awareness to the breath at the belly. Inhale and exhale, noticing sensations of breath.
- Bring to mind someone who you really believe has your best interests in their heart.
- Choose just one person and bring them to mind as though they were next to you.
- Imagine them truly wishing for you to be happy and fulfilled. Imagine their smile. Feel their intention of goodness.
- For a couple more breaths, really take in this wish for your happiness and joy from this person who cares for you.
- Now letting go of the image of this person, relax into these sensations and feelings for just a couple breaths.
- With this feeling of support and happiness, bring to mind someone who could really use some extra love.
- Now repeat to yourself, “May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.”
- As you inhale, draw in this intention. And as you exhale, send it out.
- Twice more—inhale, drawing in this intention. And then exhale, sending out.
- Release the image of this person. And just notice the sensations in your own body.
Today’s Host: Dacher Keltner
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This episode was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation on "Spreading Love Through the Media."
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Transcript:
I'm Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where on each episode we guide you through practices shown to support your well-being. A little break in your day for self-kindness.
Practicing kindness, towards ourselves and others, is one of the most direct routes to happiness: it helps us feel more content in our relationships and enjoy better health.
While we all have a natural capacity for kindness, sometimes we don’t take steps to nurture and express this capacity as much as we could.
So today we're going to do a Loving-kindness meditation. It involves mentally sending goodwill, kindness, and warmth towards others by silently repeating a series of mantras.
Sometimes called “metta,” this kind of meditation comes from Buddhist traditions and dates back thousands of years.
When people practice loving-kindness meditation regularly, they start automatically reacting more positively to others—and their social interactions and close relationships become more satisfying.
In one study, people who practiced Loving-Kindness daily for seven weeks felt less depressed and more satisfied with their lives compared to when they started.
So for this Loving Kindness practice, find a comfortable position. This may be easiest lying down or seated.
And when you're, bring your attention and awareness to the breath at the belly. Inhale, noticing sensations of breath. And exhale, noticing sensations of breath, as the belly rises and falls.
Now bring to mind someone who you really believe has your best interests in their heart. This could be someone you know now or someone from the past. It could be a family member, a romantic partner, a friend or a work colleague.
Choose just one person and bring them to mind as though they were next to you. Imagine them truly wishing for you to be happy and fulfilled.
Imagine their smile. Feel their intention of goodness.
For a couple more breaths, really take in this wish for your happiness and joy from this person who care for you.
Now letting go of the image of this person, relax into these sensations and feelings for just a couple breaths.
With this feeling of support and happiness, bring to mind someone in your life, maybe someone who could really use some extra love — a friend, family member, or colleague.
Just call upon this experience of wishing this person to be truly happy, fulfilled, joyful.
Now repeat to yourself, May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
As you inhale, draw in this intention. And as you exhale, send it out.
Twice more—inhale, drawing in this intention. And then exhale, sending out.
Release the image of this person. And just notice the sensations in your own body associated with wishing someone else well, generating and extending joy.
Carry this loving kindness with you throughout your day. And if you can… consider reaching out to the person who came to mind -- the person that really cares about you and has your best interest at heart.
Have a great day.
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