Most people are aware of the benefits of self-care practices such as meditation and how they can bring your body and mind to a place of calm. But did you know that participating in a Metta loving-kindness meditation can help you extend your feeling of peace outward?
A great Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation involves the recitation of specific phrases over and over with the purpose of sending good vibes to yourself and others around you. When you participate in a Metta meditation that is based on loving-kindness, you tend to feel more open to experiences and people around you.
Learning the practice and principles behind Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation can provide many benefits to an individual as well as the people around them. Keep reading to learn more about this type of practice and how you can incorporate it into your daily routine.
Table of Contents
What is the Metta Prayer?
Developing an understanding of what the Metta prayer is, begins with breaking it down in such a way that the individual words are translated into common language. Once you can grasp what the words mean, it is easy to understand what is meant by the Metta prayer in practice.
Since the word metta comes from the Pali language and means feelings of friendliness or warmness towards something or someone, it is used in meditation to express these feelings and provides many benefits.
Adding these feelings of warmness to a prayer, or a phrase that is repeated, allows a person to become mindful of themselves as well as other people around them. Although many meditations suggest certain phrases, it is suggested that each individual person come up with what feels most comfortable to them.
Common phrases that are recited during the metta prayer are:
- May I be happy. May I be well. May I be safe. May I be at peace.
- May I be at ease. May I be attentive. May I be grateful.
- May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you be happy.
Any combination of these phrases can be said, as long as they are coming from a place of goodwill and loving-kindness. The idea behind the metta prayer is to bring about the support of not only yourself but others as well.
When you begin searching for the best Metta prayers that exist, you should be prepared to find quite a few versions. This is because the idea behind metta prayer is not reciting the exact words that everyone else says but doing the practice in a way that suits who you are so that it comes from an authentic place.
Keep in mind that this prayer is typically recited inward first before speaking it out into the world to others. This means that the words are first spoken with the intention of showing compassion to yourself to bring you to that place of self-respect and honor.
Once you have focused on yourself, then the prayer is switched and given outwardly to others. First to those you care for deeply, such as friends and family, then to others that may live within your community or neighborhood. Finally, the same message is given out to those that may have caused you to pain in the past.
While learning the various versions of the prayer are key to the Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation practice, knowing how to meditate in this specific manner is also vital. This can often be done by following someone who is an expert in the area of meditation and, more specifically, the loving-kindness type of meditation.
What is Guided Metta Meditation?
Guided metta meditation is designed to walk you through the process and practice of this specific type of meditation. When you are just beginning to understand and try this type of meditation, it can sometimes be difficult to remember each component, which is why guided meditation is suggested before attempting it on your own.
Guided metta meditation consists of an expert in the field walking you through a scripted practice that shows and supports you every step of the way. By learning from an experienced practitioner, you can ensure that you are getting all the benefits that are available to you.
The scripts for these guided meditations begin with getting your body into a relaxed state so that it becomes more open to the practice. This is done by having you sit or lie down in a comfortable position with your eyes closed and your awareness facing inwards.
Once you are in position, the guide typically takes you through a series of deep breathing designed to bring calmness and awareness to instill a sense of peace. Using this type of guidance allows your mind to concentrate on what they are saying instead of allowing your mind to wander.
The guide then takes you through a series of metta prayers focused on sending out goodwill and friendliness to yourself and then to others in a very specific method. This process is not designed to be quick but allows the time to thoroughly relax and push the positive vibes out into the universe.
A Great Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation
This great Metta Loving-Kindness meditation is guided by yoga teacher Jessica Worthey and is designed to help you with incorporating this practice into your daily routine. This guided metta meditation is about twenty-four minutes long and is a great start for anyone wanting to learn.
Jessica shows viewers how to begin Metta loving-kindness meditation by taking a comfortable place and suggests that if you can be outside, that it makes it even better. With her calming voice and patient attitude, she guides individuals through setting up their practice.
Throughout the entire meditation, Jessica’s teaching style and belief in the practice of this loving-kindness meditation are evident through her step-by-step instructions. Even someone new to this type of practice can follow her directions.
She starts with taking viewers through the practice of taking deep cleansing breaths to get their body and mind to a place of peace and calmness. During this part of the meditation, Jessica gently reminds individuals to take their time throughout the process.
Once she helps others get to a place of peacefulness, she begins to explain how to incorporate the Metta prayer into the loving-kindness meditation routine. The practice, like most Metta meditations, begins with the focus on the self.
The idea that you must learn to love and accept yourself before you can love and accept others is brought into the practice of this loving-kindness meditation. After you have taken the time to bring those feelings towards yourself, then Jessica guides you through sending these same feelings out to others.
She begins by showing you how to focus on a loved one who you care for deeply and repeating the Metta prayer towards them. The practice is intended to have you completely focused on that person through visualization while you repeat the phrase over and over until you feel those feelings towards them.
Jessica then guides you through projecting the same thoughts and feelings towards others in your community, again through visualization. Once you have this person or people in mind, the idea is to again repeat the phrase to extend that loving-kindness out further into the world.
The entire process of Jessica Worthey’s guided meditation is calming and peaceful and is a great way to learn Metta Loving-Kindness meditation. She even focuses at the end on bringing someone who has brought pain and suffering to you and extending these same feelings to them.
Who Created Loving-Kindness Meditation?
Loving-kindness meditation is said to be an ancient practice that was created by Buddhist leaders. This is a practice that has been rooted in ancient cultures and traditions for many thousands of years.
Meditation in and of itself is the self-care practice that is designed to help bring peacefulness and mindfulness to individuals who incorporate it into their lives. Although meditation and, more specifically, metta meditation is a traditional practice in the Buddhist religion, many people through the years have adapted the practice into many forms.
It is often said in the Buddhist community that “unless we treat ourselves with love and compassion, we cannot reflect the same on others.” This is said to mean that you must show love and care for yourself before you can be expected to show it out to others and the world around you.
Since the Buddhist faith is rooted in the belief in enlightenment and specific principles that focus on wisdom, compassion, and equality, the meditations that came out of that are designed to help people reach their full potential.
What is the Difference Between Kindness and Loving-Kindness?
Most people understand what it means to show kindness to other people. The dictionary defines kindness as “the act of being kind” or “showing a kind or polite behavior” towards other people.
During the course of most days, kindness is shown through simple acts or some refer to them as random acts of kindness. These are typically the small things that are given and for some people, end up meaning the world.
Kindness can be shown through the opening of a door for someone with a heavy load or an offer for someone to take a seat that you are sitting in. These are various acts of kindness that people often do throughout their lives.
Loving-kindness refers to those acts of kindness that come from a place of love, not just the desire to be polite. Loving-kindness is true compassion towards others that goes beyond just the small acts of kindness.
Showing loving-kindness towards others is going the extra mile to ensure that people around you are not just comfortable but well taken care of. It is taking the time to get to know someone enough that you can not just anticipate what they need but go one step further and do something that they did not even realize they needed.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation, when done correctly, can help you not only find a sense of peace and calmness but take it one step further by helping you to extend that feeling outward into the universe.
Finding a great Metta Loving-Kindness Meditation can be challenging since there are so many options out there online. It is important to keep in mind that since this type of meditation is about extending compassion and love, it is best to find an instructor that can guide you through in a way that makes sense and will give you the best start to your practice.
Check out this article fir the best online meditation courses.
