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Loving-Kindness Meditation
Participants listen to an audio recorded, guided reflection on their feelings of connection, support, love, and kindness towards other people, often extending benevolent sentiments to others in a sequence from close loved ones to friends to acquaintances to strangers or even adversaries. A kind of mindfulness practice, loving kindness meditation focuses on developing a mindset of common humanity, trust, friendliness, and generosity.
Reasoning
Loving-kindness meditation can benefit well-being in part by promoting a calm and reflective state, and also by increasing how similar and connected people feel to others—from loved ones, to acquaintances, to strangers. Research suggests that when people practice loving-kindness meditation regularly, they feel more socially connected, have a stronger sense of belonging, and make more positive appriasals and attributions about others.. Loving-kindness meditation has also been shown to increase positive emotional experience and reduce self-focus
Procedure
Participants listen to an audio guided loving kindness themed meditation The loving kindness meditation typically begins by instructing participants to find a comfortable position and direct their awareness to a part of their body, such as their breath or belly, and to notice ongoing physical sensationsParticipants are then instructed to bring to mind someone who they believe has their best interest at heart,as if they were seated in front of them. Then, participants are asked to imagine that person across from them, truly wishing them to be happy and fulfilled, and take in that wish of well-being from the other person. Then, participants are instructed to stop envisioning this person, and simply relax into sensations of warmth and goodness in their physical body. Next, participants may be asked to bring to mind a sequence of people, from close loved ones to acquaintances to strangers and . without thinking of too many stories or thoughts about any one person, instructed to genuinely extend good will to each person. Participants may be instructed to consider this well-wishing intention while they inhale, and wish the other person’s happiness while they exhale. Participants may do this a number of times, depending on the length of the guided audio meditation. Participants may be instructed to recite phrases in their minds like “May you be well, happy, and peaceful; May you be safe and protected; May you be free from suffering”. To conclude the meditation, participants are instructed to release the image of the other person and again,notice sensations in their own body.
Primary Citation & Study Summary:
Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045-1062.
People who practiced Loving-Kindness Meditation daily for seven weeks reported a steady increase in their daily experience of positive emotions, such as joy, gratitude, contentment, hope, and love. They also reported greater life satisfaction and lower depressive symptoms following the intervention, compared to when they started. People who were on a waitlist to learn the practice did not report these benefits.
Populations Studied
Participants in the above study were mostly white, held bachelor’s degrees, and had a median annual income of over $85,000. Additional research has engaged members of other groups:
Israeli adults who attended seven 90-minute weekly classes on Loving-Kindness Meditation and were asked to practice daily “showed significant reductions in self‐criticism and depressive symptoms as well as significant increases in self‐compassion and positive emotions” compared to those on a waitlist.
For university freshmen in China, 30 minutes of Loving-Kindness Meditation three times a week for four weeks enhanced positive emotions, decreased negative emotions, and improved interpersonal interactions.
Singaporean individuals with clinically significant symptoms of borderline personality disorder showed reduced negative emotions and feelings of rejection after 10 minutes of Loving-Kindness Meditation.
Japanese individuals increased in self-compassion and decreased in negative thoughts and emotions after a seven-week program that included Loving-Kindness Meditation, Mindful Breathing, and self-compassion exercises.
University students in South Korea experienced reductions in self-criticism and psychological distress, along with improvements in self-reassurance and mental health, after participating in a six-week program that included Loving-Kindness Meditation, Body Scan, and Mindful Breathing.
Female trauma survivors of interpersonal violence (41% non-white) in an American substance abuse treatment and housing program experienced significant reductions in mental health symptoms across a six-week meditation program that included two weeks of Loving-Kindness Meditation for an hour every day.
Arabic- and Bangla-speaking migrants in Australia experienced reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress after a bilingual group mindfulness program that included Loving-Kindness Meditation, Body Scan, and Mindful Breathing.
Loving-Kindness Meditation is one of the practices included in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and based on Buddhist teachings, MBSR is a six- to 10-week program that teaches various mindfulness techniques through weekly sessions and homework assignments. Research suggests that MBSR benefits the mental health of various groups, including the following:
People in different cultures and countries, such as bilingual Latin-American families, university students in China, disadvantaged families in Hong Kong, low-income cyclo drivers in Vietnam, males with generalized anxiety disorder in Iran, Indigenous people in the Republic of Congo, and Aboriginal Australians.
Women around the world, including pregnant women in China, rural women in India who experienced still-birth, at-risk women in Iran, Muslim women college students in the United Arab Emirates, American survivors of intimate partner violence, and socioeconomically disadvantaged Black women with post-traumatic stress disorder.
People with certain diseases, such as New Zealanders with rheumatoid arthritis, male patients with heart disease in India, patients with diabetes in South Korea, cancer patients in Canada, breast cancer survivors in China, and HIV-positive individuals in Toronto, San Francisco, Iran, and South Africa.
More research is needed to explore whether, and how, the impact of this practice extends to other groups and cultures.
More Evidence
He, X., Shi, W., Han, X., Wang, N., Zhang, N., & Wang, X. (2015). The interventional effects of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions and interpersonal interactions. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 11, 5.
Noh, S. & Cho, H. (2020). Psychological and physiological effects of the mindful lovingkindess compassion program on highly self-critical university students in South Korea. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2628.