Lovingkindness

Lovingkindness.

It's really a beautiful thing.

It starts off as a meditation practice. A mantra, if you will, that you repeat to yourself while meditating. Did I lose you at meditate? Hang with me.

You mindfully repeat  these words to yourself:
May I be safe.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I live life with ease.

You then begin to offer these words to each of the following people:
Someone you greatly admire and care about
Someone who may be suffering or struggling
Someone who is neutral, maybe a person you encounter every day at the store, but know nothing about
Someone you feel anger or hostility towards (you can fill in the blank there)

Like any meditation, when you lose yourself in thought, you simply come back to these phrases and offer lovingkindness to whoever comes next in your mind. If one person becomes to painful to send lovingkindness to, return to sending lovingkindness to yourself for you're the one who now needs some compassion.

Seeing as how February is marketed as the month of love, I thought this would be a nice time to challenge myself with 28-days of lovingkindness. Every day for the month of February, I will do this meditation and offer lovingkindness to those around me and see what happens. If I am able to feel more compassionate not only towards others, but for myself as well.

Maybe you want to do it too.  And then we can offer lovingkindness to each other. What a love fest!!