What do you think of when you hear the word “meditation?”
Probably sitting in a lotus position, with the lights low, focusing on your breathing or perhaps exhaling with an “OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM.”
Well, ok, you are sort of on the right track here, but there really are several type of meditation, each with a different spin.
You have heard of many of them – mindfulness meditation, focused meditation, mantra meditation (like Transcendental Meditation), spiritual meditation, walking meditation…
The list goes on.
All of these different types of meditationl tend to give you health benefits if you choose to practice them regularly, like stress reduction, less anxiety and depression, better sleep, and even normalized blood pressure and less pain.
It all sounds pretty enticing!
Butthere is anothertype of meditation that you may nnot have heard of, and it is showing a lot of benefits too – maybe even better than other types of meditation.
It’s called Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM).
LKM is practiced by sending lving kindness out to oneself, but also to “the other,” which gives us a chance to “cultivate the opposite.”
Loving Kindness Meditation will also help reduce stress levels. But for those who practice often, there was also a marked decrease in inflammation response.
Even more than that, when LKM was studied by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, a positive psychology researcher, shefound that over several weeks people experienced more attention, self-acceptance,psoitive relationships with other, as well as improved health.
In our brains, the effects can show up as increased empathy and compassion
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” -Dalai Lama
Readmore on Krpalu.org:
Small amounts of loving kindess meditation lead to big change