Cultivate a sense of compassion for yourself and others by trying a meditation rooted in loving kindness, called “Metta.”
How to Do This Practice:
Find a comfortable place to start this meditation.
Start taking deep breaths, focusing your attention on what you feel around your heart and chest.
Turn your attention to someone who immediately brings a smile to your face. Try to sincerely wish that person well. Some phrases you can mention include, “May you be peaceful and happy. May you be strong and healthy. May you be safe from harm. May you live with ease.”
Think of someone you don’t know as well, and repeat step three. After that, you can try directing well wishes towards someone you struggle with, if you would like.
Slowly begin to shift your attention away from others and direct those well wishes towards yourself.
Complete this practice by sending out goodwill for everyone around you, including yourself, using the word “we.”
Today’s Happiness Break host:
Anushka Fernandopulle is a Buddhist meditation teacher and leadership coach.
Learn More about Anushka: https://www.anushkaf.org/about/
Follow Anushka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anushka_dharma/
Follow Anushka on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anushkaf
More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:
Greater Happiness in 5 Minutes a Day: https://tinyurl.com/2p896av4
Are You Getting Enough Positivity in Your Diet? https://tinyurl.com/59d56w5d
Feeling Connected Makes Us Kind: https://tinyurl.com/dbv86969
You Need More Than a Book to Learn Loving-Kindness: https://tinyurl.com/5aatw6hw
We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of practicing loving-kindness. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
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We’re living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That’s where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.
Transcript:
Dacher Keltner Think back to everyone you’ve said hello to today. Maybe family, co-worker, a barista. Now ask yourself, did you wish that person well? Did you say something like, “Have a good day?”
What would it be like to feel a little more compassion for the people around us during each passing encounter?
I’m Dacher Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a small break in our day to try a practice designed to support our well-being.
Today’s Happiness Break has been shown to help us relate better to one another and savor the connections in our lives, big and small.
It’s a meditative practice called Metta – which is often translated as “loving kindness.”
Researchers have found that when people practice metta regularly, they tend to react more positively to other people — and understand them better.
And that understanding makes their social interactions and close relationships stronger.
Guiding us today’s metta practice is Anushka Fernandopulle. Anushka is a meditation teacher and mindful leadership coach who’s studied Buddhist meditation for over 30 years.
Here’s Anushka.
Anushka Fernandopulle Today I wanna introduce you to a practice of cultivating the intention of wishing well. In the Buddhist tradition this is called Metta: having a sense of kindness towards oneself and towards others.
You can find a place where you feel at ease, and then we’ll begin.
Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, just try to relax into being present here.
Take another deep breath in, and as you exhale, relax around your jaw, around your eyes, your shoulders. If you feel comfortable, you can gently close your eyes and bring your attention to the area of your heart and your chest.
We start where it’s easiest. So with someone who as soon as you think of them, it brings a smile to your face, it’s very easy for you to wish well for them.
Bring to mind this person or animal who it’s really easy for you to wish well for. So your good friend or pet or beloved family member. And you can either imagine them in front of you, or hold an image of them in your heart.
And with as much sincerity as you can, connect with these wishes for them.
I’m going to suggest some phrases that you can use for this practice to silently repeat to yourself that will help cultivate this intention of goodwill or friendliness.
May you be peaceful and happy.
may you be strong and healthy.
May you be safe from harm.
May you live with ease.
As you do this, if you lose a sense of that person, you could refresh the image. If you get distracted by something, as soon as you notice it, gently bringing the attention back, connect again.
May you be peaceful and happy.
May you be strong and healthy.
May you be safe from harm.
May you live with ease.
Now we recognize that just as we wish these for this beloved member of our family or friend. We too have the same desire for all of these things, so we can connect with ourselves and wish well for ourselves in the same way.
We can bring the attention back to your own heart again.
May I be peaceful and happy.
May I be strong and healthy.
May I be safe from harm.
May I live with ease.
And then we can shift to wishing well for all those around us, you can imagine sending out these wishes of goodwill to all the people around you, all the animals, including yourself.
May we all be peaceful and happy.
May we all be strong and healthy.
May we all be safe from harm.
May we all live with ease.
You can open your eyes. When you feel ready, you can feel your feet, your hands, your body again. Notice that you can continue this practice of wishing well even with your eyes open. And I encourage you to experiment with it when you’re standing in line in the grocery store, when you’re stuck in traffic, rather than letting the mind wander, we can focus it in this way of wishing well.
So this practice is called Metta practice, formally, m-e-t-t-a, in the Buddhist tradition. Thanks for trying it and I wish you well.
Dacher Keltner That was Buddhist meditation teacher Anushka Fernandopulle leading a meditation on the Buddhist practice of Metta, or loving kindness.
You can find more resources for cultivating loving kindness, deepening connections, and the science behind the benefits of these things, in our show notes wherever you’re listening right now.
And let us know how this practice went for you, we really appreciate hearing from you. Email us at happinesspod@berkeley.edu or use the hashtag #happinesspod.
I’m Dacher Keltner. Thanks for taking this Happiness Break with us.
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