Never tried loving-kindness meditation? Loving-kindness is a meditation technique. Curious about the benefits of practising loving-kindness meditation? Living your life in more acceptance, kindness and compassion towards yourself and others, to only mention a few. Sounds good? These are only the obvious benefits of practising loving-kindness meditation.
Here are six science-based benefits of practising loving-kindness meditation:
1. Increase positive emotions
Practising loving-kindness meditation increases love, joy, contentment, gratitude, pride, hope, interest, amusement, and awe, according to this study.
2. Decrease migraines, pain and anger
Suffer from chronic migraines? This one is for you: a study published in 2014 shows that brief loving-kindness meditation sessions have an immediate impact, reducing migraine pain and releasing emotional tension, one of the causes of chronic migraines.
3. Decrease bias towards others
A recent study mentions that participants attending a six weeks of loving-kindness meditation practice showed a decreased bias against minorities. So, start practising loving-kindness meditation. And become more tolerant and understanding.
4. Encourage social connection
People practising loving-kindness meditation who experience more positive emotions, also report an increase in terms of social connection. Being more peaceful comes with being able to better interact with others, too.
5. Harness self-love & acceptance
Loving-kindness meditation makes you more empathetic towards others’ mental state, according to this University of Wisconsin-Madison research. We already mentioned some of the benefits of empathy. You can read more about practising empathy in our article.
6. Lower self-criticism
Another study reveals that people practising loving-kindness meditation reported a decrease in self-criticism and depression symptoms, while increasing positive emotions and self-compassion.
Keen to learn how to practise loving-kindness meditation? Start with the Peace Revolution self-development program. It’s online, it’s free and you get your very own Peace Coach supporting you with your personal growth process. We’d love to hear all about your experiences with this method.
Source: Mindful.org