How the Practice of Loving Kindness Will Change Your Life
“You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.”
When I left Seattle, my exit was abrupt and overshadowed by a breakup — it had felt like fleeing under the cover of night and a dark cloud of shame — for a long time a part of me held onto an idea that I'd return shortly and resume my life there.
My heart ached for the energy of the place and the spirit of the mountains that had permeated my soul and had become part of the life force that nourishes and sustains me. It was as if my soul and my body longed for the connection with those mountains and the places that had been integral to my healing and my heart opening.
On my way back to the east coast, I had spent most of my cross country flight crying and writing in my journal. I was feeling sadness, yes, but mainly deep gladness and a deeper gratefulness for my life experience and all the people who had graced my path and relationships that had changed me at depth.
The city, the lush green and the deep waters that had healed me, soothed me, and taught me things about myself I hadn't known.
I said goodbye, I had understood that something else was pulling me forward into the future, the next big adventure....
I was grieving and simultaneously grateful, attempting to resist the reaction to cling to the past and beg for things to be different than they are.
We flew into bad weather as we neared the east coast and I arrived in the Charlotte airport only minutes after the last plane had departed that could take me to the rural airport near my birth home. It was almost 11pm and I feared spending the night in the airport after a very emotional day of crying and grieving.
Several hundred passengers had been grounded or had missed their connecting flights because of bad weather. The mob began to swarm and anger pulsed through the crowded airport. I quickly turned my awareness from my own sadness to the swelling anger of the crowd and as the passengers' complaints began to get louder, I began to practice loving kindness.
I connect to Source, fill up my energy field, and then radiate love from the core of my being through mindfulness and detached intention.
I use the practice of loving kindness or Metta daily. On normal days, on lonely days, on days I feel great, sometimes all day, throughout the day, and in stressful situations it has an especially positive effect on the external circumstances around you.
The practice of loving kindness is the tool I use to release worry, self-doubt, and it is how I learned to heal myself from decades of depression.
As the aggravation levels skyrocketed I blasted feel good rock and roll in my ear buds drowning out the sounds around me and radiating as much love as my tender heart could muster into the crowds.
Arriving at the USAirways re-ticketing counter I spoke softly to the lady at the counter, sending her compassion from my heart. She quickly handed me a voucher for the nights stay, rebooked my flight for the next day and ushered me to the shuttle to the Woodlawn Courtyard. I silently blessed her and then thanked her warmly out loud as the next customer approached her irately complaining "how unacceptable everything was".
After a smooth shuttle ride to the Courtyard, I shuddered, thinking of how many Courtyards across the United States I had helped renovate in my previous life as a project manager for hotel development. Walking into the very familiar surroundings, I recognized the layout, the furniture, down to the carpet and fabric scheme, the pictures on the wall and even laughed out loud recognizing that it was the "yellow flowers theme" and recalling with humor of what a pain-in-the ass that wall mural is to install correctly.
I was greeted at the front desk by the manager, Stacey, it was well after midnight, and when she asked me how I was doing? I responded honestly, that I was feeling very human, heart broken, and that today had been an emotional day, with an unexpected nights stay in Charlotte.
Then Stacey came out from behind the desk and gave me a hug. Tears came to my eyes, because of her sincere desire to comfort me and my ability to receive this kindness from a perfect stranger.
I hadn't eaten all day, and as I retrieved a frozen dinner from the Courtyard food market, Stacey waived me through and gifted me my dinner and a bottle of wine saying "You're all taken care of my dear".
I hugged her a second time and sent blessings of love to her, her family, everyone she encountered, and to Courtyard Marriot of all things!
I have laughed many times thinking of how different my life has become and of the person I used to be. In all of my professional glory and fierce personal boundaries, I would never in a million years have been able to hug the manager at the Courtyard front desk and shed tears of gratitude, while feeling my own raw and open heart.
I am grateful for the practice of loving kindness and for the person that I have become through this practice.
I am grateful for the depth of emotion that I feel on a daily basis and the ability to shed tears while blessing the human race and all those suffering and in heartache.
I am home now in my heart.
A little loving kindness and human compassion can go a long way.
A little love and kindness could just save the world.
Here is an easy introduction to the practice of loving kindness, a prayer for you:
The Love & Light Prayer
Love & Light
Love & Light
I Send Love & Light
Love & Light
Love & Light
I Speak Love & Light
Love & Light
Love & Light
I Breathe Love & Light
Love & Light
Love & Light
I AM Love & Light
Love & Light
Love & Light
I Radiate Love & Light
“May all your adventures unfold perfectly before your eyes in ways you could never have imagined, may you make friends along the way that surprise and change you at depth, like coming home, but not to a home you’ve ever known before. When the next adventure comes to usher you forward may you be full and happy, having enjoyed every experience as if your life was a great feast and you got drunk on the punch and ate too much food the for the soul..... ”
Sometimes you just know that life is calling you to take a leap of faith and change your current circumstances, but you just don't know how.
You might know exactly what it is you're meant to do in this lifetime, or you might not.
Sometimes this feeling of being stuck begins to feel like a life crisis, and your fear becomes so strong you lose sight of what’s right for you.
If you feel its time to make a change, or move to the next level, but you just don’t know where to go from here, I have a special program for you...
Anything is possible once we find our own unique way of connecting with our divine source. Once you find your own connection to your heart and your creative imagination the change you experience becomes visible, the internal shift creates external effects.
You look different, you feel different, you think different.
The doors fly open.
“The Philosophy and Practice of Universal Love: Metta
The Pali word metta is a multi-significant term meaning loving-kindness, friendliness, goodwill, benevolence, fellowship, amity, concord, inoffensiveness and non-violence. The Pali commentators define metta as the strong wish for the welfare and happiness of others (parahita-parasukha-kamana).
Essentially metta is an altruistic attitude of love and friendliness as distinguished from mere amiability based on self-interest. Through metta one refuses to be offensive and renounces bitterness, resentment and animosity of every kind, developing instead a mind of friendliness, accommodativeness and benevolence which seeks the well-being and happiness of others.
True metta is devoid of self-interest. It evokes within a warm-hearted feeling of fellowship, sympathy and love, which grows boundless with practice and overcomes all social, religious, racial, political and economic barriers. Metta is indeed a universal, unselfish and all-embracing love.”
