Loving Kindness Meditation
https://youtu.be/N6n1K5kJBpc
Hi, this is Bill Chan again with The 5 Elements of a Fulfilling Life at 5Element5.com.
We all lead a very hectic and stressful life today, right?
With all the responsibilities for our family, the demands from our jobs, and all the advances and technologies we must keep up with, how can one remain sanity?
One of the best ways I found is to lead a daily ritual practice of mindfulness meditation.
It helps you to relax, lower your blood pressure, lower your heart rate, and lower your inflammation.
So, it gets you out of that fight-and-fight response all the time and gets you into a state of just being; you don't have to be running around doing all the time; you could relax and be with yourself, and turn inward to find out more about who you are.
The only way you'll turn inward is to remain focused, relax, and be one with yourself.
I'm going to lead you through a meditation called loving-kindness meditation. In this meditation, Barbara Fredrickson, one of the founders of positive psychology, talks about how this helps you release oxytocin.
Oxytocin is the happy, loving hormone, and when you release oxytocin, you're more compassionate and love yourself and others a lot more.
What we're going to do now is to go to a three-minute practice now, you can do it for three minutes, 15 minutes, and I practice for half an hour every day.
Can you get at least three minutes in daily?
Now find somewhere to sit comfortably; sit upright, don't lean your back on your chair, put your feet firmly down on the ground, and directly put your hands on your knees, relax your shoulders, relax your face, muscles and, slowly when you feel comfortable close your eyes.
Take deep breaths through your diaphragm, so relax, take deep breaths down to your stomach; now count to five; breathe in one, two, three, four, five.
Count to seven, breathing out; one to three, four, five, six, seven, continue your breathing, let any thoughts flow to your mind, don't try to control it, then let it just pass, don't focus on those thoughts, just let it be a passenger by, okay just let it pass.
Now continue your deep breathing and start repeating after me:
May I be safe, may I be kind, with each out-breath repeat the words, may I be happy, may I be peaceful, may I have health, and may I be love?
Repeat the exact words to your loved ones; okay, see their picture in your mind and repeat the exact words:
May they be happy, may they be safe, may they be peaceful, and may they have love.
Now repeat the exact words to everyone you know, extend to the world, and open it to even the animals:
May they be safe, may they be happy, may they be healthy, may they have peace, may they have love.
Now continue your deep breathing slowly, feel your feet slowly, move your fingers, feel your fingers, and when you feel comfortable, open your eyes, okay? Thank you!