Loving Kindness

I had thoroughly enjoyed the Loving Kindness Practice.  I thought the narrator did an excellent job, and I thought the background sounds of the waves added to the experience.  The first day that I did it, the person I thought of that I hold with great love and tenderness was my youngest son.  As I allowed the loving feelings to expand within my heart, I was suddenly hit with a of such intense love, it was truly overwhelming.  Of course I knew how precious he is to me, and that I love him more than I can say, but when I was hit with the true depth of my love, I was so overwhelmed I instantly started to cry.  I tried to concentrate for the remainder of the exercise, but was somewhat in shock over the powerful reaction I'd already had.  All I kept thinking was, to have that level of love for strangers, let alone an enemy would be pretty challenging, yet I could see how healing it would be to get to that place.

The next day when I did the practice, I got through the intial part smoothly.  The next part of the practice is to turn those feelings towards yourself.  It amazed me to consider loving myself with the same intensity.  As we turned the love and care towards ourselves we were to give every sensation our loving kindness,and be at peace with our body and it's sensations.  This turned out to be an interesting time for me to do this since I had a headache.  I was able to release any hold or any anxiety over the headache & just give it my love & ease.  It was peaceful and comforting to be able to do that.

At first, I was not too happy about the thought of taking in anybody else's pain and suffering, but I did find that the narractor was correct, it did dissolve within me, and did not become a part of me.

Overall, I found it to be a very powerful exercise, and I imagine that as it is done over time, more and more would be learned about myself and especially about loving kindness.

Kathy