Gratitude Spotlight: Loving Kindness
An easy way you can embrace the principles of gratitude daily, weekly, or however often you choose is through practicing loving-kindness. A loving-kindness meditation focuses on cultivating feelings of goodwill, compassion and warmth towards the self and others (Salzberg, 1997). Loving-kindness is a type of gratitude meditation that focuses on sending thoughts of love, kindness and compassion to someone you care about deeply as well as someone you don’t know very well, someone who has done you harm or you’re currently having issues with and lastly, to yourself and the world as a whole.
Practicing loving-kindness has many scientifically proven benefits including increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions, increasing feelings of social connection, reducing chronic pain, activating empathy, and reducing self-criticism, to name a few (Seppälä, mindful.org, 2014).
Incorporating a gratitude practice into your daily life is a free, easy and meaningful way to give back to yourself and others. Practicing loving kindness is a way to expand your capacity for compassion and empathy so that you can create more space for love, understanding and acceptance.
Check-out the Loving Kindness meditation below to get started and let the good vibes flow!
Loving Kindness Meditation
References:
https://www.mindful.org/18-science-based-reasons-to-try-loving-kindness-meditation/