3 Guided Meditations to Deepen Into Loving-Kindness

Loving-kindness meditation can help us to awaken to how connected we all are. You don’t have to like everybody, or agree with everything they do—but you can open up to the possibility of caring for them.

Adobe Stock/chinnarach

A 17-Minute Meditation to Direct Compassion Toward Ourselves

Directing Compassion Toward Ourselves—Vinny Ferraro

  • 16:53

We’re typically our own harshest critics. We tend to hide our flaws and mistakes, projecting a perfect outward image. In this practice, we can bring compassion to our imperfections and mistakes. This shift helps us approach the very difficulties that we’ve been desperately trying to avoid, so that they can become the sources of our awakening, of our wisdom, of equanimity.

A 6-Minute Loving-Kindness Meditation for Your Loved Ones

A Loving-Kindness Meditation for Your Loved Ones—Atman Smith

  • 6:24

Relationships are complicated. Conflicts can arise in ways that make it difficult to express love to those we care about the most, or perhaps to those we care about who are no longer with us. In this practice, we focus on sending love to the people we hold dear in a way that is nonjudgmental, non-discriminatory, and honest. In this way, we tap into the love we already have around us and practice sending our dear ones love.

A 40-Minute Meditation For Deep Healing of Ourselves and Others

A Loving-Kindness Heartscape Meditation—Jon Kabat-Zinn

  • 47:00

Loving-kindness can allow us to soften our approach to difficult events and emotions. Working with this intention allows us to observe pain and other difficult emotions without completely succumbing to them. Compassion humanizes our emotions and makes them more approachable. In this guided practice, we observe difficult emotions in a way that embodies loving-kindness and compassion. This approach lets us be strengthened by our flaws and mistakes, not feel defeated by them.

read more